How true are expiration dates (meal, chicken, 2015, salt)
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good advise,but most foods,even if past expiration or use by date are not going to harm any of us. Those of us who are older grew up in a world with no expiration dates on foods. if it looked ok, spelled ok and tasted ok we ate it. I don't want to even think about how old some of the stuff we ate might have been. As for spices, they will not hurt you no matter how old, they just lose their strength.
I know what you mean about cleaning out the fridge. I am going to do that today. I know i have a jar of sourkraut (spelling) it there that I used once to make salad and am sure it is at least 3 months old: time to toss I think.
Thanks, I guess it is safe to say, my kraut is going go find a new home and I think it will be the trash can. I don't always follow what these safety hints are, but obviously one week versus 3 months would be stretching the freshness a little.
I'd use some things past the pull date but not long, freshness you want in food products.
Last time I did this had to replace about a dozen spices...this time mayo, dressing, mustard, lemon curd, pesto etc.
So.....check out your cabinets and refrigerator!
Wasteful, wasteful, wasteful!
The date on most products has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with manufacturers covering their behinds. I pay attention to the dates on milk-based products and meats, but 9 times out of 10 they're perfectly safe beyond whatever arbitrary date is printed on the label.
Use common sense to determine if your food is safe to eat, not some random date printed on a box. But to anyone who's that paranoid: Buy the smallest containers available.
Quote:
Originally Posted by saibot
The things that I find ACTUALLY go bad are fresh foods. Dairy products, especially if unsealed (milk and cream go sour; yogurt, cottage cheese and sour cream get moldy), fresh fruits and vegetables (they visibly wither and/or rot), bread and other baked goods (mold), and meat (gets sticky and develops a foul smell).
But if these items aren't displaying any of the above signs, I keep them and use them.
Everything else? Meh. I've even heard of people throwing away salt because it was past the sell-by date. Really.
Exactly. Although I did throw away a half-used bottle of ketchup a few months ago. I never use ketchup - my husband ate it on everything, and he died in 2011. It was noticeably darker than it should have been, and was kinda lumpy. LOL
Quote:
Originally Posted by greatblueheron
LOL....have the spices remained the same in taste and smell??? Not moldy??
Honey, if your spices are getting moldy, you have more problems than food that is past the "best by" date.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hulsker 1856
And when the date is predicated on safety, a large margin of error is incorporated. Example: if a producer thinks a jar of X will go bad in 180 days, they'll make sure to post a use-by date of something like 120 days.
Technically, commercial canned/jarred goods - and even home canned goods - are safe indefinitely as long as the can isn't bulging or the seal is intact.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nov3
I do my own canning ...and you bet it gets tossed after a certain time frame....but that's extremely rare...I tend to use it in a short time frame.
I found a jar of tomatoes dated 2012 - they looked funky and smelled worse. They weren't spoiled, just old. Pickled foods seem to last longer, and of course how you store your canned foods makes a difference as well.
expiration dates are for the benefit of the stores, nothing more.
if it looks alright, smells alright and tastes alright then its fine, I've eaten stuff that was years out of date with no adverse effects, too much food is thrown out these days usually by people who buy too much in the first place.
I once ate a brownie in saran wrap that I discovered in a pocket of my ski jacket.
It was in late summer.
I opened it, smelled it, bit into it.. and ate it.
It was still delicious...
The date on most products has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with manufacturers covering their behinds. I pay attention to the dates on milk-based products and meats, but 9 times out of 10 they're perfectly safe beyond whatever arbitrary date is printed on the label.
Use common sense to determine if your food is safe to eat, not some random date printed on a box. But to anyone who's that paranoid: Buy the smallest containers available.
Exactly. Although I did throw away a half-used bottle of ketchup a few months ago. I never use ketchup - my husband ate it on everything, and he died in 2011. It was noticeably darker than it should have been, and was kinda lumpy. LOL
Honey, if your spices are getting moldy, you have more problems than food that is past the "best by" date.
Technically, commercial canned/jarred goods - and even home canned goods - are safe indefinitely as long as the can isn't bulging or the seal is intact.
I found a jar of tomatoes dated 2012 - they looked funky and smelled worse. They weren't spoiled, just old. Pickled foods seem to last longer, and of course how you store your canned foods makes a difference as well.
You threw away ketchup??? OMG HOW WASTEFUL!!!
The items I threw away, I'm the OP, were physically altered, had been opened for longer than I care to use.
I use the dates only as a guide.
I'm for fresh, fresh, fresh in my kitchen....so you go ahead and eat mayo years old.
I've only once had a moldy spice, at the back of the cabinet....hence another reason to replace in a timely manner. Herbs and spices I too want as fresh as possible.
As usual, some of you have turned this thread into an argument or place to insult others. An innocuous food thread killed by your snide comments.
I'm for fresh, fresh, fresh in my kitchen....so you go ahead and eat mayo years old.
Herbs and spices I too want as fresh as possible.
I hope it doesn't sound snide to suggest that if you really want fresh, you should consider making some of these foods yourself instead of purchasing premade versions.
Homemade mayonnaise takes one egg, one cup of oil and five minutes and tastes far better than anything from a jar (I never buy mayonnaise). Most salad dressings can be also be whipped up in a few minutes in small amounts that you can use up quickly.
Fresh herbs (not most spices, though) are easy to buy or grow and are full of flavor.
It just sounds a little odd to emphasize "fresh, fresh, fresh" in the context of prepackaged food products and dried herbs.
Cleaning out my refrigerator, discovered of course quite a few expired foods.
Some have the pull date, some best by date. But living alone, it creeps up on me...a half full mayo container is out of date. Most are not used even 3/4 before I need to toss and I despise wasting food. Usually buy a small size if available but they end up costing more.
I'd use some things past the pull date but not long, freshness you want in food products.
Last time I did this had to replace about a dozen spices...this time mayo, dressing, mustard, lemon curd, pesto etc.
So.....check out your cabinets and refrigerator!
Did this recently, and I found an individually-frozen piece of flounder that had an expiration date of 2014. How that happened is a mystery, because I bought a new fridge two years ago and everything should have been checked when I was doing the transfer.
Oh so true.....I just try to keep in the back of my head how long items have been open.....
I checked the date on my opened sour cream before I made perogies. It was about a week past the expiration date, but it looked and smelled fine except for a bit of separation that was solved by stirring. Two weeks later I looked again, and it was the prettiest shade of blue-green.
Thanks greatblueheron. Your reminder to check for expired food was perfectly timed. I did end up throwing a few things away. Like you, I don't need big sizes of products. It would take me too long to use them up and at my age, I don't want to take any chance of getting food poisoning. This past summer I went through my spice rack and found some I'd had in there for over ten years. Ten years! There was no scent left to them so out they went.
I didn't make a new year's resolution this year but maybe it's a good time to do so. I think I'll work harder to keep the refrigerator shelves less crowded so I can actually see what's in it.
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It was noticeably darker than it should have been, and was kinda lumpy. LOL
There was no scent left to them so out they went. 
