But thats the point, none of these actually mean that you cant eat it after te cutoff date.

That 5 year old box of unopened crackers will almost certainly not hurt you but they may not taste very good.

"Clear English" is using as few words as possible.

If they make sense yes, but clearly people don't understand this.

When safety is on the line, the goal can't only be "as few words as possible"

Here's something to blow your mind: Most Americans are not literate.

Yes, I'm serious and I say that as a fellow American. We are not literate.

So use as few words as possible and a date. Honestly we could probably do without the words, just the date.

Is minified code easier to read? No. It’s the same with regular language; shorter sentences are not always more comprehensible.

The likelihood an American will read something decreases with each word written.

Seriously: We hate reading. The fewer words the better.

Maybe, but if increased concision also decreases comprehension, there is a balance to be struck, not just a value to optimize.

"best buy" is pretty plain English. It means the manufacturer beleives the product will be at its best up to that date.

But you submitted "best buy" rather than "best by". Sort of invalidates your point.

it doesn't though since we all know what they meant. We all know the store doesn't use "best buy" except on coupons or sales circulars or it's a store named Best Buy.

"best by" and "do not eat after" are not the same thing. Best by just means optimal freshness. Maybe you're thinking of "use by". "Sell by" is the thing giving people issues, as the food is still good but it's time for the -store- to rotate it out of inventory because it's not going to be as fresh after that date, and that leads to complainy customers.

None of them means 'do not eat after'.