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Comment by etrautmann | Hacker News Reader

As another poster mentioned, it likely refers to the packaging - either degredation of materials used or the effect that has on the contents (moisture ingress, oxidation, etc).

For salt, that seems somewhat silly, but not enough to make me fundamentally distrust the rationale

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Sell by is entirely unrelated to quality though. It's just how often they think they can get away with. Like the recommendation on a box of baking soda... Put it in your fridge and change it every 30 days. No thanks.

Pretty sure that’s the recommendation to deodorize your fridge, not related to the baking soda’s shelf life. The other side of the box says “keep in a cool and dark place”.

It does seem to go “flat” after a few months regardless, even when the expiry date is 2 years in the future.

There’s a whole controversy over this specific issue. For decades they recommended 90 days in the fridge to keep it fresh.

Then they switched to 30 days recommendation to goose sales.

It's not how long they can get away with, it's how long they are willing to listen to complaints about it.

A sell by date makes perfect sense on salt. No packager wants to be responsible for material that sat on someone else's shelf for years and years.

I think it all makes sense when you consider that the sell by date is the date at which they’ll stop accepting responsibility. And the “best before” dates are just guidelines.

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