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

Angelraesunshine

Its law that things have bb dates on but they never used to be dates on things so most things i will use as and when, if it looks and smells fine it gets eaten , if it gone soggy it goes, if it gone hard it goes otherwise it gets eaten up. I eat things that been in the freezer for over a year when they say only 3 months, eat popudoms last night 2 month out of date.

annaangeluk_2

Agapanthus wrote: »

I never even look at the dates on eggs. I do what my mother (and my domestic science teacher) taught me: to break each egg individually into a small bowl and smell it before adding it to the recipe. If it smells bad then chuck it and go on to the next one. That advice dates from the days when eggs were collected from the hen house at the bottom of the garden and sometimes one got missed for days or even weeks.

Remember, it wasn't the hens that put the dates on, but some human - and what does he / she know about it?

I have found that eggs that are several weeks old make better meringues than fresh ones. (And I never, ever, keep them in the fridge. That makes sponge cakes sink!)

I admit I'm obsessive about dates! My best friend will buy cheese that has been reduced in the supermarket because it's on the use buy date, then put it in the fridge and ignore it for at least a couple of months! When it starts trying to open the fridge door from the inside and run off then she knows it's ready to eat! It's vile to be around - it usually smells like farts!! :rotfl:

As for the egg thing, are they not supposed to be stored in the fridge? Will they keep okay at room temp? Although I do remember my nan having one of those brown china chicken things to put her eggs in!!

Stacey

AndysDad

I agree as they are not stored in the fridge at the supermarket and I have always wondered why fridges have egg compartments. We rarely ever throw any food in the bin,always try it on the birds first.Also with fortnightly bin collections the less food in the bin the better!

Farway

Stacey, I'm with your friend

Just how do people think cheese is made? Do they think Mature Cheddar for instance just pops out of a factory having been liquid milk the day before?

And as for binning fruit & veg on use by date, must have more money than sense IMO, the apples on my tree, my onions and lettuce in the garden have no dates on them, nor do my daughters ducks conveniently write a date on their eggs

The more I read some of the things people bin on use by date the happier I am to have shares in Morrison's, must get some Tesco ones as well by the looks of it :rotfl:

Errata

Unless something is galloping around the kitchen under its own steam - I eat it.

Churchmouse

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

In Pink's absence - take a look here.

HTH, Penny. x

Thanks for that Penny:D It's a different site to Pink's one, very interesting.

CMx

milkydrink

muz wrote: »

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!

I did think about that, but I haven't got a bird table & I wouldn't want to encourage rats or mice.
I am thinking about getting a bird table, but I have a cat & their are a lot of cats local. I wouldn't want to encourage them in to feed, to get attacked by cats.

heavenleigh

kimevans wrote: »

I did think about that, but I haven't got a bird table & I wouldn't want to encourage rats or mice.
I am thinking about getting a bird table, but I have a cat & their are a lot of cats local. I wouldn't want to encourage them in to feed, to get attacked by cats.

But in true money saving style at least you would save on cat food!!

Sorry couldn't resist:rolleyes:

As this is only my first week of money saving i am thinking of starting a list of all the things i do throw out, my last weekly shop did consist of alot of processed foods and i think there will probably be some waste considering my freezer is jam packed to the rafters.
Hopefully even if this week is quite bad by next week and the weeks to follow i should see a substantial improvement.
Thanks to this board, I have already in two days made homemade chicken soup (29 years and my first time boiling a carcas), hobnobs (delicious) and banana muffins to use up brown bananas.
Thank you to all on the board who took the time to give tips and recipe ideas.
Fingers crossed i can keep it up.
I have always been quite good at short term changes (throwing myself completely into things) but the problems arise 2 weeks down the line.

Leigh xx

vixtress

stustu92 wrote: »

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.

couldnt agree more!!!
i cant believe that people throw things away that look/smell fine!! i have never, ever looked at the date on an egg (although they do taste better fresh) the only things i would be a bit more careful with are fish and meat. even then i go by smell and sight!
the thought of bread mould makes me sick though, the slightest hint and the bread goes to the birds

stustu92

If the bread only has spots of mould and its not completely stale - the mould just gets picked off!

Its only penicillin anyway.

I do have my own limit though - I'll not eat an orange if the mould on it starts to look like Don King's hair do -> http://www.mees.eu/files/images/donking.jpg