Table 4.

Importance of the expiry date of purchased products in the opinion of consumers and knowledge of basic related terms.

No.	Answers	% of Answers	p-Value
			Gender	Age	Education	Place of Residence	Assessment of Financial Situation
The significance of the information found on the label of the purchased product(n = 945)	Expiration Date*	92.1	ns	ns	0.007	0.025	ns
	country or place of origin*	64.3	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
	name of the company or entity that released the product to the market*	60.9	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
	nutritional and caloric value*	62.0	ns	0.018	0.001	0.001	ns
	list of ingredients*	70.6	ns	0.017	0.000	0.027	0.036
	Price*	92.4	ns	ns	0.155	0.000	0.003
	storage conditions*	80.8	ns	ns	0.436	0.000	ns
The information on the packaging labelled as “use by” and “best before” mean the same thing (n = 1115)	yes	42.8	ns	ns	ns	0.008	ns
	no	36.0
	It’s hard to say	21.2
Products on which the term “best before” is placed, in the respondents’ opinion (n=1115)	barley/groats	40.0	0.007	ns	ns	0.009	ns
	eggs	25.0	ns	ns	ns	0.000	ns
	canned corn	31.8	ns	ns	ns	0.000	ns
	yoghurt, buttermilk, etc.	41.7	ns	ns	ns	0.000	ns
	flour	35.1	ns	ns	ns	0.000	ns
	sandwich meats	32.8	0.020	ns	ns	0.002	ns
	I don’t know	26.8	ns	ns	ns	0.000	ns
The term “best before” means: (n = 1,115)	the date after which the product becomes unsafe for the consumer (may cause poisoning, for example)	39.8	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
	the date after which the product loses quality (e.g. inferior colour)	37.4	0.005	ns	ns	ns	ns
	the date after which the product cannot be sold	34.5	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
	the date after which the product can be consumed	9.8	ns	ns	ns	0.004	ns
	It’s hard to say	10.7

*definitely significant and rather significant answers.ns–not significant.