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Originally Posted by ClarkStreetKid
Well it's not like the cakes burst into flame or crumbled into dust on expiration day + 1. When I worked by the bakery we would stop by and pick up cakes for our morning coffee break. Tasted good.
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By and large the "sell by", "fresh until..", and other expiration dates are listed on food packages to assure the contents will be wholesome and "safe" to consume if sold by such dates. However it does not imply things will turn off or rot the day after such a date.
Leaving aside fresh meats, poultry and so forth you'd be surprised how much longer packaged foods remain fresh past their sell by dates. Yet in the United States billions of dollars worth of such food is simply thrown way because it was not sold. Some charities such as Second Harvest round up such food from shops and restaurants for distribution to those suffering from food "distress", but still plenty goes to waste. All this while children, seniors and others go to bed hungry each night in this wonderful nation.
This explains the increase in "dumpster" diving you see all over NYC in particular parts of Manhattan. The homeless and some others have long known supermarkets, shops and such throw away plenty of perfectly good food, but in the wake of the past economic crisis you see middle class and others doing it as well.
Walked past a supermarket Sunday night and saw a middle aged couple pull up in their car and start going through the rubbish bags/crates. You see the same thing in front of Starbucks, bagel shops, bakeries including some very high end ones, and so forth. Bagel shops are some of the worse IMHO because they routinely throw out bags and bags of baked goods simply because they were several hours old and thus "not fresh".
I've seen everything from cases of frozen foods to high end chocolates all sitting in crates or bin liners chucked out with supermarket/shop rubbish.