Do you follow Use by and Sell by Dates, and other food safety issues

jess444_2

Hi,
Thanks for all your suggestions. Decided to risk it and am still alive to tell the tale.
OH made a Mexican dish (sorry cant remeber the name) Mixed the cream with tomatoes, cooked chicken and Jallopenos and put it in tortilla wraps. Placed in a dish and covered with a bit more cream/tomatoe mix, then sprinkled with cheese. Baked in the oven untill cheese melted. It was really nice and would recommend it.

Agutka

Rikki wrote: »

I always employ the sniff test before I throw anything away.

It is wise not to be too enthusiastic about this though don't you think? Taking a good sniff of gone off food (meat!) isn't an experience I want to repeat very often.

HappyIdiotTalk

Bought some 100% cacao (Chocolate Bonnat) for the missus about 5 years ago. Having watched the Willy Wonky thing on the telly I thought I'd try some in hot water for a hot chocolate drink. However having got it out, it says best before September 2004... It smells ok and looks ok and the pinch I put in my mouth tasted ok. What do you think, is it still edible? I'm game, but thought I'd check first.

CRANKY40

It only says best before, not "it'll poison you after", so I'd give it a try. I don't even look at the dates of anything powdered in my cupboards - way too scary:D

Basically, if it's powder, and you can still get it out with a spoon rather than a hammer and chisel then it's probably ok.

HappyIdiotTalk

It is most definately still spoonable! Right here goes, if I'm not back to report how it went later, it didn't go well!

HappyIdiotTalk

Eeck! I'm still here, but its not the best tasting hot chocolate I've ever tasted. A bit flat and dusty, and not very chocolatey tasting. Think I'll tip this and bin the rest. Oh well.

Stephen_Leak

Aargh!

I've got a chocolate dessert recipe that would have used that up a treat and which, made with 100% "proof" chocolate, would have had "the missus" (if she's a chocoholic) bouncing off the walls!

PrinceGaz

I read this main site section about supermarket shopping where it differentiated between Display Until, Sell By, and Use By dates.

Whilst they do all have distinct meanings, the recommendation of "Use by. ‘Use by’ means just that. Perishable food such as milk, fish and eggs that go off quickly, should be thrown out after this date." is totally wrong.

Whilst those goods do go off quickly, the use by date is determined based on them being placed in a home refrigerator at the maximum recommended home refrigerator temperature, typically 5C. That means they are safe to keep at that average temperature from when you bought them until the Use By date shown. But in a typical supermarket, the food is maintained at a much lower temperature, usually less than 3C, and that makes a big difference to the shelf-life of it as every degree lower significantly extends it. Even a single degree can add a day or two.

You can buy products on their final Use By date at a massive discount (often 75% in my local Somerfield after 9pm or so) and they will be perfectly safe (better than someone taking them home when first displayed and putting them in a fridge at 5C) for another two or three days at least after the Use By date, if your fridge is also maintained around 1-2C. Use a fridge thermometer or equivalent (I have a digi-thermometer probe hanging through the top of the door to half way down), and you can totally safely keep and eat chilled products a day or two past their Use By date. Infact, there is much more risk with people eating products from fridges at 5C or higher (many many are) within the Use By date, than by those of us with fridges running just above freezing a few days after the Use By date.

The additional energy cost of running a fridge at 1C average instead of 5C average is negligible, provided the fridge has decent insulation (if it doesn't, you need a new fridge). Provided you know your fridge is cool enough, Use By dates should be treated as guidelines to how long to keep them, not throw-out dates like the website suggests. If its a product with a shelf-life in the supermarket of a week, you can add about three days to that if it has been kept in the supermarket fridge, and then in your fridge at 1-2C.

Disclaimer: following the above advice is at your own risk. Whilst it is scientifically-sound, if you die from food-poisoning as a result of it, I am not liable.

Olliebeak

What worries me sometimes is that, often when shopping I find things on shelves - put there by shoppers who have changed their minds - that should have been put back into a fridge (or even a freezer sometimes).

Now, obviously because those items have not been stored at the correct temperature, they should surely be thrown out by the Supermarket. That is something that we can never actually be certain of. They may get put back into the chilled cabinet/freezer that they came from or put onto a whoopsie shelf - just another of life's uncertainties.

scrimperjan

I bought half a dozen lovely free range eggs on Wednesday - just found them now, on the back seat of my car. As it's been warm(ish) for the last couple of days, I guess I'll have to bin them. I'm so annoyed with myself! :mad: