Would you eat out-of-date food/drink?

Becles

I used to work in a food microbiology lab, so I'm probably a bit paranoid! Most fresh things I would throw a day or two after sell by date, as I know how quick bugs can multiply.

Things like pate or soft cheeses which are known to contain listeria etc, I would eat sooner rather than later and wouldn't eat past the sell by date. Seafood and chicken again if it smells iffy I would throw it.

Usually we manage to eat things well before the date though, as I only buy a few days shopping at a time.

Take care with out of date packets of dried foods. You can get various little mites that live in them. They look like tiny little beetles and sometimes can be difficult to spot.

I once had a bag of flour that had been put on the wrong shelf and pushed behind some huge serving plates I rarely use. When I found that, it was well out of date and crawling with mites. I was so ashamed!

buses7675

Hi All,

I think some things though are safe for a good while after the dates such as soft drinks (still sealed in bottle, never opened), and sweets/chocolate etc.

I think with fresh food you need to be a lot more careful, but as said earlier, if you use common sense, you should be fine!

Cheers

Steve

Nile

Before the demise of Safeway supermarkets, we regularly used to eat out of date penguin biscuits and Walkers crisps..........bought lots when they were offer.


I cut the mould off cheese (a nice piece of Wensleydale, Grommit:D ) and don't bother to store opened Heinz salad cream in the fridge.......and don't get a jippy tummy.;)


If you follow sensible hygiene rules (always wash your hands before preparing/eating food) and avoid eating anything that looks or smells off you should be fine.

idiot_3

a lot of people have such sensitive stomachs because we are far too careful now. you can build up a certain resistance to some bacteria, so slightly out of date food is not so bad.

seafood i would not eat anyway! horrible! :eek:
dairy type stuff i would use my loaf to see if it has really gone that bad. same with meat.
fruit and veg is obv.

on a side note i bought some cans of stella once for 25p each as they were about 9 months out of date. tasted funny and made me hallucinate after 3! chaepest night ever! :beer: :beer:

squeaky

Queenie recently posted this link to the Food Standards Agency which gives advice on food storage.

Curry_Queen

idiot wrote:

a lot of people have such sensitive stomachs because we are far too careful now. you can build up a certain resistance to some bacteria, so slightly out of date food is not so bad.

I totally agree with you, and was just coming back to make a similar comment! I always advocate sensible food hygiene practices but I think many people are overly obsessed and all the anti-bacterial products on the market don't help much either as all they do is help produce more resistant strains of bacteria!

We were discussing milk in another thread recently, and how some people were throwing it away a day or two after opening ... well I had a carton in my fridge the other day that was a week past it's sell-by-date, and would most likely have been in the fridge for 5-6 days prior to this, and it was still perfectly fine to use!

I have, however, done a course in the past all about milk production and storage etc, and know that when kept in optimum conditions milk will actually keep for around 18 days, but many people don't do this, hence why they put a shorter date on the cartons.

coffeebean

We do - unless it's very obviously gone off, green, growing mould, smells funny - and no one has had a poorly tummy yet! mind you with an all-male household (well, except for me, of course!) that's two teenagers and OH, there's very little chance of stuff getting a chance to go off, they've all got hollow legs! :rolleyes:

needmoney

I bought weetabix from the little local shop and ate one before finding out it was A YEAR out of date:eek: I rang that hospital food poisoning line and they let me speak to one of the doctors who said don't worry about it you'll be fine. I asked him if I was going to grow any wheat and he laughed said well if you do plant it in your garden. I lived too:D

My mother who was almost 91 when she died regulary ate sausage 'on the turn' always used the sour milk and would regularly be heard to say Oh for Ch***** sakes it won't kill you, but she also regularly said food is not the same as we used to get, very true. Most processed food she would say I wouldn't eat that rubbish if you paid me.

raeble

I generally keep my fridge very cold - at the moment things will freeze in the bottom of the fridge(fridge freezer). I only throw things out if the smell or taste funny or I'm worried about them. Its only generally dairy products, that will go out of date because I don't eat them quick enough or bread because there is only me. I've had some eggs in my fridge that went off on December 23rd, been baking with them lately. Not dead yet.

Murtle

the sell by date and best before date are the differences

one, the shop must sell it before
the other, is the advised time to eat it by....when it will be at its "best"

doesn't nec. mean that it won't be 'good' to eat after that....

afterall - how can stinky blue cheese have a best before date....the longer you leave it the better it is

I love the way (me included) cut off the mould on the bread and then add stinky blue mouldy cheese to it.....!!

:rotfl:

I rarely look at best before dates....if it looks/smells ok, then it is ok...

the only time I've had food poisoning was years ago at a BBQ...and no-one ate one thing that could have caused it....dishes all created by different people...so I guess sometimes you're just unlucky!!!