I bought Sugarpaste for a Wedding Cake Order in the Summer which I ended up having to cancel as I wasn't fit to fulfill it at the time due to illness.
Anyway I've just been looking at the box and the date on the side says 26th December,2006. Can anyone tell me would this be a use by date or an eat by date?
I doubt that the "use by" date is critical if the package has not been opened. The FDA is very conservative and would put a "sell by" date on it for general information. Most products (dairy excluded) are fine after the sell by date, especially something such as fondant. I can't even imagine fondant would "go bad", if unopened. How much do you have? Enough for a large cake? Is it still in the original package? Unopened? I'd use it, without hesitation. (Opened, it probably has dried out. I'd think that would be the biggest problem.) Let us know what happens.
By the term sugarpaste, are you referring to what we call rolled fondant here in the US?
Expiration dates here normally mean that they should be consumed by the date marked.
If you are not certain about what the expiration date indicates where you live, then just use it for figure molding.
Theresa 
I bought a 5 kg Box about 10 lb weight. It was meant for a four tier wedding cake. I actually thought it was 5 x 1kg packs inside until I opened it last night and its not, its all in one big block, still sealed! Now I'll use about 2 kgs before christmas.
Then hopefully God willing I'll have a Christening cake in February or so which would be another 2kgs gone if its still usable. I think myself its a sell by date, maybe I should ring the manufacturer and ask.
Okay rang the company in England and they said its a sell by date. They said as its still sealed it will be okay to use until end of March and consumed then afterwards up to September.
Sorry somebody asked me there about sugarpaste, yes its fondant.
I'm sort of relieved about it because it cost me about STG£30 and would hate throwing it out, but don't want poisoning anyone either.... but its only home use at the end of the day, not as if I'm going to sell the cakes I put it on so I think I'll chance it!
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