Do you check the expiration dates on items before making a purchase? If not, you could be exposing yourself to serious illness.

A consumer purchased a can of carrot juice from a local grocery store. She took it home, opened it, and drank some of it. Within a short time, she became violently ill.

Since she had consumed nothing else, she immediately suspected the carrot juice and took a look at the can. She discovered that the expiration date was six years earlier. Indeed, the juice, which had a shelf life of a year, had been around for an additional six years before the unlucky consumer purchased it.

The moral of this story is to check the expiration date on the products you purchase.

Unfortunately, some manufacturers code these dates so they are difficult to understand. If you can’t decipher the code then ask the store manager to tell you what it is. If that doesn’t work, then buy an item that has a date you can understand.