best before dates - whats it all about?

Sazbo

My poor dad was under the weather after eating some mouldy pitta bread last week. I guess it could conceivably have been something else to blame, but I's still err on the side of caution with sell-by-dates, especially when it's the 'at risk groups'......

loopy_lass

some good replied thanks folks. i shall look at the other threads. ill start giving the mouldy bread a miss then if its not penicillin lol...

loops

Rachel021967

I've.used.dried-up.cheese.in.cooking.without.any.ill.effect....I.also.read.somewhere.that.dried.cheese.can.be.frozen.and.used.later.for.cooking.....Sorry.for.all.the.fullstops...Spacebar.still.not.working.

martindow

Some things with sell by dates seem to be foods that would last almost indefinitely - sugar, honey, etc. I can only assume that sometimes sell by dates are fairly arbitary and just there as a batch identification code. As has been said use your common sense with old packets and avoid anything that has turned blue or furry!

mrbadexample

Milk just depends on when you open it - open it 10 days before the BBE date and it'll be off after a week, 3 days before BBE date. Open it on the BBE date and it's usually still good for 4-5 days.

jessicamb

Its not the mouldy bread thats scary - its the supermarket bread that doesnt go mouldy thats bad :eek:

I recently found some bread that - well lets just say had been there a couple of weeks - without a trace of mould. Apparently its all to do with commerical bleaches so I think that means that the bread is still mouldy but you just dont see it :eek: ick.