Best by date

[stevejelf]

I see the Daily Mail is running a story on a warehouse selling foodstuffs, although it appears mostly canned soft drinks, that have passed their best by date, at knocked down prices.
It reminded me meeting over 45 years ago the owner of a WWI Battle site museum in Belgium. The site was regularly repaired and in doing so they had found intact Corn beef tins complete with their contents from 1915. A visiting American showed an interest in them about 1980, later the site owner received an invitation from NASA to fly via the Concord with any new tins that he could recover. He duly did and flew first class, NASA was interested in determining the increase in world background radiation as the beef had been buried it would not be contaminated by the nuclear age.

The old man had met Hitler twice many times on what had been his farm and 1930's when he returned to his old station The owner showed the newspaper cuttings showing him shaking hands and Hitler offering him one of his paintings
A fascinating conversation long ago with a lovely man that I had almost forgot

[greenishfing]

I made dumplings last week with suet that ( I realised later) had a best before date of last Summer. I thoroughly enjoyed them and wonder why people take notice of these dates. Cheese, avocados, mangoes etc are never thoroughly ripe until well past said dates......
Mind you I have nothing in the cupboard that predates the atomic age.....at least I don't think so.

[stevejelf]

I bet you do, Salt, where ever it came from it must be old. We love the Pink Himalayan rock salt 500 million years old, now that's a long exceeded best by date

[Nicos]

Nuts out of their shells certainly start to go rancid within weeks of their use by dates.

I will happily eat most jars and tins beyond their best by dates....

[JanieB]

I worked for a food warehouse a few years ago. They imported and packaged dried fruit and nuts for supermarkets. They had to put “sell by” and “best before” dates on everything. These dates were absolute rubbish. Some of the food in those packets had been sitting in sacks in the warehouse for up to 3 years.

To add to this, there is a considerable difference in price between say M&S and Tesco products, but they come from the same sacks and just have different packaging.

[mrbadexample]

I once ate a yoghurt that had had a birthday.

[Grafitti]

Smell and taste test for me (of course if it looks bad that's the first clue). If it smells fine, touch a bit of it to my tongue, if it doesn't taste off or tingle, I'll eat it.
Don't care about expiry dates

[greenishfing]

Fortunately I have an excellent sense of smell and taste and can trust my own judgement, some people rely on this rubbish.

[mothhawk]

Fortunately I have an excellent sense of smell and taste and can trust my own judgement, some people rely on this rubbish.

Please don't call use-by dates rubbish. They are very important. Bacteria that can cause food poisoning generally have no taste and no smell, unlike spoilage bacteria which cause food deterioration. Bacteria present in food continue to grow unless frozen (and sometimes even then). Refrigeration slows growth, it doesn't prevent it, and use-by dates indicate the point beyond which bacteria may have reached a level high enough to cause sickness, particularly in vulnerable people, or if the food has not been correctly stored. You would be amazed how many people leave food sitting in a warm place for long periods (such as a kitchen work surface or on a sunny table), then stick it in the fridge and think it's fine.

Best before dates simply indicate when a product has aged past the point at which it will taste best. These products can generally still be consumed after the date, but won't taste as good.

[greenishfing]

Please don't call use-by dates rubbish. They are very important. Bacteria that can cause food poisoning generally have no taste and no smell, unlike spoilage bacteria which cause food deterioration. Bacteria present in food continue to grow unless frozen (and sometimes even then). Refrigeration slows growth, it doesn't prevent it, and use-by dates indicate the point beyond which bacteria may have reached a level high enough to cause sickness, particularly in vulnerable people, or if the food has not been correctly stored. You would be amazed how many people leave food sitting in a warm place for long periods (such as a kitchen work surface or on a sunny table), then stick it in the fridge and think it's fine.

Best before dates simply indicate when a product has aged past the point at which it will taste best. These products can generally still be consumed after the date, but won't taste as good.

Sorry! I was only referring to best before dates which seem to be completely random and which cause some people I know to bin large amounts of edible food particularly veg and fruit.

Believe me one dose of campylobacter in my life from "well in date" chicken has made me very careful (verging on paranoid) regarding meat, fish and poultry which I would only store at the bottom of the fridge, keep chilled and I only handle with gloved hands.