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

mmmsnow

That's funny - the number of times I've bought out of date items for full price at my local Co-op (without realising). I once got home with a half dozen eggs, cracked one into a pan and it smelled foul so I checked the date - it was a week past the Use By!

rozmister

building_with_lego wrote: »

I have heard it said that the staff may get given the oou of date stuff so maybe, just maybe, it's not going in the bin

In the supermarket I work in it does go in the bin!! If it's past it's sell by date we can't sell it, even to staff, so it's recorded & disposed of. I accidentally picked up a naan that's sell by date was the day before at work and the bakery man put out a tannoy for me so he could get it back off me!!

APennySaved

What about the safety deadline for eating defrosted foods?

I was always led to believe it was to eat defrosted foods within 1-3 days (& of course the sooner the better).

But checked online today, & e.g. the NHS website states at How to store food and leftovers - NHS.UK (https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/how-to-store-food-and-leftovers/):

"Frozen raw foods can be defrosted once and stored in the fridge for up to 24 hours before they need to be cooked or thrown away.
[...]
Cooked food that has been frozen and removed from the freezer should be reheated and eaten within 24 hours of fully defrosting."

If this mention of a "24 hours" deadline/guideline is the case, then we have some lovely salmon taken out of the freezer a few days ago that would have to be binned!

We'd rather not suffer food ills of course, than take a risk, but it would be such a shame to waste the food. So am wondering if this 24-hour citation is more a bit "health & safety PC" than factual!

Does anyone here not follow a 24-hour rule/guideline?!

suki1964

Id eat it

The NHS guidelines have to take into the equation people with compromised immune systems

if it had been refrigerated all the time it had been. out of the freezer, Id say it was safe enough ( if oc course you are all in the best of health )

Hopeless_Case

I agree, and I'd be guided more by my senses to see if it looked and smelled ok than I would by one size fits all guidelines (as you say, assuming the food was for people without compromised immune systems)

I'm actually quite cautious and I wouldn't take a chance with meat or fish if it looked or smelled odd, but I do see that as the best test

Pollycat

APennySaved wrote: »

What about the safety deadline for eating defrosted foods?

I was always led to believe it was to eat defrosted foods within 1-3 days (& of course the sooner the better).

But checked online today, & e.g. the NHS website states at How to store food and leftovers - NHS.UK (https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/how-to-store-food-and-leftovers/):

"Frozen raw foods can be defrosted once and stored in the fridge for up to 24 hours before they need to be cooked or thrown away.
[...]
Cooked food that has been frozen and removed from the freezer should be reheated and eaten within 24 hours of fully defrosting."

If this mention of a "24 hours" deadline/guideline is the case, then we have some lovely salmon taken out of the freezer a few days ago that would have to be binned!

We'd rather not suffer food ills of course, than take a risk, but it would be such a shame to waste the food. So am wondering if this 24-hour citation is more a bit "health & safety PC" than factual!

Does anyone here not follow a 24-hour rule/guideline?!

I don't follow any rules or guidelines about eating food.
I trust my nose and tongue.