I worked for a food broker when they started ramping up the "expiration" and "best buy" dates. He was ecstatic - said we'll make a fortune now because stupid people will believe the food they ate without question a few months ago when there were no dates, would now be tossing out perfectly good food because some machine would stamp a date on the package. I can't say I would call people stupid for deciding that those dates mean something to them, but I also know that most food is fine well beyond the stamped-on dates.