Use Even If Seal Is Broken Day

What the day is

Use Even If Seal Is Broken Day is observed on November 24. It is a joke, and the useful version of the day is knowing exactly which seals the joke does not apply to.

Origin and background

The day belongs to a large family of invented observances whose originators claim rights over them, and no further origin is documented.

The packaging it mocks has a specific and grim origin. In 1982 seven people in the Chicago area died after taking pain-relief capsules that someone had taken from shelves, laced with cyanide and returned. The case was never solved. The response reshaped consumer packaging permanently: the manufacturer recalled every bottle nationwide, regulators issued tamper-resistant packaging requirements the following year, and Congress made product tampering a federal crime.

Nearly every sealed product you handle traces back to that event. The foil membrane across a jar, the shrink band around a cap and the glued flap on a carton are not designed to prevent tampering, which is impossible. They are designed to make it visible afterward.

This is where the distinction matters. A tamper-evident seal is a safety device, and a broken one on medication, baby food or a bottled drink means do not use it. A freshness seal is a quality device, and a broken one usually means the contents will go stale sooner than they should.

Date labels are a third category and the one that causes the most waste. Best by and sell by dates are overwhelmingly quality indicators set by manufacturers rather than safety limits, and for most foods in the United States they are not federally standardized at all. Infant formula is the notable exception, where the date is regulated and should be treated as binding.

How to take part

• Work out which seals in your own kitchen are safety devices and which are freshness devices.
• Return anything with a broken tamper-evident seal instead of using it.
• Judge food past its date by smell, appearance and type rather than by the number alone.
• Know the exceptions: infant formula, and any can or vacuum pack that has swollen or hisses when opened.
• Take the day's advice only where being wrong costs you nothing.