Ultimate Use by/sell by challenge

tiny_courageous

Used up some lemon squash, dated Dec 2011. A jar of mayo Dec 2013. Bread sauce April 2011.

Justamum

Last week I used up two packets of Tesco gnocchi, best before date September 2012.

Evil_Olive

I just made a cheesecake with a pack of ginger biscuits - Sep 13
a pot of double cream 3rd March 14
and some lemons/limes I bought in December for Xmas

I deliberately keep my fridge at 1 or 2 degrees above freezing using a fridge thermometer - atmospheric conditions mean it fluctuates a bit and I get a spot at the bottom right that occasionally freezes but I just make sure that I don't store anything like lettuce in that spot.

I regularly eat cream kept in it that is up to 2 months out of date, milk lasts a month and a half from time of buying and those bagged ready to eat salads last a whole month if I combine this with the kitchen roll trick.

I only do a main shop once a month now - just topping up with bread and anything I run out of in between.

matty17r

Could you please tell me what is the kitchen roll trick with the bagged salad?

Linda32

tiny_courageous wrote: »

Used up some lemon squash, dated Dec 2011. A jar of mayo Dec 2013. Bread sauce April 2011.

How do you manage to keep your mayo for that long? We buy the aldi one but after about a week it smells like vinegar. I think they only thing that should smell like vinegar is vinegar

MummyBobble

With two teenagers who have lots of before/after school activities going on, plus a better social life than me, I frequently find food going past it's date.

Best before dates I generally ignore unless it looks or smells foul. Use by's I'm a tad fussier about but still work on the principle that if it looks and smells ok it will be (apart from chicken and shellfish). Love looking out for whoopsied eggs in Asd@ because the "display until" date is a week before the "use by" date, and they're usually fine for another couple of weeks after that.

As others have said tired veg usually ends up in soup. Bread with a bit of mould, just cut that bit off and if the rest isn't too hard use it as it is, if it's a bit hard toast it, if it's a little bit too hard to toast make breadcrumbs and stick them in the freezer to use as toppings for pasta bakes, mac or cauli cheese etc, or cube it, add a little oil and seasoning and cook in a low oven to make croutons (to eat as a snack or with salad or soup).

Strangely though we never seem to have any chocolate past it's date or left over wine in our house :rotfl:

tiny_courageous

Linda32 wrote: »

How do you manage to keep your mayo for that long? We buy the aldi one but after about a week it smells like vinegar. I think they only thing that should smell like vinegar is vinegar

It's the tesco value one. It lasts for ages.

wondercollie

SailorSam wrote: »

The ones i find most difficult to understand are on bottles of water .......
.....'This water is millions of years old and has been filtered by the natural rocks absorbing minerals since the start of time. ... Use by Tuesday.

It not the water that goes "off", it's the plastic it's bottled in. According to the boffins, the plastic starts to break down and can leach into the water.

[Deleted User]

Will be opening another pot of my Tesco Value natural yogurt tomorrow, bought over a month ago with a useby date of 3rd March. Natural yogurt keeps for ages in good fridge as long as it's unopened. It's just fermented milk

Linda32

tiny_courageous wrote: »

It's the tesco value one. It lasts for ages.

I see, I think I shall go back to that one then. We did used to buy that before swopping to Aldi. :money: