Archive:Quick Questions on food safety / sell by / use by dates

helenhugs

hubby said its a best before date, it'll be fine lol. I might just go through my cupboards & make sure everything is in date if thats his attitude. Personally i wouldn't be able to bring myself to use them but if you aren't squeamish its worth a go
Hugs
Helen

Penelope_Penguin

Queen-Bee wrote: »

Hi All - just turning out my store cupboard and have come across some packets of dried beans with a BB date of 1999. Now there's thrifty and chancing. Are they too old do you think?

As long as they look wolesome, I'd try cooking them. As ariba says, they may take ages, so whaty you save by not chiucking, you waste on gas

As this has fallen from the front page of OS, I'll add it to the Use by Dates thread

Penny. x

Debt_Free_Chick

FamilyTree wrote: »

The only thing you need to watch out for is if you get a really bitter taste in your mouth up to a few days after you've eaten it and all your food tastes horrible. This is caused by the pine nuts in the Pesto going off.

It's the natural oil in the pine nuts going rancid. All oils will - eventually - go rancid if left for too long. I find that the life of pesto can be extended by keeping it in the fridge but eventually the quality is compromised and it's either lacking in "punch" or rancid.

Debt_Free_Chick

helenhugs wrote: »

hubby said its a best before date, it'll be fine lol. I might just go through my cupboards & make sure everything is in date if thats his attitude. Personally i wouldn't be able to bring myself to use them but if you aren't squeamish its worth a go
Hugs
Helen

Might be worth bearing in mind that preserves were intended to be kept for "some time", so any date is largely meaningless. However, the quality of some preserves can eventually deteroriate. Preserves won't be "off", but just won't taste as good as they would have done, if consumed earlier.

BBE dates on preserves make me smile as the contents are ..... erm ... preserved!

wigglebeena

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

As long as they look wolesome, I'd try cooking them. As ariba says, they may take ages, so whaty you save by not chiucking, you waste on gas

As this has fallen from the front page of OS, I'll add it to the Use by Dates thread

Penny. x

Little bit of bicarb in the soaking water, does wonders.

veersix

Hi,

As the title says really. I bought mince on Tuesday not realising how short the use-by date was, went to get it out of the fridge this morning and it's looking quite brown, but it seems to smell reasonable enough. Am I okay to cook with it? The use-by date was the 20th of August. I feel a bit daft posting about it as common sense would suggest that it's probably okay, but you never know.

TIA,
veersix.

Boomdocker

If its use by then no way would I use it. Best before is exactly that it will still be OK but maybe not at its best. Use by means you really should use by that date otherwise you are risking issues such as food poisoning as it may well be off.

I would chuck it.

merlin1

i find that using stuff like this really depends on your constitution sometimes!

personally if it smells ok, then i'd cook it. i have found in the past that mince while cooking can smell and taste a bit 'sharp', if its on the turn. 9 times outa 10 though its been just fine! :cool:

please bear in mind though i have the consitution of an ox!

safesound

So long as it smelled okay, I'd cook it really really well and then taste it after it been cooked but before anything else is added. If after all that it looked/tasted/smelled okay I'd chance it. If however it even remotely struck me as being off I'd bin it.
I work in a supermarket and often get the meat that is being binned as it had yesterdays USE BY date on, more often than not (so long as you follow the above) it tastes and cooks fine. I suppose it depends on who is going to eat it though, with me its just me and OH and we are both really healthy..

McKneff

No, No, dont do it!
just bin it