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

meritaten

actually it sounds like it was going off when you bought it - one overnighter on worktop shouldn't produce rank meat - I often defrost meat by leaving it out overnight. and I have a sensitive tummy too.

zippychick

ive merged this with food safety

Zip

Happygreen

cheeses, mayo and only the jams I don't eat very often in the fridge, other jam in the cupboard. butter in the fridge in the summer. fresh eggs outside, older eggs in the fridge. potatoes in a bread bin. HM bread is kept under a tea towel on a cutting board, it goes off quicker in any container and gets eaten quicker from a board

jakes-mum

A question for you old stylers from a severe OCD'er (hope ive picked the right thread here)

Where have all these 'after you've opened it' use by dates come from?? suddenly I notice that my ham that used to happily sit in my fridge open for about a week needs to be consumed within 2 days, and my orange juice within 5 days, milk within 3 days! Family is now eating and drinking copious amounts of sandwich meat, milk and juice to fit within these suddenly appeared constraints :eek: Can't even contemplate buying a family pack of sandwich meat anymore!

So am I going a bit mad with the OCD and everything is fine for a bit longer than the local supermarkets want me to believe, or do I really have to eat/drink all these things within this amount of time?

trolleyrun

Jakes-mum, you don't have to use ham within 2 days of opening, as long as it's still in date. I've got a carton of milk that's been open for a week and it's still good. I think manufacturers put these dates on to sell more stuff, to be honest.

Just do as you used to do before these dates appeared on the packets. Didn't do you any harm then, and won't do you any harm now

jakes-mum

Ahh thank you trolleyrun, even my mad mind couldn't understand why I suddenly had to eat all my sandwich meat in 2 days, I got so worried about it, we actually had 3 different packs of ham open in the fridge because it had been 48 hrs so I couldn't eat it (fed it to the kids and hubby though )
Milk has always been a huge fear of mine, so much so that I only buy 1 pints in full fat so I can guarantee I can finish it in 2 days, really need to start trusting my nose again I think!

trolleyrun

Do trust your nose. If you're quite sensitive to food going off, you'll be able to smell it. Or you can train your nose, especially with the milk. Smell it when you first open it, then again after a couple of days. It should smell the same. If you have space, leave a little bit in a bottle/carton for a week and smell it again. That way, you'll get used to what smells fresh and what doesn't.

For your sandwich meat, you could put it in airtight tubs or a ziplock style bag to avoid it drying out.

Mojisola

trolleyrun wrote: »

Jakes-mum, you don't have to use ham within 2 days of opening, as long as it's still in date. I've got a carton of milk that's been open for a week and it's still good. I think manufacturers put these dates on to sell more stuff, to be honest.

This is not right. While a food pack is still sealed, it has a use by date and it should be fine until then.

If you open the pack, forget the use by date and follow the "after opening, use within ..." instructions. Once the food has been exposed to the air, deterioration starts which wouldn't have happened while it was still sealed.

https://www.food.gov.uk/about-us/about-the-fsa/faqsconsumer/bestbeforeuseby#.U2-8nijtpsQ
Once a food with a 'use by' date on it has been opened, you also need to follow any instructions such as 'eat within a week of opening'.
But if the 'use by' date is tomorrow, then you must use the food by the end of tomorrow, even if you only opened it today.

However, all these dates do err on the cautious side because the manufacturers know that we don't always store food properly and don't always wash our hands before handling their products so it's still worth using the 'sight and smell' tests if the food is only just past its dates.

Some very unpleasant toxins do not make the food smell, look or taste bad.:(

trolleyrun

Well, I would happily eat ham that's been open for a week as long as it's within the use by date. I have done all my life. This "use within 2 days of opening" is a fairly new phenomenon and I won't follow it when I've survived for nearly 4 decades so far.

In my eyes, this new phrase is partly about manufacturers wanting us to buy more and partly due to them being paranoid about somebody suing them for something.

Happygreen

Some meat products do go off once exposed to air. Sadly I had to chuck out an opened salami packet still in date (someone hid it under some cheese after opening...) but I used my common sense - it looked and smelled funny.