How long beyond its "BBE" or "USE BY" date can we eat jarred or canned foodstuffs?

moneyunwise

Am spending this difficult time at home, clearing out any old items. It's as good a time as any! It makes me feel happier to do something useful with this time during the virus. :-/

Food seems to be a good place to start with a clear-out, as there's no way at the moment that I want to overload a hospital with a case of careless food poisoning.

Am wondering if anyone has any ideas as to what canned/jarred foods could/should be thrown out, date-wise.

Some of the containers are stamped by the manufacturers with a "BBE" date, some with a "Use By" date.

Obviously this is part of the eternal (well, recent'ish!) discussion points in the News etc. re are BBE dates written in stone or are they a debatable point.

I have looked at some other threads here at the MSE re this kind of issue, but thought I'd start a more recent thread as (i) most of those other threads seem to have been shut down, or (ii) are a decade-plus out of date. And of course maybe somebody here at the MSE forum has heard of more clear & recent guidelineas re what exactly "BBE" or "Use By" dates mean! ,-)

It turns out, having looked at the contents, that many of our canned etc. goods in the kitchen cupboards are 1-2 (or more!) years out of date. YIKES! (Red-faced with shame. I blame a busy lifestyle & no time to manage the house in the best possible way!)

It is very unlikely we would EVER have eaten the contents, at the best of times. As I would have thrown them out anyway. I have in fact meant to go through these stocks for (ahem!) years! ,-D  -  as I knew many of the cans were getting too old to be used, but in a busy lifestyle it never seemed a priority. Now it is! So I was about to bin them today. But then I just wondered if anyone had any advice.

(A few weeks ago with all the panic-buying some people were doing at the supermarkets, we thought this might be the only food we could access/eat for 6 months or whatever. Which is when I first started looking at our supplies. Fortunately that panic-buying has now all changed.)

None of the food is fresh from the fridge, nor frozen from the freezer. It is just canned or jarred goods from the store cupboards.

Only a few of the items in question are just meat or fish alone, as I have already thrown out most of these just-meat tins, earlier in the week. For example: tuna, tinned salmon, etc. (Eating whole loads of old meat etc. is just NOT worth the health risk, IMHO.) Even canned spam got binned (NO loss) & corned beef (YES a loss, as we love this in our house).

The jars/tins I mention are mainly jars of cook-in sauces (e.g. tomato-based; carbonara; other creamy-type sauces; etc.). Soups too: plenty of them. Some of those soups of course DO have a bit of meat etc. in them (e.g. chicken soup); as do several packets of rosti (sliced potato ready to fry) with bacon. There are also tinned vegs (mushrooms, carrots, etc.), ginger pastes for Chinese meals, etc. Plus a few random ones: lemon sauce. (Yes we do like Chinese dishes!)

Most are made by reputable suppliers e.g. well-known branded goods or supermarkets-own.

Here are a few product names of some of the food products in these jars & tins:

▶ Coconut curry sauce

▶ Creamy white wine cooking sauce 

▶ Jerk marinade

▶ Creamy leek and bacon cooking sauce

▶ Chilli cheese pasta bake

▶ Macaroni cheese pasta bake

▶ Seafood sauce

▶ White wine sauce

▶ Smokey paprika tomato-based sauce

▶ Tempura batter (powdered mix)

▶ Smokey BBQ pulled pork

▶ Lentil and veg soup

▶ Rice pudding

I think I'd best bin the smokey BBQ pulled pork, & the seafood sauce - for the reasons given earlier!

IMHO I reckon the jerk marinade should be OK to keep & use, as far less would be used of this product in any food preparation than of a cook-in sauce.

ALL of this is of course prior to opening any of the jars/cans to see how they smell/look!

Any ideas/suggestions/similar experiences??

I'm thinking, at the moment, of a 2019 BBE/Use By date possibly being fine, & perhaps a 2018 date too. But would, say, a 2017 date (3 years ago) be an OK cut-off date to limit ourselves to; or another date-limit?

All advice appreciated!

Hope you are all keeping safe & POSITIVE in this time of crisis.

Slinky

Open each as you need it and try the sniff and taste test. Just a small amount to see if it seems OK.

I'm sitting here having just eaten custard made from a mix that had a date of Jan 16 on it, found in MIL's cupboard. I know we'll be OK as OH had some last week and is absolutely fine.

MovingForwards

In theory years after the use by / best before date with cans and jars. 

As with anything open and smell before using.

joedenise

I would agree with other responses.  Tinned and jarred stuff will keep years beyond their best before dates.  The dates are just to protect the manufacturers, not the consumers.

silverwhistle

A couple of weeks ago I found some french terrine in a glass jar, volaille or canard, I can't remember, but it was dated 2017. Fine on toast, and I'm still here.. Sniff and nibble taste as per above..

Owain_Moneysaver

I wouldn't have any hesitation about 2 years for tinned goods. Throwing away salmon and tuna is pure waste - you get those tins back out of the wheeliebin, bleach the outside, and get them opened and eaten!
Tinned veg might be a bit soft, but then it's usually quite soft anyway. 
Jars I would be a little more cautious about - make sure the 'safety button' is still depressed when it's unopened, that it 'pops' when opening. They don't last for ever - that's why they have a Use By date and not a Best Before. 
I would probably ditch the powdered tempura mix though. It probably won't be poisonous, but it might not make a nice batter or taste a bit stale. 

mumf

I work in the food industry... Fallacy number one: You cannot smell,taste or see food poisoning pathogens,so dipping your finger in and " having a taste " is useless!
Number two: Use by is just that- use by THAT date.Its a date for high risk foods ( usually fresh,refrigerated). It is not put there to cover the manufacturer,it's there to cover you ( because good food handling in many homes is woeful).
Number three: BBE ( Best Before End) - just that.BEST before.After that,it can lose taste,colour,nutrition etc. but won't harm you.

Pollycat

I'd be surprised if any canned goods had a 'use by' date'.

That is usually for fresh food.

'Best before' means just that.

It may not taste quite as good.

But in my experience of using canned items past their 'best before' date, it tastes just the same.

I used a tin of Campbell's condensed mushroom soup that had fallen off my shelf unit in the garage and rolled underneath the bottom shelf almost 10 years after BB date.

It was fine.

Of course you need to be aware of 'blown' tins.

Even ketchup and other sauces that say to keep in the fridge and use within 6 weeks go into the cupboard and are fine after the BB date.

I wouldn't have binned the salmon, tuna or corned beef.

But if you think it's a health risk to you personally, I guess that's your choice.

avoidtheupsidedownbottles

I've only ever seen one blown can.  It was prunes.  Presumably something nasty inside the stones had survived the botulinum cooking cycle.

-taff

I wouldn't keep any cooking sauces in jars , especially those with a 'creamy' base unless they were pastes [ like curry pastes] or had a good percentage of sugar or vinegar. I wouldn't have binned any tins at all unless they had blown or were rusty.

MrsDilligaf

I'm fairly certain that there is a can of condensed milk in my mums cupboard that has been there since at least 1988.