Why I Started Ignoring the Expiration Dates on Every Bottle of Salad Dressing

Salad dressing is one of those items I buy and tend to forget about. I’ve been known to pick up salad dressing at the store, only to discover that I already had a bottle in my fridge door. (Honestly, anything stored in my fridge door seems to get forgotten easily.)

I’ve also come back to my once-favorite balsamic vinaigrette, only to find that it’s gone past its expiration date — and I wondered if it was still safe to consume. While nothing about the dressing seemed off visually, I decided to err on the side of caution and toss the bottle.

To avoid this kind of waste again, I wanted to find the solution once and for all. I reached out to Dr. Donald W. Schaffner, professor and chair of the Department of Food Science at Rutgers University and extension specialist in Food Science, and what he had to say actually shocked me.