My wife throws away perfectly good food when they reach the expiration date stamped on the package - as if they know that - ding! - it's time to go bad.
Jonathan Maitland of the Daily Mail has a similar problem with his wife, so he decided to embark on a two-week experiment of eating increasingly out-of-date supermarket food in attempt to discover the truth about use-by and best-before dates:
One Asda 'smart price' Chicken Breast Fillet. My wife, realising the meat was six days past its Use-By date, reacted like a vampire seeing a crucifix. I devoured it. Granted, it lacked a little tenderness, but that may have been because I had roasted the living daylights out of it. Ill-effects: none.
Cooking, or the lack of it, is crucial in all this. Microbiologist Doctor Lee Humpheson, who runs a food-testing laboratory, says: 'There is a 100 per cent greater risk from food that hasn't been cooked or prepared properly, even if it is really fresh, than from food which is past its Use-By date, but which has been cooked and prepared properly.'
In other words, wash your hands when handling food, don't use the raw meat knife to spread butter and follow cooking instructions to a 'T'. Then, even though your sausages are, say, three days out of date, you will be fine.
Expiry dates are there for a reason, but, according to Dr David Jukes, a senior lecturer in Food Bioscience at Reading University: 'The longer you leave food after its Use-By date has expired, the more its bacteria will multiply, posing a greater risk to your health.'
But how do manufacturers decide on an expiry date in the first place?
When new products come on the market, tests are run to see at what stage bacteria in the food become harmful. More tests are then carried out, taking into account the effect of variables such as packaging, transportation and storage temperatures.
Dr Jukes says many supermarkets will err on the side of caution when deciding on an expiry date. 'Inevitably, the food industry plays safe. Use-By dates have a degree of safety built in, in order to protect the industry.' So how great is that degree of safety? Quite big, if my experience is anything to go by.
Link (Photo: Les Wilson/ITV)
i don't tend to worry too much about use-by dates, if it still smells ok, it's still good
It doesn't help that I once had a bad experience with sour milk. Took a huge chug just as it hit me that it smelled "off" and was sick for the rest of the day. I don't take chances.
Dude, I know EXACTLY what you mean. Once my Mom made me a mug of heated milk for me to have with breakfast, however, I told her it didn't look right. It must have been a bad morning for her because she said, "You're an idiot just drink your milk," so I did. And promptly ran to the kitchen sink to throw up. That entire mug was...chunky. :(
Having experienced food poisoning, and given the recent agricultural issues with spinach, tomatoes and green onions, I might re-evaluate my cooking methods and how far I push expiration dates.
There are some kinds of food though where you have to be very careful:
Fresh eggs for mayonnaise: Their immune system keeps salmonella at bay for about 8 days; after this you are a fool to use it in uncooked food. (And yes: there are salmonella in every egg and chicken you buy...)
Meat: Is a perfect medium for all the bacteria and tapeworm larvae and whatnot it brings along with itself; always cook well and use proper hygiene when a little too old. When it's much older (10 days or so) or smells funny throw away...
Fish: Sushi anyone? Be sure you buy at a serious fishmarket and ask specifically for sushi-fish. Use the same or the next day.
Bread: Some kinds of fungi (especially the nasty red one) grow hyphae all the way through it, and their metabolic by-products can be hazardous.
Vegetables: Same as for fungi: Some spot on your tomato might mean that the whole thing is better thrown away...
Marmelade: It is generally ok to scratch the top layer of fungi off. The sugar concentration is so high that the fungi can't grow into it. On the top the sugar concentration however is gradually diminishing meaning they can gro on top. But be aware: "light" marmelade has so little sugar that it doesn't hinder the fungi from growing into the whole glass at all!
Happy eating everyone!
For meat and fish I use my cat as the tester; if he doesn't want it, it goes into the bin, otherwise I'll still eat it.
(Of course, this is much harder to do if you're trying to feed a larger household)
It's not really an issue for me. I don't eat meat, so that's one big spoilage problem out the window. As for everything else, I usually eat it way before the due date. Anything that's past the due date is usually WAY PAST the due date, and often visibly furry.
I avoid soy yogurt at all costs, however. That stuff seems to get moldy whether it's past the due date or not!
The milk should be good for another 7 days thereafter if properly refrigerated.
There's one main piece of advice doctors will give you, thou': If it taste bad, don't eat it. Most people who catch sickness during travel or report to hospitals with food poisoning reports having eaten something tasting foul/weird before getting sick.
And be aware of cheese and raw fish..
...
...
*SALT*
actually most fruit is pretty good when it goes off before it molds
and I cut the mold of cheese, the cheese is fine.
the only things really dangerous (read: will make you sick for a while) is meat, but when its really off you WILL smell it.
And when in doubt just fry it extra hard, no problem.
(No, seriously...)
I once heared a story that Americans get sick from fresh food in Europe because in the U.S. there is so much food in plastic and vacuumsealed, etc. So they're not used anymore to the normal bacteria on food.
As for personal experience I've never had food poisoning or something like that and I would eat whatever even if it tastes funny, I must have a pretty resistant stomach/immune system.
they stay ok WAY longer than the exp date (especially if you keep them in the fridge)
and IF they go off, you will smell it right away.
even if you've never smelled a rotten egg before, believe me, you WILL know =]
Same thing with cheese.
Now I play it safe. :P
And eggs are still good as long as they float.
I don't know if the body can build up a tolerance, but that's something that my husband swears is true. To be fair, I've known him for over a decade the only time I've known him to get sick from eating the wrong thing was on a trip to Egypt. But he was okay within hours.
but regardless of whether they're labelling their products correctly, they're still allowing hoards of beef and produce contaminated by salmonella to reach the market. baaaaad food distributors. BAD!
After some reluctance she talked me into leftovers. Well it gets better, about a month ago I was cleaning out her cabinet and I was repulsed by the smell of this rock hard bread and I asked her what possible redeeming value it had, she said shell give it to the geese when it rains.
So as I was eating the year expired ground beef she said, "oh yeah that bread I was going to give to the geese that you said had no reedeming value, I used it in the meatloaf" I refused to eat any more and she said she should have waited till I was finished to tell me, and like someone else mentioned once bitten, twice shy.
I so want to denounce that phony kids are starving in Africa defense. The other day she was telling me how to eat my cherries and got frustersted for not eating the good parts, then afterwords she told me she was throwing the seeds away. There is world hunger, 30 cherry trees in the trashcans, those might have helped feed the people in Africa.
P.S. If anybody asks why... the answer is why not. It is not like we have a clue as to what we are really eating, where did it come from and how it was prepared.
L0L
Eggs last well past their expiration date. I once had eggs last a month past their date. Of course, if you get them from a farmers market they will go bad before the expiration date. My grandma taught me that you can tell if an egg is no good by spinning it. If it slows right away it's still good. If it spins freely then it's either a boiled egg, or a rotten one.
Pork gets slimy and rancid very quickly, so I usually throw that out. Tough to salvage taste when its so nasty.
As stated previously, lots has to do with how things are handled.