Best before... / expiration dates.

[dougbgt6]

Things that don't expire and can be kept forever. (1) lemon juice and (2) honey

People over here still call cans tins. They ain't, tin is too expensive. Tins used to keep the stuff inside indefinitely, but now we have plastic lined cans. Pineapple will eat through the lining in a matter of years. It reach the outer container and ferments, the can expands and eventually bursts all over your other cans. Don't ask me how I know.

Doug

 

[Skyhook]

I just threw away yogurts which were expired by 7 days

How would you have been able to tell the difference?!

 

[johnny k]

How would you have been able to tell the difference?!

I don't know since i ve thrown them away. They looked edible though.

 

[Skyhook]

I don't know since i ve thrown them away. They looked edible though.

I bet... but supposing Yoghurt is "edible" in the first place, that is.

 

[Matt G]

I just threw away yogurts which were expired by 7 days. Should i have eaten them?

Some things just invite disaster. Like pushing your luck with unprocessed dairy and seafood. I've had real gastro and don't ever want it again, so if somehow yoghurt stayed around long enough to be a week out of date, then it's going in the bin. Other stuff, circumstances dictate. We do a lot of cooking, and for us it's feel, smell and taste that decide. Iffy vegetables, mouldy cheese? If it's not downright awful, I cut off the duff bits and press on. Old tins? Just used some seven-year-old sardines this week. Stuff made with vinegar? Last year we finished off a giant bottle of hot sauce I got back in the '90s. Mystery items? In late 2017 we finally got rid of a tin of molasses that dated to some point in the mid-1980s . . . we still used a little from time to time, but it was sticky all over the outside and we were moving house so sadly it had to finally go, otherwise I'd still have it.

Use-by dates? Hah!

 

[BigDaddyLH]

You should always give it the smell test. And when possible try to get your friends or family to also do the smell test because it's funny.

My wife has the sensitive nose in the family. When she was young she wanted to be a perfumer -- really!

What typically happens is this, however:

wife: you're not eating this, are you? It smells off.
me: [through a mouth full of food] Mells mff? Mre mu mure?

 

[boris bubbanov]

I would never use "suspect date" eggs to bake cakes. Just hard boil them. When baking I use fairly new eggs - I don't want older eggs ruining a larger undertaking. Keep them isolated, and the same with milk.

Old bread does make for good bread pudding, though.

Stale dated things, are often fine. But I hesitate to tell some people that because then they start using stuff that's years old. You have to think about who your listener is - there's always going to be people throwing out perfectly good things and they won't reform. All we end up doing is encouraging certain other people to let good food sit for months and months. They're listening for permission to do so - don't give it to them.

 

[David Barnett]

One of my co-workers is a expiry-date-**** and periodically goes through the fridge in the break room throwing away anything with an old date, no matter whose it is. I recently lost a perfectly good bottle of Sriracha that way, and a bottle of Valentina hot sauce. And now there's a Sriracha shortage...