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

louisajonas

stressedoutmumof1 wrote: »

A friend once told me that farmer's only get paid for their meat (ie chicken) once it is sold at the till. If it hasn't sold by it's use by date it then gets taken off the shelves and out of it's packaging and taken to auction - where the likes of say Birds Eye buy it for their frozen pies and curries etc. After that (2 - 3 days later) all the rest that hasn't sold goes to another auction where Chinese and Indian restaurants but the meat for their kitchens. So I would say where meat is concerned if it smells okay then use it.

Is this true?! Can anyone verify - I am quite shocked by this!

redglass_2

charlies-aunt wrote: »

A trip down memory lane . . . .

I'm a child of the 50's - we had a pantry with a perforated zinc window and a 'cold' shelf, milk and butter was kept fresh through summer by being stood in a bucket of water with a wet teatowel draped across it... I think that part of the problem is that the food manufacturers use second rate food stuffs, heavily enhanced with chemicals to extend its shelf life and held in cold store for a long time before it ever hits the supermarket shelf

It's lovely to hear about all these methods and I think 'second rate food stuffs' is spot on. When you preserve your own produce you choose the best for keeping and you also check from time to time and make sure it's still sound. Nowadays we expect to just fling it in the fridge and do nothing else, and manufacturers allow for that. What most people on this thread are saying is that if you're vigilant, you needn't be a slave to Best Before and Use By. But only if you're vigilant.

The rumour that Chinese and Indian restaurants take the food that's been rejected elsewhere sounds to me like an urban myth reflecting some people's suspicion of foreign food. I'm more worried by the possibility that food lasting much longer than it's meant to might mean that the food was irradiated. There's no way of knowing if this has been done. Is there anybody on the thread who can tell us?

One tip I've found useful in the past is to avoid buying packs that are bloated. If the top of a yoghurt pot is slightly convex or the plastic across your tray of fish or meat seems pumped full of air, the contents are going off.

leathersofa

"
Originally Posted by stressedoutmumof1
A friend once told me that farmer's only get paid for their meat (ie chicken) once it is sold at the till. If it hasn't sold by it's use by date it then gets taken off the shelves and out of it's packaging and taken to auction - where the likes of say Birds Eye buy it for their frozen pies and curries etc. After that (2 - 3 days later) all the rest that hasn't sold goes to another auction where Chinese and Indian restaurants but the meat for their kitchens. So I would say where meat is concerned if it smells okay then use it."

This is absolute racist twaddle. The rules about hygiene and food safety are the same for any restaurant, British, Chinese Indian or from Outer Mongolia, and there are regular unannounced inspections, with the results published gleefully in the local paper in our area at any rate. No business would risk it because they wouldn't be in business long. I am astonished that anyone would believe this sort of thing in this day and age.

TaraD_2

I tend to assume sell-by dates are to exempt the retailer from law suits taken out by litigious customers.
I go through phases of liking certain foods and then going off them so often have foodstuffs beyond their sell-by dates. Generally, if it tastes okay, I'll eat it, if it doesn't taste okay, I throw it away! Simples!
Had a large pot of yoghurt which had a sell by date of 28 June 2007. Ate it last month, May 2010 and it was perfectly fine. No bad effects at all.
Also, I freeze beyond the recommended date and have eaten pork several years out of date, again with no ill effects.
I think that if you are sensible and don't eat smelly, mouldy, grotty-looking food, you will be fine.

tbourner

That's a whole other world as well - freezing! Some packs say only freeze for 2 months, I thought the point of freezing was so you could keep stuff for ever? We've frozen things for a couple of years, finally found them when we get around to doing a defrost and have them for dinner.

chrissie55

We don't eat meat, so no worries about that; I'll reheat rice once (to a high temperature) if it's been kept cool; I'll spoon the mould off jam; if bread is mouldy, it has to go. We don't use any 'disinfectant wipes', etc., as Star Drops, bicarbonate of soda, & vinegar see off most microbes, & I've never got ill from my own kitchen, or even from one where I stay with lower standards of hygiene, but I've got ill after eating at an expensive restaurant.:cool:

bubbles0169

charlies-aunt wrote: »

A trip down memory lane . . . .

I'm a child of the 50's - we had a pantry with a perforated zinc window and a 'cold' shelf, milk and butter was kept fresh through summer by being stood in a bucket of water with a wet teatowel draped across it. Didn't eat much meat except the odd gift of game (pigeons, partridges, pheasants, rabbits and hares) fresh from the gamekeeper and cooked & scoffed within 24 hours and all our potatoes, veg and fruit came out the garden - apples carefully wrapped in newspaper and laid between the rafters in the loft to last through the winter, Mum bottled pears, plums, damsons, tomatoes etc, salted beans into big earthernware crocks, a glut of our hens eggs were put into a bucket of isinglass (which preserved them for months and months), carrots were kept through the winter layered in buckets of sand, herbs were cut and hung to dry in the shed, potatoes were kept in a straw and earth 'pie' in the garden and Mum (like every other housewife down our little lane) prided herself on a store of homemade chutneys, jam and pickles as well as vast fruitcakes, parkin and plum bread kept for months in old Quality Street tins to 'mature', Dad did his bit making homemade ginger beer, wine and cordials.

Everything that was prepared and preserved through summer and autumn for the winter months lasted into spring/summer of the following year and I can't honestly remember anyone having upset stomachs through eating "out-of-date" food

Our kitchen was very simple by todays standards and washing soda, washing powder, a tin of Vim and a bottle of Dettol were Mum's defences against 'bacteria', 'germs' and the other invisible cooties.... which modern detergent manufacturers insist we need anti-bacterial sprays and the like to wage war against. :rotfl:

I think that part of the problem is that the food manufacturers use second rate food stuffs, heavily enhanced with chemicals to extend its shelf life and held in cold store for a long time before it ever hits the supermarket shelf

sounds amazing can i live at your mums pleease! i had the pleasure of a little of my childhood in the 80's at my nan and grandads house like this they used to grow everything, had chickens and got milk,bread and pop delivered
i know i could do all this but it takes alot of hard work what with me working aswel i just havnt got the time(or disipline!)
im getting really fed up with myself for convenience cooking though
where i work its VERY easy to pick already prepared food not ready meals per se just things that dont need much doing to it like tonight ive got bbq chicken legs
i could have gone butchers and got proper chicken then gone got some toms and stuff to make the sauce but its all on the chicken already
and my new years resolution was to start cooking again *roll eyes*

i never stick to sell by dates for throwing away food, if ive bought a reduced product i put it in the freezer even meat, then defrost and use as fresh(on the same day)
herbs get frozen too and bread lives in the fridge to prolong its life
any dry goods i get last years if theyr allowed to sit there that long with out being eaten!

Apollonia

Today for lunch I had grilled halloumi cheese with salad on pita bread.

The halloumi had a 'best before' date of 3 Feb 2010 but it looked, smelled and tasted just as good as if I had bought it yesterday.

I'm with all those who say ignore the dates and trust your senses. If you think an item smells, looks and tastes ok, don't throw it out.

tbourner

What about a Turkey that was cooked at Christmas, sliced and frozen on Boxing Day, defrosted about a month later, left in the fridge for a day, refrozen for another week, defrosted again and eaten cold in a sandwhich?

It tasted nice!

[Deleted User]

I have no problem about re-heated rice because its the one thing that I just have never been able to cook properly .I use if I have to boil in the bag stuff I just cannot cook boiled rice no matter what and I have been cooking for well over 50 years I can cook a rice pud in the oven no probs but boiled rice is just a no-no. for me