Do you eat food past its sell by,best before or use by date to save money?

adelight

If it smells and looks (slimy veggies no thanks) okay then I eat it. I make a point of only eating cottage cheese that's OOD by at least a month as I genuinely think it tastes better, it seems to thicken up more and some supermarkets have seriously runny and milky cottage cheese.

sonastin

If I had a compromised immune system, I might be a bit more cautious. But I'm quite happy to take my chances against a wee dose of food poisoning. If it looks and smells OK then the highest probability is that it will be OK. If it turns out that it was a bit off, there is a decent probability that the taste/texture in your mouth will give you a clue to stop eating. If the sneaky little bugs manage to get past all of my self-defence senses, it is a high probabilty that they'll make me ill but likely outcome there is that I'll be praying for death, not actually dying. I can afford to lose a couple of dress sizes and learn a valuable lesson. I can't afford to throw away perfectly good food because I was a bit disorganised in using things up fast enough.

But as I said, if I wasn't a robust, healthy, no-dependents kinda gal, I might be a bit more cautious.

morganlefay

My Dad was a doctor so if we wondered whether to eat something we'd just ask him, he'd sniff it and invariably say 'yes, that's fine'. On one occasion we had a left-over lamb joint with quite a lot of meat on it. He did the sniff test and approved it so I carved nice slices off the top and we had it with salad - delicious. Only when I came to put it back in the fridge I looked at the underneath and found that it was crawling with white maggots. Presumably a fly had sat on it (rather than all the meat going 'off') and the bit we ate was fine, and none of us ill. It does make you think. And then I understand that people in hot countries ate highly spiced foods so that they couldn't taste that the meat was off. Maybe if we keep on being so scared and wasteful we'll lose any natural immunity we might have had. My (adult) children are horrified by the amount of out of date stuff we eat, but we're still here !

LameWolf

Depends what the item is.

7 days OOD refrigerated meat stuff - no, I wouldn't give it to my DH (I don't eat meat or fish myself, at all).

Frozens - yes, but use as soon as it's been defrosted.

Tins - yes, unless on opening the tin there's something obviously wrong with the contents.

Cheese - scrape the mould and use (think how many cheeses have mould incorporated as part of the cheese- Blue Stilton, for instance).:D

Use the sniff test; I reckon it's pretty reliable.;)

Fwiw, I meal plan, make a shopping list and stick to it, and am careful to use things in rotation, so very rarely get anything going OOD.:o

sparrer

'Do you eat food past its sell by,best before or use by date to save money?'

Of course, doesn't everybody? :think:

Farway

adelight wrote: »

I make a point of only eating cottage cheese that's OOD by at least a month as I genuinely think it tastes better, it seems to thicken up more and some supermarkets have seriously runny and milky cottage cheese.

I agree, do try Lidl one though, it is just packed with cheese & no liquid [46p]

Same goes for yoghurt, thickens up on keeping

I just eat stuff regardless of dates, always amazes me on some dates.

Today I bought some Spanish Original Jamon Serrano ham from Lidl, on offer. Proudly proclaims matured for 11 months, but after 2 days of me opening it it will kill me.

Same goes for matured for 28 days beef, once I get it home after 24 hours I will be dead if I eat it?

As another poster said, where is common sense?

calisto

I remember a very amusing episode of Tonight with Jonathan Maitland on this topic. He went two weeks eating food further and further past its use by date as he went. He also raided the supermarket dustbins.

Daily Mail article on it here

miss_scrooge

I would eat the pizza if it says sell by date it's just what the shop uses when they have to get rid of it.
If it's best before I eat it after the date shown only wary about eating eggs after best before date.
If it says use by I don't use it after this date but after read a comment on this thread might eat use by after the date see what happens. Also yesterday saw something in the reduced that said use by wish I got it now just didn't get because wouldn't of been able to eat it in one day could of ate it today aswell.
Have drank milk after use by date though nothing happened but now I just feed my plant with leftover milk after use by date.

miss_scrooge

calisto wrote: »

I remember a very amusing episode of Tonight with Jonathan Maitland on this topic. He went two weeks eating food further and further past its use by date as he went. He also raided the supermarket dustbins.

Daily Mail article on it here

I remember watching it aswell will definitely eat use by now never seen this article before thank you :T my kind of article.

I_luv_cats

I normally continue to eat fruit n veg for as long as it looks ok & hasn't started sprouting legs yet!!

Meat if I believe I am going to exceed the use by date I'll freeze it to reset the date. Bread often gets frozen to extend it's life.

I hate waste so I am very savvy with food flows.