Out dated

[Juneau4]

What's the opinions of using out dated food items?

 I'll go first --I don't worry about it. If I can pull a carrot out of the ground and some what clean it on my pants and snarf it down, why should I worry about a beer that's expired? 

[RebelSS]

Depends on type of food and what you mean by "outdated"...just to help out a bit..

   

"Use by" and "Best by": These dates are intended for consumer use, but are typically the date the manufacturer deems the product reaches peak freshness. It's not a date to indicate spoilage, nor does it necessarily signal that the food is no longer safe to eat.

"Sell by": This date is only intended to help manufacturers and retailers, not consumers. It's a stocking and marketing tool provided by food makers to ensure proper turnover of the products in the store so they still have a long shelf life after consumers buy them. Consumers, however, are misinterpreting it as a date to guide their buying decisions. The report authors say that "sell by" dates should be made invisible to the consumer.

 

I just used some macaroni that was 6 months outdated, and it was fine. Dried stuff like beans, stuffing's, pasta, etc., I think you can go past with no problems. Same with some canned items, they last, USUALLY, for a couple years. (If you know when you bought it) But, things like frozen veggies, meals, etc, I find get freezer burned and dried out if you go past the date. But, I  did have an old guy offer me a Coke at his house that had "expired" a year previous. BIg deal, right?  Well, it was, I had to dump it....

[nofishfisherman]

I don't really go by the dates on any packaging, I go by what the item looks like and smells like.  You can usually tell in under 2 seconds if a item has gone bad.

When I was working for a non-profit that worked with food distribution we had a lot of info about what real food safety is.  The dates on the packing really meant almost nothing.  Its really just the date when food should be best nothing about safety.  For instance milk is good long after the date. Also due to pasteurization something like milk will almost never get you sick.  You'll throw up from the nasty sour taste long before it will make you sick. 

The real danger with food is from food that is perfectly fresh.  It comes from veggies from commercial farms that were contaminated and then not washed properly or from contaminated meat that wasn't cooked properly. 

[smurfy]

yea I don't worry about born on dat....oh wait that's beer. I agree with nofish!!!!!!!! there are some that throw a lot of food away because of the date thing. drives me nutz to see all that thrown out. if it looks good...smells good........I will eat it!!!!!! 

[leechlake]

depends on the item how far I will go but I always assume the date on the package is overly safe for the store or brands liability purposes.  I bought a bunch of dried onion soup mix this fall that was outdated.  I couldn't imagine what in processed dried onion soup could ever go bad.  The eggs at the cabin never go bad in my mind and they never get pitched.  Bread gets moldy so that gets pitched.  

[RebelSS]

Ticks me off our local food shelf WILL NOT take ANYTHING past the "sell by" date...c'mon!!! You know it's good, that's an utter waste of good food that they could be giving to people that really need it. They refuse to take a lot of stuff from the stores. Boy, this town is stuck up. or, it's uh....never mind.

Edited December 17, 2015 by RebelSS

[leechlake]

I worked at a company that sold truck loads of food items both for food grade and inedible for animal feed.  I thought it kind of sad that certain non "food grade" items could be sold to prison systems.  I get that they are bad guys.  I'm kind of piggy backing Rebs thoughts.  Food shelves don't take things sometimes based on "humilitating" their customers.  I get it but if my kid is hungry or needs a warm coat I would check my ego at the door.

[ThunderLund78]

The only things I pay real close attention to are dairy and egg based things like Milk and Mayo - most get sniffed if we're within a few days of either side of the date.  If it smells OK, it gets eaten. Most store bought mayo has enough preservative in it to go WAY past the date on the jar.

The only "dry good" I can think of that I get iffy about are things like baking powder/baking soda or yeast.  They do have an active shelf-life and you can really ruin how something turns-out if you don't get a good chemical reaction to make things rise, etc.

But as far as canned goods go, I think my mom has some things in her cupbaord and they've been there since the Reagan administration.  I'd still eat 'em.

[leechlake]

thunder nailed it...yeast is the only one that matters.  I don't make bread a lot but old yeast makes matza.  

[Juneau4]

Food shelves are Gov. they do have to have regulations. Like it or not, you have to abide them.

Think of the amount of food that's thrown out at restaurants  The Buffets?

This probably shouldn't be in this forum, If it's going to become a issue.

My question was how many people are concerned about out dated foods?  

[Boar]

its.all bear.bait. good for me.....  milk i dont past the date, but never run into out dated milk in my house..other food stuff? smells.good, its.good..

[LindellProStaf]

About 20 years ago the place where I worked built a new shop.  We had a new frig as well.  That year at Christmas time I got a couple banana breads.  i brought them to work for me and the guys.  Well when we ate it we smelled something that was just slightly bad smelling.  Not strong at all but it was barely there.  We thought a mouse died behind the new frig.  Well after a day or two the other guys were tired of the banana bread so I was trying to finish it up.  One day I realized when I opened up the margarine that was in the frig that is where the smell was coming from.  I looked at the date on it and it was over 3 years old.  One of the guys brought it from the old shop to our new shop.  That was the end of the banana bread program.   AND none of us got sick from it.

[Juneau4]

About 20 years ago the place where I worked built a new shop.  We had a new frig as well.  That year at Christmas time I got a couple banana breads.  i brought them to work for me and the guys.  Well when we ate it we smelled something that was just slightly bad smelling.  Not strong at all but it was barely there.  We thought a mouse died behind the new frig.  Well after a day or two the other guys were tired of the banana bread so I was trying to finish it up.  One day I realized when I opened up the margarine that was in the frig that is where the smell was coming from.  I looked at the date on it and it was over 3 years old.  One of the guys brought it from the old shop to our new shop.  That was the end of the banana bread program.   AND none of us got sick from it.

Rotten bananas  were good though.  in the banana bread.

[icehole10]

Milk and Mayo, if it smells bad, in the garbage, if it don't, ill eat it. I don't look at the dates most of the time. My wife can't under stand why I always smell milk no matter the date. I always tell her to take a big gulp of rotten milk once, and you will do the same. I have never gotten over that, but it sure taught me not to drink out of the carton!!

[Juneau4]

Milk and Mayo, if it smells bad, in the garbage, if it don't, ill eat it. I don't look at the dates most of the time. My wife can't under stand why I always smell milk no matter the date. I always tell her to take a big gulp of rotten milk once, and you will do the same. I have never gotten over that, but it sure taught me not to drink out of the carton!!

Yup, It's ugly no matter the date.

[smurfy]

Rotten bananas  were good though.  in the banana bread.

banana bars with cream cheese frosting is better!!!!!!!

[nofishfisherman]

Milk and Mayo, if it smells bad, in the garbage, if it don't, ill eat it. I don't look at the dates most of the time. My wife can't under stand why I always smell milk no matter the date. I always tell her to take a big gulp of rotten milk once, and you will do the same. I have never gotten over that, but it sure taught me not to drink out of the carton!!

I always check the milk as well, even if I just brought it home from the store.  its a habit built in from my college days.  It was late and I was hungry, the only food I had was the last bowl of cereal from the box and some milk.  I poured the bowl of cereal and without really looking or paying attention I poured the milk.  I carried the bowl to the table and the first bit tasted a little weird but I didn't get a lot of milk with the bite.  2nd bite got worse, 3rd bite I got more milk and almost threw up.  The more milk I got in the spoon the worse it got.  So now I figured I had used spoiled milk on my bowl of cereal. Problem was I was still hungry and now I'm out of food.  So I held my breath and ate as much of the cereal as I could tolerate while spooning up as little milk as possible.  Of course each bite was still terrible as the cereal was starting to soak up some of the milk but I knew it wouldn't hurt me assuming I could stomach it.  Got about half way through the bowl before my hunger subsided.  Not sure if it was because I got full enough or because the horrible spoiled milk taste killed my appetite. Either way I've learned to check my milk before ruining another bowl of cereal. 

 

 

[eyeguy 54]

if it smells good,  I eat it.

[Juneau4]

banana bars with cream cheese frosting is better!!!!!!!

Now your mentioning rotten cream with those bad bananas!

More  ????

[Dotch]

Regardless of code, if it smells or tastes bad, it gets pitched. If cheese has a layer of mold on it, I eat it if I can peel or cut the mold off. I fed a couple moldy cheese curds to the dogs the other night. If it's something stale such as an opened box of crackers, bread, etc., or vegetative matter that's going bad, the sheep get it. Peelings, cores, seeds, same treatment. I purposely buy out of code cereal. Four bucks for a box of cereal when wheat is 5-something/bu and corn is 3-something/bu? Seriously. Eggs are something I'm a little careful with. Some outfits were in the habit of taking them back from grocery stores, repackaging then sticking a new date on them a while back. Usually try to boil the models that are getting out there a month past the date. What I really like doing though is buying from someone local who knows what they're doing. Then I can see and taste how fresh they are. Brown eggs are better by the way...

One question I have though: Pickles. There must be about 10 jars of pickles in the fridge. I buy what I like and finish 'em off. More of a sweet and/or hot pickle guy but when the wife entertains it's like clockwork: Another jar of dill pickles and green olives gets purchased then the remnants set. Do they even put expiration dates on them? It's time to clean out the fridge and looks like to me some of them need to go or be combined or else we're gonna have a whole fridge full of pickles. 

[smurfy]

Regardless of code, if it smells or tastes bad, it gets pitched. If cheese has a layer of mold on it, I eat it if I can peel or cut the mold off. I fed a couple moldy cheese curds to the dogs the other night. If it's something stale such as an opened box of crackers, bread, etc., or vegetative matter that's going bad, the sheep get it. Peelings, cores, seeds, same treatment. I purposely buy out of code cereal. Four bucks for a box of cereal when wheat is 5-something/bu and corn is 3-something/bu? Seriously. Eggs are something I'm a little careful with. Some outfits were in the habit of taking them back from grocery stores, repackaging then sticking a new date on them a while back. Usually try to boil the models that are getting out there a month past the date. What I really like doing though is buying from someone local who knows what they're doing. Then I can see and taste how fresh they are. Brown eggs are better by the way...

One question I have though: Pickles. There must be about 10 jars of pickles in the fridge. I buy what I like and finish 'em off. More of a sweet and/or hot pickle guy but when the wife entertains it's like clockwork: Another jar of dill pickles and green olives gets purchased then the remnants set. Do they even put expiration dates on them? It's time to clean out the fridge and looks like to me some of them need to go or be combined or else we're gonna have a whole fridge full of pickles. 

as long as the pickles are submerged in the juice they should be good till consumed!......olives are poison and should put them with the hazmat stuff. if pickles are the sweet variety chances are they will stay in my frig a long time, now hot or garlic dill.they wont last 2 weeks but I make my own!

I pretty much do the same dotch, only I got hounddogs. other stuff is used for fertilizer in the garden!

[Dotch]

A good friend of mine has worked brokering out of code meat for years. Typically it comes from some outfit that went belly up and there are huge freezers full or if you're lucky it's stuff that's off color, size, shape, etc., and didn't make specs. A lot of it went for institutional use. He lived with us one summer. Frequently he brought home samples. A couple lines I remember him using over the phone: "Ya, we got these hams. Few years old. Great price. It's a little gray but it still tastes OK." On another call on some questionable steaks: "Ya, it's alright if a few people get sick. We just don't want to kill anybody." 

Another time he came home on a rainy afternoon when I was dozing on the couch. He started tearing the house apart making all kinds of racket. When I asked him what in blazes he was looking for he said, "You seen my chicken?" Since I was only half awake all I could think of was a chicken on the loose in the house. Apparently though he thought he'd brought home some samples. He was somewhat scatter brained, so figured he'd probably lost them in the house, I waited the better part of a week for something to start stinking. Luckily nothing did. My guess is he left them on the roof of his  car and some lucky crow or coyote found them.

Edited December 17, 2015 by Dotch

[RebelSS]

      Kinda like China's food processing, huh? Read a few USDA reports on THAT......*urp*    But, some people just don't seem to get sick from stuff like that. I worked with a guy that regularly left his lunch sit out all day...one day, he forgot it (when we got calls and had to run) He had a chicken and mayo sandwich....and he ate it late the next afternoon....30 some hours at room temp.

Edited December 17, 2015 by RebelSS

[Boar]

About 20 years ago the place where I worked built a new shop.  We had a new frig as well.  That year at Christmas time I got a couple banana breads.  i brought them to work for me and the guys.  Well when we ate it we smelled something that was just slightly bad smelling.  Not strong at all but it was barely there.  We thought a mouse died behind the new frig.  Well after a day or two the other guys were tired of the banana bread so I was trying to finish it up.  One day I realized when I opened up the margarine that was in the frig that is where the smell was coming from.  I looked at the date on it and it was over 3 years old.  One of the guys brought it from the old shop to our new shop.  That was the end of the banana bread program.   AND none of us got sick from it.

from my understanding, margerine is about 1 component away from plastic. I prefer real butter. if you ever use margerine to pan fry eggs, if you add margerine to the hot pan to melt it before the adding the eggs, tell me if im wrong here, but it smells like plastic dosent it..... margerine bad....

iceholes and dotch's avetars are to close.

[Big Dave2]

The only things I pay real close attention to are dairy and egg based things like Milk and Mayo - most get sniffed if we're within a few days of either side of the date.  If it smells OK, it gets eaten.

It's been a long time since I was in the Grocery business but the milk used to be guaranteed fresh for 2 weeks past the date on the carton. I doubt that has changed.