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This was on the Today show this morning. Apparently they are not even regulated, but come up with by companies based on their best guess of when a product is at peak of freshness. A food scientist who has written a book about it says there has never been a documented case of food poisoning via someone eating food past its' expiration (meat and milk are exceptions, of course).
They said eggs are good 3-5 WEEKS past the date on the package, and that canned/boxed/bottled/jarred foods are fine up to a year past the sell-by or "best by" date if unopened, many canned foods are fine even several years past the date.
I have thrown out many things, cans of soup, bottled salad dressings, etc, because it was past the date, but they said we are wasting money by doing so.
They did say that baby formulas though ARE federally regulated, and you should go by the date for those.
I threw out some chicken soup that was well past the sell by date; I just didn't want to chance getting some bad chicken. Other than that, I have canned fruits, veggies and pasta that are well past their date and they are just fine. I only found out about the egg thing a month or so ago; I was religious about not using eggs past there sell by date (sometimes I would throw away almost an entire caton). I keep them and use them now.
They said eggs are good 3-5 WEEKS past the date on the package, and that canned/boxed/bottled/jarred foods are fine up to a year past the sell-by or "best by" date if unopened, many canned foods are fine even several years past the date.
I was working with the US Army on a productivity project related to their food service options. Their standards were that fresh eggs could be held as long as nine months UNDER PROPER REFRIGERATION.
In all fairness, the kitchens were using 100 cases of eggs a week so eggs were there less than 3-5 days at a time.
Canned goods recovered from the steamboat Bertrand were tested and found to be safe for consumption. These canned goods were over 100 years old. The food had lost its fresh smell and appearance and some of the nutrients were lost, but it was still safe to eat.
I always kind of suspected this. When I was a crazy poor college student, food had to last. Rarely did the food I bought for me and my SO get completely eaten by the use/sell by date so I just went off of what it looked and (more importantly) smelled like. That's what my grandparents, who raised me, went by because we lived so far out in the country a trip to the grocery was a day-long affair. I've never gotten food poisoning doing this. Even though I'm out of the college faze, it's still how I judge my ingredients.
Canned goods recovered from the steamboat Bertrand were tested and found to be safe for consumption. These canned goods were over 100 years old. The food had lost its fresh smell and appearance and some of the nutrients were lost, but it was still safe to eat.
Wow!!
About the eggs, I don't think I'd go 9 months, but that is very interesting, too!
Funny about eggs, I always thought they'd be bad if they weren't refrigerated immediately and constantly. Then at a job, there was someone who had backyard chickens and I bought eggs from her. When I got there they were just sitting on my desk, and I was like "are they still good? They've been sitting out" and she said "where do you think they are before I go out to collect them?" and I laughed, because I never thought of that only because I never bought them outside of a refrigerator case before!
About the eggs, I don't think I'd go 9 months, but that is very interesting, too!
Funny about eggs, I always thought they'd be bad if they weren't refrigerated immediately and constantly. Then at a job, there was someone who had backyard chickens and I bought eggs from her. When I got there they were just sitting on my desk, and I was like "are they still good? They've been sitting out" and she said "where do you think they are before I go out to collect them?" and I laughed, because I never thought of that only because I never bought them outside of a refrigerator case before!
It's not all that long ago that you could commonly buy eggs around the holidays that had been in cold storage for 9 months. The demand for eggs is very seasonal, peaking with all the baking that happens around the holidays. Rather than raising enough chickens to lay enough eggs to meet the holiday demand, which would be very costly and very wasteful, they simply built up their reserves of fresh eggs in the shell all year long. Today commercial bakers buy already shelled "liquid eggs," which can be stored under refrigeration for long periods, reducing the market for fresh eggs in the shell... but they still get older, on average, near the end of the year.
PS, my grandmother never kept eggs anyplace but on a shelf in the pantry, and they were good for weeks.
That's why it's called the SELL BY date. It's for the retailer, not the consumer. They want to sell products they know won't be returned because they're spoiled or stale, so the retailer needs to know when to pull the product or mark it for discount for a quick sale.
My criteria is if it doesn't smell or taste bad, it's still safe to eat. I don't swallow if the taste is off, though.
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