best before dates - whats it all about?

loopy_lass

ive just reached into my fridge for an egg and seen it is 5 days "out of date" i have searched for this in the forum but havent seen anything. My question is, in these days of preservative added everything, we have a BB date, years ago when there were fewer preservatives, we didnt have a BB date!!! is it me?

How does an egg know when its BB date is and it needs to go bad? anything else come to that, how can something which is vacuum packed go off within a certain amount of time?

Am i tight cutting off the hard crusty bits of cheese & using rest for cheese sauce? am i tight for cutting the green bits off bread saying "its only a bit of penicillin" ...

loops

homersimpson_3

similiar thread before- try this http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=203112&highlight=dates

Pink.

Hi loopy_lass,

You can use the fresh egg test to tell if you should eat the eggs.

I think that best before dates are there to protect the producers more than us, as because of the 'claim culture' that seems to exist these days, where people are prepared to sue for almost anything.

Pink

Rikki

Put the egg in a jug of cold water. If it floats it full of smelly gas so throw [STRIKE]at someone you dislike[/STRIKE] away. If it sinks then the egg is good and the use by date is wrong. The egg knows best.:D

Penny-Wise_4

My OH pours milk down the drain as soon as it reaches the best before date – without checking it first! :eek: Even when I’ve just had it on my cereal and it’s fine. Sometimes he doesn’t pour it away but just leaves it on the side all day as “it doesn’t need to be in the fridge because the best before date expired”. Obviously by the time I get home from work it is off & lumpy so his point is ‘proved’ but it was fine in the morning.:mad:

How does the milk know when it should go off?

Linda32

loopy_lass wrote:

My question is, in these days of preservative added everything, we have a BB date, years ago when there were fewer preservatives, we didnt have a BB date!!! is it me?

I'm a complete wuss about food safety and have been known to chuck fish away even when its within its date because it looks funny, apparently.

Mind you we've never been ill from eating bad food either, so maybe these a method in my madness.

In answer to your question above. I guess eveything was made fresh and eatern the same day or next day. Nothing was kept for days, weeks or even months in the frezzer as they wern't around.

tim_n

Eggs in my opinion stopped going off about ten years ago. Since then I've not found a single one! I've regularly eaten eggs over six months past their BB date when refrigerated. They certainly change in texture and taste, but you never notice in an omelette. (and yes, I've seen off eggs!)

Milk on the otherhand seems to have got worse. You need an ice cold fridge to keep it longer than the BB imho.

Bread with green bits tastes horrible. It's not penicillin either and can be quite dangerous. Cheese however only has mould on the outside and you can chop bits off whilst preserving the block inside (unless it's a runny cheese! yuck)

I trust my instincts and, touch wood, haven't yet been ill.

cathybird

I recently tested 6 eggs past their use by date by putting them in a bowl of water. They all sat happily on the bottom and were clearly fine. There's a useful tip in the Tightwad Gazette about freezing eggs, as follows:

"Many people don't take advantage when eggs go on sale because they don't know that eggs can be frozen. Lightly mix 1 cup of raw eggs (about five large ones) with 1 teaspoon salt and store in an airtight freezer container. Properly frozen, eggs will keep for up to six months. Three tablespoons of egg mixture approximates one large-sized egg. They taste good scrambled, in omelettes, or in baking."

Anyway, I've always found it useful to know that if I've got eggs that I know I won't use up in time for the use-by date I can always freeze them. I did exactly that with the eggs after I'd tested them, storing them in some tiny tupperwary things I've got (two eggs per container with a teensy bit of salt). Probably best if you are going to freeze them to do it when they're fresher tho.

Any food scientists about who disagree, feel free to post and say so!!!!

Mirtos

loopy_lass wrote:

ive just reached into my fridge for an egg and seen it is 5 days "out of date" i have searched for this in the forum but havent seen anything. My question is, in these days of preservative added everything, we have a BB date, years ago when there were fewer preservatives, we didnt have a BB date!!! is it me?

How does an egg know when its BB date is and it needs to go bad? anything else come to that, how can something which is vacuum packed go off within a certain amount of time?

Am i tight cutting off the hard crusty bits of cheese & using rest for cheese sauce? am i tight for cutting the green bits off bread saying "its only a bit of penicillin" ...

loops

Nope. You're not tight. I ignore all BB dates as a matter of policy. Much prefer to trust my nose! My OH always moans when I cook something after it's BB date, but the other day I found him eating a bowl of cornflakes and off milk - that had gone off before the date on the carton. Good grief!

poorbutrich

Mirtos wrote:

Nope. You're not tight. I ignore all BB dates as a matter of policy.

Yes, me too! I think it's a way for manufacturers to cover themselves in case things go off. As I've said already on another post today, my housemates both throw things away (such as a punnet of strawberries which I could have put in my blender! ) merely because the BB says so, not because they've so much as sniffed it. I grew up in a very poor household where sometimes we simply couldn't afford to eat, so I just can't bring myself to do this! If something's off, you'll know it is!

Ted_Hutchinson

I agree that best before dates on fruit can be very misleading, I've seen (but not bought) punnets of soft fruit that were in date but clearly past their best, I've frequently bought reduced fruit that was on it's bb date and it's then taken several days to ripen sufficiently to eat.

Advocados need checking whatever date is on the box. Too hard and they are not worth eating and too soft and they are discoloured when opened. I'd not risk fish past it's use by date and I'd be very careful with meat products. While we were on holiday (admittedly it was hot) I bought some bread rolls from Tesco's that were on their sell by date and the very next morning they were mouldy so certainly not a bargain.