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

~Chameleon~

kazmeister wrote: »

On that one I would be careful as I nearly poisoned everyone last Christmas by using a packet pastry mix that was out of date (but not by a year). We originally thought the sausage meat was off it was rank (and my OH will eat anything) and then the jam tarts were the same so it had to be the pastry.

And deffo look out for the weevils - I threw a ciabatta bread mix out last week as when I opened it, there were loads.

Wouldn't packet pastry mix have other stuff in it too though, like maybe some sort of dried fat content? It was probably that which had gone off rather than the flour.

I will check carefully for any little moving specs in it before using though

SherbetMan

Last year I went to my folks and had pasta for tea. I put some parmasan cheese on and tucked in. The cheese tasted slightly strange - it was 12 years out of date URGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

kazmeister

SherbetMan wrote: »

Last year I went to my folks and had pasta for tea. I put some parmasan cheese on and tucked in. The cheese tasted slightly strange - it was 12 years out of date URGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

That is soooo funny :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

LandyAndy

kimevans wrote: »

I throw out everything as it reaches its use by date & would not eat it after or feed it to anyone.
My DH thinks this is an awful waste.
Last week I was trying to chuck a fresh (ie not frozen) pizza that was use by the day before in the bin & he was practically wrestling with me so he could cook it & eat it. I won. It went in the bin.

Your DH is right.

muz

kimevans wrote: »

I throw out everything as it reaches its use by date & would not eat it after or feed it to anyone.
My DH thinks this is an awful waste.
Last week I was trying to chuck a fresh (ie not frozen) pizza that was use by the day before in the bin & he was practically wrestling with me so he could cook it & eat it. I won. It went in the bin.

I'm sorry Kim, but that is a terrible waste of food, especially when there is someone there willing to eat it!!
At the very least, you could have fed it to the birds!

juliapenguin

I think the supermarkets always err on the side of caution with use by dates. As long as I've got something in the fridge quickly after buying it, I would have no hesitation about eating things after their date, as long as they smelt right. As someone else said above, there never used to be sell-by dates and people managed then using good judgement and common sense.

My DH used to look at perfectly good apples in a packet and say 'Oh, these should have been used by last week - I'll put them in the compost bin'. Not any more.... He wouldn't dare!

I have been known to rescue the odd item from my rich friends as it's headed for the bin (although I think I would always claim it was for the cat/birds!!!!)

The other thing is to cook things especially well if they're a day or two out of date, don't you agree?

Farway

Generally I ignore use by dates, go by sniff & taste

I find yogurt & cottage cheese improves past it's date, gets thicker & creamier, makes sense when you realise they are both products produced by maturation

I did see some time back a jokey list of "you know when things are off", there it said yogurt becomes cottage cheese, then cheddar, then stilton sort of thing;)

LumpyCustard_2

kazmeister wrote: »

I'm with you, although I am wondering about the unopend pack of smoked salmon dated 26 June. OH mind you, will eat anything unless its actually bubbling or trying to find its way out of the fridge.

I would eat that - it's preserved! - as long as it looks and smells ok.

A couple of weeks ago, I opened packet of smoked salmon that had been at the bottom of my fridge for a *year* (seriously). The texture had changed a bit, but it didn't look/smell particularly off. In the end I did chuck it, but tried it first, without any ill-effects. 3 weeks over shouldn't be a problem, but do the smell/taste test first.

stustu92

I can't believe what i'm reading on this forum.

Heres a question for you...

...Do chickens have red ink printers attached to their undercarriages to (everso handily) print use by date on eggs?

From time to time i have a discussion with the missus about food preservation. I can't stand it when she says 'the marmalade is out of date, i'll bin it'. I'm like 'its oranges preserved with sugar - it'll be ok to eat for years'.

I wonder which year it was when common sense was thrown out the window?

I don't throw a thing out unless i can see it is bad or smell it is bad.

Surely if common sense was used everyone would use their senses to determine whether food wasn't fit to eat.

The use by date on food is 'at best' an indication of when the producer expects the food to last until. These dates are always on the super cautious side - supermarkets are in constant fear of the 'compensation culture' of society, this is why the dates are on the cautious side.


I dare say most of our great grandmothers and grandmothers would scoff at the use by dates printed onto shrinkwrap cabbage in tesco and i'm quite certain that if they saw a bit of mould on the cheese they would just cut it off and carry on making butties with it.

zfrl

Remember Best before & Use by are different.
Best before is vague means it is OK afterwards. Use by - usually on fresh meat etc should be observed - or cook it to death to kill anything that may be living!