How much past the sell by date do you go?

quietheart

My mum brought up six kids on the breadline, i don't think anything in that house was ever in date (she only ever bought heavily reduced lines)..... you just trust your nose, if there's a pong don't risk it otherwise i think sell by's are just a marketing tool to make u chuck stuff out and buy some more. I drew the line when she tried to give my baby son a yoghurt five months out of date.......

lil_me

There is also the rule of sell by date isn't the use by date, I like the products from the likes of Warburtons which are usually on reduced as the use by date is 2 days after the sell by

With pre pack meats, the factories keep them for ages, DPs Mam used to work in a factory that made them and always said keep it air tight and it will last much longer!

I have learned a huge lesson in the last few months by admitting what I threw out on this board, it made me feel so guilty, I would even eat things I didn't particularly like or fancy for dinner so I threw nothing out. I threw out over £50 worth of food one week (ok most was reduced but full price it was worth that) This week I have thrown nothing away apart from the apples I cooked the gammon with which were going off anyway, and the birds seemed to enjoy them. Can't forget the birds! Beef fat after the stock was a treat for the dogs with their dinners.

bobsa1

I get meat from a butcher and when I asked how long some beef would keep he said a couple of weeks and at least a week in a cold garage, didn't even need to be in the fridge!

He is an old fashioned butcher with "proper meat" so this may make a difference

recovering_spendaholic

I won't use raw meat or poultry if it past the use by date but I will use unopened cooked meats and also cheese, fruit and veg as long as it hasn't gone funny looking/smelling. I am also a bit iffy using eggs which are out of date. Having said that my Mum's friend was still using up dried egg from the second world war until she died in the mid 1990's and she never got ill from it!

lil_me

Yes I get mine from the farm shop, and being so fresh it does last much longer. Poultry I am much more careful with and tends to be frozen day before it's use by date if not used. Eggs again I get from the farm shop so they also last longer. Fruit and veg I get off a van who delivers and she collects it from the wholesaler the morning I get it. I find as long as I keep it well it lasts until the next delivery or longer. So I suppose aswell as them all lasting much longer, they don't usually have a 'use by' date on, so I am not so quick to throw it out and nose test first.

It's the summer time when I struggle with the likes of bread etc which goes off earlier. I want one of those cooling drawers or a bigger fridge! In fact might bug DP for one later on in the year, can't ask now as he's just redone the kitchen last year to fit in the small ones I wanted, and he'll get all shouty!

piglet6

I think I am with the majority here because I use common sense and my nose, rather than the official sell by dates...I refuse to believe that at 5 minutes to midnight it is OK to eat something, but 10 minutes later (i.e. at 5 minutes past midnight on the next day), my product has miraculously become inedible!!

Plus, as I have also mentioned before, I have a friend who works for a well known pork products manufacturer (can't mention names but the gentleman's initials are G.A.!!) who tells me that sell by dates that they put on the food can be ignored for at least a week after the date (they have to be extra careful - obviously - to cover themselves from a legal point of view...but it is not unknown for products to be brought back to the factory and re-labelled with a later date and re-shipped out to the shops). Basically, the more expensive the food (M&S, etc) the longer you can go past the sell-by date, so M&S is better than Tesco/Sainsbury which is better than Lidl... (but I am not suggesting that Lidl's food becomes inedible at the cut off date - again, it is down to common sense!).

At the end of the day, how did people eat before somebody invented the best before date...?! They used common sense and their senses - if it smells/tastes wrong, then don't eat it. Otherwise, rely on your own judgement!

Piglet

Mountain_Goat_2

I don't pay much attention to dates either (especially not "best before"), if it loooks and smells OK it probably is. A lot of people I know think it's disgusting that I recently ate pasta that was 3 and a half years out of date, but dried foods like that keep forever.
I also used a bottle of HP sauce one year past its BB date, again nothing wrong with it!

Seakay

I always go by appearance/taste and if in doubt, taste a small piece. I have often bought greatly reduced exotic fruit from the supermarket, cheaper because it is out of date, but often not yet ripe. On the other had, washed salads in plastic bags often start to go slimy before the date because they are too wet.

helen_caslass

if its not green and furry its edible

helen_caslass

used to work in a supermarket a woman once brought a tub salad back that was a day out of code that she'd bought that day, ok it should have been taken off the shelves but she was raving about food poisoning and bringing in environmental health... it was a salad and looked fine it wasn't brown like some of the bagged salads it looked fine looked edible, she was offered a double refund, replacement or a r+r but no she wanted more than that boss told her to naff off