I'll admit I'm pretty OCD about "dates" on food products. My husband does all of the shopping and 95% of the cooking, so when I'm in the dry goods pantry or the refrigerator/freezer and start looking at dates, I sorta go bananas on what I see in terms of the dates on stuff. He is forever telling me "It's ALL OK Von!" and to his credit, I've never gotten sick from bad food in our home. (Dining out, well that's a different story.)
Just this past week, I did throw out a bunch of stuff that was still in sealed containers but was more than 6 months beyond the "sell by" or "use by" dates. Maybe I was being to cautious, but I didn't want to have these things around and then worry about whether or not they're good or if he's cooked with them.