Milk use by dates

Gers

I've just made a cup of tea and noticed that the milk we're using has a 'use by' date of 15 April and yet it's perfectly OK.. no off taste at all. Do most fresh foods have such a short date? And why?

On the same sort of vein I've been reading on the BBC website about ideas to reduce the amount of electricity/gas the UK is using and one of the 'bright' ideas is to reintroduce pantries to modern houses. I remember our pantry as being a freezing cold cupboard on an outside wall and with air bricks in. I doubt the warmer weather we are now experiencing in autumn and winter would allow pantries to be effective.

Loadsabob

I have often used organic milk (I only use organic) well over a week past its use-by date, and it tastes absolutely perfect. And I'm quite susceptible to milk that tastes off - I would notice!

My boyfriend wouldn't dream of it, though, saying he saw a programme where things tasted fine past the use-by dates but had many times the levels of bad bacteria they had in them prior to the use-by dates...

Hhhmnn...

Also, I love the idea of a larder or pantry, but my boyfriend pointed out that central heating has put a stop to that in most houses. He remembers when he was a lad, there was no heating in the kitchen, it was a freezing cold place, where if you wiped the table down with a wet cloth, it would freeze over fairly quickly!!

Kazonline

IMO milk is one of the products that really does tell you when it's gone past it's best - makes a real stink about it ;-) I've had milk go off before the date and after the date - so IMO your senses are probably your best guide.
I tend to keep my fridge a bit colder because although it's using more elec I can stick to shopping once a week and not have to throw as much out. I did try turning the dial down but was throwing meat out after about 3 days (not good on a family of four).
As for the pantry idea, when I had my first flat I lived without a fridge for a good 6months +, however I shopped every other day (lived closs to town). I guess the need for a fridge is partly due to our current lifestyles and partly due to warmer houses/climate.

Thriftylady

I think the larder thing probably depends on a lot of factors. I'm lucky to have a larder (which amazes me as its a fairly recently built house, I thought no one thought of them these days!) and its really cold in there - when I put butter in a butter dish I keep it in the larder rather than the fridge, and its still not spreadable, even in summer! I put this down to a combination of things 1) firstly, its cold where I live, pretty much all year round! 2) kitchen only gets sunshine in early morning when its all light and no heat 3) lucky to have large kitchen and radiator is at far side of the room from the larder. So taking all these factors into account, I reckon there is scope for using more larder/less fridge in the right cirsumstances.

Incidentally, does anyone know why there are so many things which are not kept in fridges in the supermarket but have instructions on the labels to keep refrigerated at home? not things such as jars which break a seal once you open them, but things like tomatoes, eggs, aubergines, mushrooms....you know the stuff. Any thoughts ?

mr_fishbulb

Gers wrote:

I've just made a cup of tea and noticed that the milk we're using has a 'use by' date of 15 April and yet it's perfectly OK.. no off taste at all. Do most fresh foods have such a short date? And why?

I would guess most use by dates allow for a few extra days to allow for the fact that not everything will go off at the same time. It would be better to have your product sometimes going off way after the sell by date, than sometimes before it.

kittiwoz

Thriftlady wrote:

Incidentally, does anyone know why there are so many things which are not kept in fridges in the supermarket but have instructions on the labels to keep refrigerated at home? not things such as jars which break a seal once you open them, but things like tomatoes, eggs, aubergines, mushrooms....you know the stuff. Any thoughts ?

You don't have to keep any of that stuff in the refrigerator. It just lasts longer if you do. It will last quite a long time out of the fridge. My mum never refrigerates any veg until it has been cut. I assume it is because the supermarkets have a lot of produce so it would have a significant impact on their electricity bills whereas it is assumed that the consumer will have a fridge running anyway so if you have room in the fridge you might as well use it. Also supermarkets generally have very fast turnovers so they probably don't have it out on the shelves for long.

I don't think it's true that central heating prevents the use of larders. From what my parents tell me I think it was usual for the kitchen to be one of the warmest rooms in the house since that is where the range was sited. Central heating might even provide some benefit due to its drying effect. Larders work quite well in reducing the temperature of their contents below the temperature in the kitchen but they do not get as cold as refrigerators. When larders were common people shopped for fresh produce more frequently, just buying what they needed for the next couple of days. Two major changes since then are that women increasingly work during the day and have less time to spend on grocery shopping and that shopping increasingly takes place in large supermarkets that are driven to rather than local shops that are walked to. This has resulted in it becoming common to buy large amounts of fresh food intended to last a week or a fortnight. A larder will not prevent spoilling of dairy or meat products for this length of time. However it would work well for the type of products mentioned by Thriftlady. So the reintroduction of larders would either require a major change in shopping habits (which while advocated or practiced by many people on this board is impractical for many people) or their use in conjunction with smaller refrigerators. Also larders would be more practical for vegetarian and particularly suited to vegan diets.

As for "use-by" dates they exist to protect companies as much as consumers, i.e. if you get food poisoning from eating something past it's "use-by" date you can't sue. Generally you will probably do fine by following your nose.