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

zippychick

Hi everyone,

We get a lot of people asking for help and advice on whether or not food is safe to eat, on or after it's sell by/use by date so we thought it might be an idea to keep the questions and answers all together on one thread.

TheFoods Standards Agency website is a good source of information on food hygene and safety.

Also you can see previous questions and discussions posted by other Old Stylers on this on this thread: Use by Dates

I hope this will be a useful reference for us all.

The older thread had an annoying poll at the start so i started a new one.

Take_it_like_a_man,_sonny

And other things. I noted that my Jam says keep refrigerated after opening! Just wondered whether this should be done!

Well no, in Sonny's house, it is on the side! I just wondered what else is kept on the side, instead of the cleaniness and keeping things cool.

Our cheese is on a dish, covered, on the side. Cheese is like real beer, served at room temperature. And it tastes better.
Our butter is in a dish, on the side.
Marmite is at the ready.

Curry has to steam (brew) on the stove for the following day, after tasting.

Pink.

I keep cheese in the fridge as it prolongs it's life and prevents it from becoming 'sweaty'. If I'm going to be eating it uncooked then I'll lift it out about an hour beforehand to allow it to come up to room temperature as I agree with you that it tastes better that way.

Butter, again it can become sweaty in summer, so I prefer to keep it in the fridge and lift out before I need to use it.

Eggs, I keep out of the fridge.

Preserves, mustards, ketchups etc I keep in the cupboard. Mayo's, salad dressings and anything egg or dairy based I keep in the fridge.

These existing threads may interest you:

Do you keep opened jams/sauces/condiments in the fridge?

eggs - best to keep in the fridge?

Do you put bread in the fridge?

daftest question of the day...how do YOU keep butter cool?

I'll add your thread to our main food safety thread later.

Pink

Need2bthrifty

I dont use butter very often so its kept in the fridge apart from maybe a couple of ounces in a covered dish so its spreadable when needed.

Cheese in the fridge
Eggs on the side
Jams, pickles, sauces in a cupboard
Tomatoes and Fruit in the fruit bowl - I think they lose their taste if kept in the fridge.

Agree things like Curry, stew and bolognaise mature in the pot overnight - but then again I have a NE facing kitchen so doesnt get too warm....ever;)

lostinrates

Take_it_like_a_man,_sonny wrote: »

And other things. I noted that my Jam says keep refrigerated after opening! Just wondered whether this should be done!

Well no, in Sonny's house, it is on the side! I just wondered what else is kept on the side, instead of the cleaniness and keeping things cool.

Our cheese is on a dish, covered, on the side. Cheese is like real beer, served at room temperature. And it tastes better.
Our butter is in a dish, on the side.
Marmite is at the ready.

Curry has to steam (brew) on the stove for the following day, after tasting.

We , um, well, dh, has a habit of buying large amounts of high quality cheese at bargain prices. Frankly, its a pain. I never see us reaching the end of the fortnum and mason stilton. Ever. :mad::mad: yet, he just came back from italy bringing a small cheese mountain back with him.


When it comes home it goes in the fridge before its served it goes on a cheese ate with a cover into a cold room (dining room) and comes to the cold room temperature. If the plan is to eat that cheese within its room temperature usuage it can stay there, otherwise i am afraid it goes into the fridge.

If its more than we can hope to eat fresh it gets sectioned and frozen, straight away, in to sizes small enough to pull out to defrost for cooking or with some cheeses, a cheese plate.

Butter, cut into four then frozen, i defrost a quarter at a time for a butter dish, which is enough for us. This is in a north wall cupboard and lasts ages, our house is cold.

Jam, in a cupboard, sometimes in a fridge opnce opened.


We have very little fridge space, so use it for the most crucial things.

peachyprice

Butter on the side, all year, against a north facing wall with no windows so never gets too soft.

Cheese in the fridge, can't stand sweaty cheese.

Jams etc in the fridge once opened, after once opening a jar full of mould they always go in the fridge

Marmite in the cupboard

Eggs in the fridge

Potatoes in the fridge

Bolognaise etc I usually eat half and freeze the other half, sometimes it stays in the pot over nights, sometimes I remember to freeze it the same day.

sonastin

Butter, over the winter, in the fridge. Reason being fridge was large, side was small. Kitchen was so cold that it was more spreadable from the fridge!

Most stuff was kept in the fridge last year due to space constraints (no cupboard space either). Now I have a new kitchen, I actually get to think about where to put stuff!

JethroUK

Take_it_like_a_man,_sonny wrote: »

And other things. I noted that my Jam says keep refrigerated after opening! Just wondered whether this should be done!

Well no, in Sonny's house, it is on the side! I just wondered what else is kept on the side, instead of the cleaniness and keeping things cool.

Our cheese is on a dish, covered, on the side. Cheese is like real beer, served at room temperature. And it tastes better.
Our butter is in a dish, on the side.
Marmite is at the ready.

Curry has to steam (brew) on the stove for the following day, after tasting.

We have one those american type fridges some most of our world ends up in there 'somewhere' )

I do remember a gazzzilion years ago someone brought us an egg store (porcelain hen) and until that time I never thought of storing eggs anywhere but the fridge - I actually used to line it with straw inside and eggs never spoiled and less likely to crack when boiling

LameWolf

Most stuff is kept in the fridge, for the simple reason that the fridge is fairly large, but we're short on cupboard space and even shorter on "side" space!

We buy a month's supply of cheese at a time, at the Farmers Market, so that really has to live in the fridge, because we're talking about quite a few lbs of cheese!

Jam is always refrigerated once opened; but it's all HM jam anyway - I can't remember the last time I bought a jar of jam. Marmite lives in the cupboard.

BitterAndTwisted

Where have all these "sides" come from. I don't know anyone who puts things on a "side", it's a "counter-top" here.

Eggs and tomatoes in their respective receptacles on the counter. I found one of those chickens-sitting-in a-basket bowls with a lid in a CS quite recently and snapped it up. I'd quite forgotten all about them until I saw it. Eggs need to be at room-temp for baking and don't hang around here long enough to go stale anyway. All veg in a dark-coloured bag in a cool cupboard wrapped in newspaper. Spuds in the fridge? Never!

Cheese and butter in the fridge and if I remember to cut bits off ahead of wanting to use them, I do that but don't fret if I don't.

I can't see the point of cluttering up a fridge with jams, preserves and ketchupy-type things, otherwise why waste time preserving them in the first place?. Mine's too small and there's no point anyway. A bit of mould on the top of long-neglected jam at the back of the cupboard just gets lifted off and the rest of the contents used as normal.

Lostinrates is married to the wrong man: he should be mine as he's a fellow cheese-fanatic. What bliss

sparrer

Cheese is kept in the fridge, what I plan to use in the day is cut off and taken out in the morning, and I keep a bag of home grated in the freezer for cooking, butter in freezer (only keep it for visitors), don't buy jam but marmalade in fridge, Marmite Hate It _pale_ , pickle/condements in fridge. Curries, casseroles done in slow cooker and left to sit til cold then frozen in portions. No food left out as a) I have plenty of cupboard space, and b) it looks like I haven't bothered to tidy up.