title_body: Finding if coffee is a health risk after best before
upvoted_answer: With all foods, FAT TOM is your best start to gauge their susceptibility to spoilage. 
  
  Now, FAT TOM is actually an acronym for the six factors that influence the growth of microbes. And bacterial growth is what causes food to turn bad in two senses, namely gross and dangerous, although the two often go hand in hand.
  
  The factors are:
  Food
  Acidity
  Time
  Temperature
  Oxygen
  Moisture
  
  In theory it's sufficient to eliminate just one factor to prevent spoilage, but in practical applications, it's often a combination of a few. 
  
  So for your coffee, the main factors are moisture, food and time.
  
  For your Nescafé, the granules are dry, have very little "food" for pathogens (proteins are a real problem, for example) and are around or slightly past the best-before date1. If you say the coffe still tastes fine, I see no reason to suspect it to be unsafe.
  
  I'm not sure about the second product, but will for now assume it's some kind of "cappuchino mix" that includes dry milk or another kind of creamer. My conclusion is largely the same as for the Nescafé product, but with a higher protein ("food") and possibly fat content. So you have a slightly higher risk of "spoilage", but it's not really about food safety, just rancidity and development of "off" flavours.
  
  So to sum it up:
  If your instant coffee still tastes fine, dissolves as it should and was stored in reasonable conditions (dry, room temperature, closed container), there are no food safety concerns. You might want to use it within the next few months, though, but mainly due to quality reasons.
  
  
  
  1 Another common misconception: "best before" does not indicate immediate spoilage after that date, it is a time by which the manufacturer assures you the product will be in excellent condition. This means also sensory attributes like taste or consistency. Plus there is always a safety margin included to be on the safe side, even if the consumer stores the product under less-than-ideal conditions. More on our sister site Seasoned Advice, for example here.