Here's a great podcast from NPR about the expiration dates, and what means what in the world of best by labels.
Link: Best by sell by use by

https://www.npr.org/2022/07/15/1111850221/best-by-sell-by-use-by

I’m with you as far as “humans deserve food that won’t make ‘em sick, regardless of circumstances” but expired food can often still be fine - you just are outside of the manufacturer’s guarantee that it should still be good.

When I gotta choose between “expired food” and “nothing”, I choose to give expired food the visual + sniff + small taste test before consuming.

I'm sure they meant best before, not expired.

Expiration dates are arbitrary estimates of the goodness of food.

If it smells bad or looks bad, don't eat it. It's that simple.

You also need to think about the kind of food qe're talking about. Milk has a date after which the product my start to turn and curdle. Dried pasta has a date after which... the quality might suffer a little? Fruit goes mushy and baked goods mold. The dates put on these items are designed to limit liability of the company(s) providing them. You don't put 4 weeks on a bottle of milk thinking it will turn at 4 weeks and 1 day, you put 3 weeks on it knowing that it gives you leeway, not only for time, but also quality of storage. If you buy a bottle of milk but it takes a couple hours to get it back into refrigeration, of course it will affect the life span. And no one is talking about giving away bloated canned goods. Dented cans are most often sent back to the warehouse, especially if the dent is on a rim or seal.

The printed expiration date is not quite an exact time when the food is actually expired. I'm sure most people have the sense to tell if a free gallon of milk is good or not a week after the printed expiration date.

It's not like food products immediately expire on midnight of a printed date. Free food is free food yo. Some can last way longer than the printed date if stored properly.

And even if a loaf of bread is marginally starting to go stale doesn't mean much of shit, as long as it ain't gone outright moldy people will gladly eat it.

And BTW, that tends to be the nature of the food that donation centers give away anyways, food that's just past the expiration date.

I'll let you in on a little secret. Those best by dates are a lie. They only are there to encourage throwing out good food and buying more. It's a planned obsolescence.