dates on things?

ostaragirl

I would love to hear opinions of what you think about food stuff past their use by dates. I'm not meaning meat or fresh thing but food that is still sealed. Things like rice, pulses, jars and tubes of sauces etc.
I've been doing an inventory and found a few things that have never been opened but have dates up to a year ago and just wondered what you guys would use or not use?

lucy_lemon

I'd eat them! I regularly find stuff like that in my cupboards, but usually they are more like 3-4 years out of date. Nothing has ever happened to me!

kittycat204

Yes I would, wouldn't cross my mind even to check the dates.

Mojisola

ostaragirl wrote: »

I would love to hear opinions of what you think about food stuff past their use by dates. I'm not meaning meat or fresh thing but food that is still sealed. Things like rice, pulses, jars and tubes of sauces etc.
I've been doing an inventory and found a few things that have never been opened but have dates up to a year ago and just wondered what you guys would use or not use?

I don't think any of these things will have a "use by" date but a "best before" date.

The "use by" dates are put on perishable foods which can present a risk if not used up quickly.

The "best before" dates are related to quality. After the date stamped on the food, there may be some deterioration in the condition but does not mean the food will be unsafe.

You may find on jars things like "After opening, keep in fridge" or "After opening, use within 7 days" or similar. Unopened jars, tins, packets, tubes or dry goods like rice will last for ages.

meritaten

for foodstuffs like that - I ignore the dates!
and I use the best before dates on fresh foods as a 'guide' to when the supermarket stocked the shelves.

BitterAndTwisted

Packaged foods usually have a "best before" date rather than a "use by" one. This means the manufacturer guarantees the product will be in optimum condition up to that date but that does not mean they become inedible after it.

Using fresh foods after a "use by" date requires a little more care and common sense

ostaragirl

That's good to hear as I've found loads of thing I probably spent a fortune on at the time for example - a whole range of sushi making things like a packet of roasted seaweed, a box of sushi rice and a tube of wasabi all unopened, also jars of pickled mushrooms unopened and chutneys of all sorts.
I really need to start meal planning.

njk2125

If it looks, smells and tastes ok it gets eaten in our house regardless of best before date.

Butterfly_Brain

I have no problem eating out of date food, we never had sell by /use by dates until 1970 when M&S started to date code food until then people just used tins and packets with no worrying about dates, but they did know not to use tins if they were blown or rusty a sign of botulism (blown) and salmonella (rusty)
Basically if it looks,smells and tastes ok it is fine

Mojisola

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

I have no problem eating out of date food, we never had sell by /use by dates until 1970 when M&S started to date code food until then people just used tins and packets with no worrying about dates, but they did know not to use tins if they were blown or rusty a sign of botulism (blown) and salmonella (rusty)

Basically if it looks,smells and tastes ok it is fine

For the most part, this is true but not always. If bad food always tasted or smelled bad, there would be very few cases of food poisoning or other illnesses caused by contaminated food.

Also, there are different strains of pathogen around now that we didn't have to contend with prior to the last couple of decades.

[Deleted User]

I too was brought up with no 'dates' on food stuff,with rationing you were only too glad to get any food at all.My Mum were she alive today would roar with laughter at the idea of dating food.Its all down to the nose if it smells ok then it probably is I am pushing 70 and I'm still around so she managed to bring up three children without the aid of dates on things