Is it safe to eat food past it's use by?

LolitaLove

I recently bought two M&S meals then forgot I'd bought them. There is one roasted butternut squash spiced pulses and feta use by 16/08 and one smoked mackerel new potatoes and beetroot use by 18/08. I know the butternut squash one is a while out of date but can butternut squash feta and pulses really go out of date that quickly? I have feta in the fridge for weeks.

The mackerel one...will that be safe to eat? I'll be gutted to throw them away it'll be like chucking money in the bin!

Also I have a new covent garden lentil and veg soup I opened last Thurs and used half then refrigerated. It says on the carton to only keep for 24 hours. Will that be safe to eat?Thanks for any replies x

System

If it says use by then i would probably bin it, best before wouldnt be a problem

theGrinch

depends what the food is. sight and smell are more important than dates and that goes for whenever you eat food.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

just open them and sniff, if they smell 'off'', bin them, the soup should be fine as long as it's not 'bubbling'.

keystone

Use By and Best Before dates are for the protection of the supplier. If these are only a couple of days over then you'll almost certainly be fine if they pass the sight and smell tests.

Cheers

HeadAboveWater

Even if it was a 'use by' date rather than 'best before', I would still go by the smell/sight/taste test of the product.

And I'm still alive

SG27

I eat anything that's a few days out of date and smells/looks ok.

lkmc01

Cooked meats we eat about 4 days out of date, bread often about 5 days out of date - just pick mound off. Dairy and raw meats are smell and look test. Some of our frozen food was frozen in about 2011!!! Cans - not sure not really had any go out of date. We buy food after its best before date from a local clearance shop

jellie

I'd go by sight and smell too, but would be a bit more wary of the mackerel although the smoking should have preserved it to some extent.

I've eaten yoghurt that's a week out of date before and cut green bits off cheese, both without any after effects.

DavidJonas

You will probably be okay. But consider what probably means.

If you are in poor health, old, etc then probably is almost certainly not worth taking a risk.

While rotten food smells bad, pathogenic bacteria do not. A food item can smell just fine and not in fact be rotten but it can still be crawling with enough bacteria to make you ill.

It's not just about age, it's also about handling and storage. Has the food been opened? Handled? Left in a hot car? Left on a dirty surface and bunged back in the fridge? In your case the answer is probably no.

But fish has a strong smell of its own and this can overpower other odours.

There is an element of safety though. A retailer can hardly afford to date its produce on a knife edge. This also applies to cooking instructions, which are basically nonsense on supermarket meat & poultry. The instructions are designed to safeguard the retailer, not to make the food taste good !

cyclonebri1

Cook it, nuke it etc, even if it is off it won't kill you.

Given the money saving aspect, I buy freezable produce from any one of the 5 nearby supermarkets that is in the whooooops cabinet.

Do you think they would risk litigation by selling produce that is health harmful????

There have been several documentaries on TV recently, the warning is really that the product is at it's best before or at it's sell by date.

Me. I can't smell or taste well, works for me.

And, a parting shot, if you ever saw what went into asda and tesco's skips, you would question the value of food.