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

falady

Hi everyone,

I do the following.....

Eat eggs and yogurt out of date.
Cut mould off cheese and eat the rest.
Eat leftovers and reheat rice.
Eat fruit and vegetables well out of date.
Eat raw cake mix (not so much now that i am pregnant, because I'm REALLY not supposed to eat raw egg while pregnant, but i still do have a little lick occasionally!!)
I keep jam and ketchup in the fridge, but my mum doesn't and has never had any ill effects.
I spoon the mould off the top of a jar of pesto and use the rest (now I have discovered that a layer of oil on the top of the exposed pesto keeps it fresh).
I rarely label stuff in the freezer. Things have been in there for a year or more. Though i am getting better at writing on what the contents are, even if I don't date it. Hubby got fed up of brown or red surprise for dinner!


BUT....

I always reheat food until is is past piping hot - it get blasted!
I put leftover food in the fridge ASAP.
Keep food on the worktops covered (partly becuase we have cats and a dog and they'd have it!)
We have a huge fridge, and there's only 2 of us (with another one on the way!), so we have a shelf for 'things that need using up' (with the aim of it being fairly empty). I have trained hubby to look on this shelf first when he's planning lunch etc.

Ali xx

smileyt_2

I knew about the rice, so always put it in the fridge asap after it's cooled, and reheat thoroughly.

I would never eat mouldy jam - mould can produce toxins that can spread, and there may be spores in the jam too. But then I don't really like jam so it's not much of a problem.

I can't eat stuff that's dropped on the floor though - I have two dogs and they lick the floor, plus stuff would be covered in dog hair. And my two chickens came in for a wander round the kitchen this afternoon ....

Oh dear ... I did microbiology at university so I think that has ruined me. I do eat food past its sell-by date though - my nose is a finely-tuned instrument lol!

tbourner

"Sell By Date" and "Display Until" should be ignored, they are for shop usage only.
"Best Before" is a guide, anything with that is safe after that date but may taste a bit wrong (stale or sour etc. - not as it should taste)
"Use By" is the one to watch, depends on the food but generally don't go more than a day or 2 after that date.

kutsu119

Medium rare pork is fine, and 99% of the time, much tastier than traditional well-done. Even just a hint of pink keeps in more moisture.

Wee_Jo

kutsu119 wrote: »

Medium rare pork is fine, and 99% of the time, much tastier than traditional well-done. Even just a hint of pink keeps in more moisture.

Oh, thanks Kutsu - I didn't know that. I got some pork loins the other week (on offer in Sain$burys) and cooked them for a GOOD while to make sure, but now I know that maybe the next time I will do them for a bit less so they will be less dry.

kutsu119

The issue used to relate to trichinosis, which is a parasite found in pork. Careful breeding and modern farming practices have effectively removed any threat from this nowadays.

Hopefully, the mishandling of chicken carcasses could stop one day and then the threat of salmonella would go. Raw chicken shashimi is a Japanese delicacy only possible because of how they treat the animals when killed.

2009ismyyear

I too like this thread and am a 70s child!

Cheese - yup definitley chop of the mouldy bits and eat the rest unless it tastes funny.

Jams and sauces etc - rarely kept in fridge

Use by dates - are there to give me a guide but my nose tells me the rest generally. Used a tin of creamed sweetcorn yesteray - use by date 2001 (yes 9 YEARS ago) it was fine!!

:j

inkie

Yesterday I had planned to do a chicken Tikka masala for tea which went out of date 4 days earlier. When I Checked the pack it has slight spots of mould just coming through on the surface. I scraped it off and cooked it thoroughly. Nobody has had any ill effects.

angeltreats

If it doesn't smell off and doesn't have mould, it gets eaten/used. I will happily bake with eggs that are a month past their dates (although I wouldn't use them for something like a fried or boiled egg) - if they were off I'd know as soon as I cracked them because a gone off egg is truly disgusting. Nor do I keep my eggs in the fridge. I eat raw cake mix frequently and think it often tastes better than the finished product. I use up yoghurt, milk and cream that's on the turn by making soda bread or muffins. I keep my jam, chutney, bottled sauces etc in the cupboard and not the fridge. I don't fret constantly about germs - I'm not dirty by any means but a bit of flour on a worktop might just get brushed off instead of being washed, and I certainly wouldn't have bleach in my kitchen that might contaminate the food. I defrost meat on the kitchen worktop instead of in the fridge, which takes far too long. None of these things have killed me or anyone else I've ever cooked for.

However, in the past I worked as a chef and I'm now doing it again after a long time sat behind a desk, and there are some things I learned to do at work that I've always carried over to my kitchen at home. Leftovers etc are kept in the fridge, always covered in cling film. Raw meat is always, always kept at the bottom of the fridge. I'm very careful about how many times I reheat things. I wash most of my meat and fish and especially chicken thoroughly, and I often probe to check temperature instead of just thinking yes, that looks cooked. I wash my hands, knives and boards in hot soapy water any time they've been near raw meat or fish. But I don't think any of that is obsessive

Wee_Jo

kutsu119 wrote: »

The issue used to relate to trichinosis, which is a parasite found in pork. Careful breeding and modern farming practices have effectively removed any threat from this nowadays.

Hopefully, the mishandling of chicken carcasses could stop one day and then the threat of salmonella would go. Raw chicken shashimi is a Japanese delicacy only possible because of how they treat the animals when killed.

More fab facts - thank you! I didn't know about raw chicken being a Japanese delicacy - I have sampled salmon and tuna sashimi before but I didn't know about other types of meat...have you tried chicken sashimi, kutsu? Is it a very different taste?