Food safety

dasophster

I ignore best before dates but I do find chocolate and fizzy drinks taste absolutely awful when out of date (or even a couple of months before the date), tins I am a bit wary of as I heard years ago that eventually the food inside starts to eat at the tin, causing chemicals to leach into the food and possibly the airtight seal to be broken introducing bacteria and I have had a couple of experiences of opening what I thought to be a sealed, safe tin of food only to find it mouldy or clearly off inside.

Powdered spices I use years past the best before date; worst thing that happens is they lose their potency and you need to use more of them, or the natural oils in the spices make the powder go a bit clumpy. Similar goes for flour; I have made bread with wholemeal flour 18 months out of date before now. I do feel some BB dates are made to account for inappropriate storage in warm heated kitchens; but I never have the heating on in my current kitchen, have the windows open all year round, and store flour and other dried foods once opened usually in an airtight container. Dried beans and pulses, again they don't go off but they will just become more and more dried up and take longer and longer to cook. Rice-this doesn't go off at all if stored properly. Pasta-this can be used some time after the BB date but it may not cook evenly and may have white hard bits in if you leave it too long so probably not the best pasta to use for your dinner party or date eh?

Fruit and veg, the BB/use by dates on them are a joke and its shocking many people in this day and age will throw away perfectly good produce just because its 'out of date', butternut squash and pumpkin are fine for at least two months out of date, onions can last for eons, and the same with potatoes if stored in the fridge. People say don't store potatoes in the fridge but the worst thing that happens is they turn into a more 'waxy' variety of potato than they were so may need to be used for different things than that variety usually entails. I find Maris pipers stay in their original state the best. Courgettes, these are fine until they develop black spots and aubergines can be used until they are well old and wrinkly-you may need to put them in a colander, sprinkle with salt and then rinse after 30 minutes as they do go progressively bitter with age.

Eggs and dairy products; again I use my common sense with these. I have had eggs two weeks 'out of date' yet when cracked the white around the yolk is still very thick (this indicates freshness), the yolk is still firm and not easily broken and they still smell fresh. Yoghurt-this doesn't actually go off but just goes progressively more sour and curdled so it is not pleasant to eat. Still, have used yoghurt over a week out of date in cooking. Ditto for buttermilk. Milk; you have to be very careful with it but again if it looks and smells fresh it is probably fine. Cheese, unless it has gone mouldy or dramatically changed in texture its probably still ok. Butter and margarine-worst thing that happens to these is the oil seperates out from the solids and they discolour but aside from that they don't really go off for a very long while after the date.

Biggles

A useful site for realistic usage dates: http://www.stilltasty.com/

valk_scot

You don't need to keep most fruits in the fridge. Think of how the supermarkets display it...do you ever see apples in the chill cabinet? Soft fruits such as raspberries and currents do keep better in the fridge, but you need to let them come up to room temperature before eating them to get maximum flavour and juciness. And bananas go black in the fridge.

Veg? Root veg and onions should be stored in a cool, dry, dark place rather than the fridge.

Apart from that I agree with fish/shellfish 24 hours max, cooked dishes like stew, soup, pie, lasagne 3 days, cooked roast meat 5 days, raw meat 3 days, offal 24 hours, bacon 5 days.. Rice or anything containing rice? There's a whole set of rules just for rice but basically if you cool it under running water as soon as it's cooked then refrigerate immediately it will be fine for no longer than 24 hours.

Baglady_2

I usually try and apply common sense to the best-before / use-by question too. But I've just found a large pot of 250 Vitamin C tablets lurking on a shelf in the larder. I couldn't believe the best before date of 2008, and wonder where the h*ll I've been all this time to miss them. They cost a fair bit too so I'm loath to chuck them. I just can't think straight at the moment and wonder if they are still likely to be ok to take?

rinabean

The two things you won't be able to see or smell easily (I'm assuming there's not similar things for animal products, which I don't eat) are:

Bacillus cereus in rice which has cooled slowly - not particularly rare but not really that common, will make you ill in the manner of typical food poisoning but very unlikely to kill or do lasting damage - heating will not kill the spores, unlike other types of food poisoning.

Clostridium botulinum in things stored in oil (and, more rarely, home-preserved jars of veg which hasn't been made salty/sour/sweet enough, but most people don't preserve vegetables this way any more). This one is deadly, it's botulism. Don't eat any oil-preserved things past their date, and don't ever oil-preserve things yourself unless you know precisely what you are doing. You can get it simply from inhaling the spores when you open the infected jar. Don't risk it!

If they don't fit these criteria, there's not something obviously wrong with it and none of you are particularly susceptible to food poisoning for whatever reason, then it's generally safe to eat.

Penelope_Penguin

Miss_Ratty wrote: »

Are these still safe to use? x

picklednut wrote: »

I want to stop wasting food but don't want to poison any of my family in the process so any help would be very much appreciated!

You've got good advice here

As both these threads have fallen from the front poage of OS, I'll add these to the existing thread to give you mpore ideas.

dasophster

valk_scot wrote: »

You don't need to keep most fruits in the fridge. Think of how the supermarkets display it...do you ever see apples in the chill cabinet? Soft fruits such as raspberries and currents do keep better in the fridge, but you need to let them come up to room temperature before eating them to get maximum flavour and juciness. And bananas go black in the fridge.

Veg? Root veg and onions should be stored in a cool, dry, dark place rather than the fridge.

So says conventional wisdom but I keep almost all fruits-except bananas although I read you can get a special bag to prevent them going black-in the fridge as well as root vegetables and it doesn't affect them negatively and they last a lot longer. Onions have the plus if they are kept in the fridge of not making you cry too. If I store potatoes and onions in a cool dark place they start sprouting in 1-2 days or in the case of the potatoes go soft and rubbery, ditto for carrots etc. As I mentioned the worst thing that happens to potatoes if kept in the fridge is they may go more waxy meaning they need to be used for stews etc as opposed to for wedges or baked potatoes, but I have kept Maris pipers for a month in the fridge before and they were exactly the same as the day of purchase. I have read on some sites that if kept in the fridge potatoes will taste a bit sweeter and may darken during cooking; and that is the only reason that can be given for not storing them in the fridge-as its not a harmful effect I don't see why? Carrots worst thing that happens is they lose their sweetness and eventually taste a bit bitter when raw. It is really cold in my kitchen, bottled water and drinks kept in our cupboards taste like they have been in the fridge, and it is also dry but stuff still doesn't last long. I have tried the linen cupboard also (which doesn't have any heat inside it, the hot water tanks are in a different cupboard), same problem. The only exception would be hard skinned squashes, these keep better in a dark cupboard and will keep nicely for up to two months in there xx

Scorpio_girlie

Hi

Can anybody help me please?

I have some quorn mince in the fridge dated 16 Feb - do you think it will still be ok to use or freeze for use another day?

Thanks

SG
x

helvelyn

Been clearing out a kitchen cupboard - long overdue as have found 2 boxes of the above with a best before date of 29/06/2009 :eek: Does anyone know if they would be OK to use?

The instructions say to melt by immersing unopened sachet in hot water then add to recipe. The contents look creamy pale yellow colour not white but have never used this before so that may be the correct colour. I've just tried melting one and it softens OK.

Any advise - wouldn't want to poison family but hate waste (especially when it's my fault and I have to feel guilty )

Slinky_Malinky

...and lived to tell the tale?

I have two trays of skinless boneless chicken breasts in my fridge from Aldi. Both have use by date of 7 March so I thought I would cook them up and freeze them. One of the trays of chicken looks perfect but the other is covered in a thin layer of sticky slime. No bad smell that I can detect. Googling suggest that some folks would throw out the whole lot, but others would give it a good wash in vinegar/salt/baking soda then rinse and cook.

Common sense tells me to bin the whole lot, but I am mortified at throwing away £12 worth of chicken. I am tempted to cook the ones that look fine and bin the slimy ones, but if anyone can tell me that they have done the washing and cooking thing then I will give it a go. I am really peeved that they are not even out of date :mad:

ETA - if I do cook them, thinking of pressure cooking them to kill any bacteria.