Expiration Dates......

As I was doing the hours for my community service i came across something that completetly suprised me and made me realize how obliviously I have been living my life. When our "guardian" was explaining the rules and order of things at the work place he said and i quote " If the expiration date is a year old like say Feb. 8 2009, then you can still package it and send it to the hungry", now i was left speechless I didn't know weither i should ask him or forget about it. I decided to let it go for the moment and continue working but when i got home i was being reminded of his statement all night long and could not contain the urge to search it up any longer. As I tried to dig deeper and understand I was suprised with the details I found out.
I did not know that in the first case it is actually not a federal law to show expiration dates of any sort on any foood packaging that is not baby food. I found these basic rules ina website called Consumer Affairs which are:

Most people are surprised to find out that:
Stores are not legally required to remove food once the expiration date has passed. They are strictly "advisory" in nature.
Dating is not federally required, except for infant formula and baby food. States have varying laws. Most states require that milk and other perishables be sold before the expiration date.

And I also found that not all the dates they put on food are expiration dates but that some are codes that are put in order to explain other things like:

The major codes are:
Sell by Don't buy the product after this date. This is the "expiration date."
Best if used by Flavor or quality is best by this date but the product is still edible thereafter.
Use by This is the last day that the manufacturer vouches for the product's quality.

I truly believed that all those dates were put for the safety of the consumer not for the simple pleasure of a simpler understanding of quality.
Now reading further I seem to get the feeling that the government doesn't do it because they think it is not important or will protect anyone because apperantly no one can die from as said by Mark Harrison, professor of food science at the University of Georgia in the article The truth about food expiration dates:

In fact, both the FDA and the USDA have a pretty laissez-faire attitude when it comes to food shelf-life labeling. That's not because they are not concerned for people's health. Mark Harrison, professor of food science at the University of Georgia, points out that most of these dates are not an indicator of safety, rather of quality. "Some foods spoil if not refrigerated quickly enough—but they won't kill you," says Harrison

This search was not just made becasue I felt like knowing but because it got me to think are we trying to make a difference but choose to close our eyes at the dangers giving expired food may bring and if these epiration dates truly don't mean a think than are they a way fro people to throw groceries out and waist them so they can buy more food and give companies more money?......