And how do you tell an expiry date
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Depends on the food.
Some foods have “use by” dates because they’ll eventually spoil from bacteria and fungi, rendering them hazardous to eat and pretty nasty. You’ve surely smelled spoiled meat before, or had a loaf of bred turn blue on you.
More processed/preserved foods often have a “best by” date instead. There’s no imminent danger of actual spoilage as long as they’re still unopened, but chemical breakdown of the complex starch and proteins will still gradually occur until the food is just dust or goo.
Canned goods can be safe to eat for a very long time as long as the can isn’t damaged, but sometimes the contents have been reduced to sludge by a decade of chemical degradation.
These dates are selected based on data from previous spoilage tests.
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