Q: How can you tell if a jar of minced garlic is still good? I have one that expired in June. It has darkened in color a little, but it still smells OK.

A: If it smells OK (or as OK as garlic ever smells) and there's no mold or obvious discoloration, it's probably fine.

Remember that the date on a jar often isn’t an expiration date. It may be a sell-by date, meant to help stores rotate the stock on their shelves, or a best-by date, which is about the quality of a product, not the safety. Sometimes it will say that in very tiny print next to the date.

Jarred garlic usually has preservatives, such as citric acid, that give it a long shelf life. That’s why fans of fresh garlic dislike the stuff in the jar: too many preservatives.

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Cooling towers for Units 3 and 4 are seen at Plant Vogtle, operated by Georgia Power Co., in east Georgia's Burke County, May 29, 2024. (Arvin Temkar/AJC/TNS)

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