KiNgBrAdLeY7: Why do supermarkets trash the expired food stock, instead of gifting it to the poor, hungry and needy?
tinyE: Because its poisonous!
You don't agree? Drink a bottle of milk 3 weeks past its expiration and see how you feel. ;P
I do that all the time. Milk and cream can go many weeks past their best-until date (it's not an expiration date), without any negative effects if they're properly refrigerated. And before you ask, I haven't been ill in almost a decade and I've never had food poisoning.
Excluding fish and meat for example, which have an actual expiration date, most food that is thrown away because it's past the date on the packaging is actually still perfectly fine in every way, shape or form (or taste, or smell). But people can't get their heads around the fact that in most cases it just a date until which the manufacturer will guarantee you that the product will have the intended taste, consistency, etc.. It usually stays like this for many more weeks, it's just that the manufacturer will not compensate you if for some reason it doesn't.
So, what almost all people do nowadays is the equivalent of scrapping a perfectly functioning car just because its 2 year comprehensive warranty has expired.