The Use By/Sell by thread.

[billybunter]

OK. Does anybody really understand the labels placed on our food? Is it nanny state rubbish or will we die if we eat a day out of date food? I tread onto this mine field all the time without a problem, except shellfish. The mind boggles at all the food dumped because of this. I'm baffled.

BB

[mrfin]

My brother was shocked (and the chap serving us chips in the chippy) when i told him i recently ate a tin of soup that had a 'best before' in 2008. It was fine. Tin was ok. It wasnt damaged so the food was fine inside.

Its not like i collect old tins it was really far back in the unit and i found it after a sort out. Il eat the stuff in a tinned can as long as the tin isnt damaged.

With other stuff like veg etc il ignore the date and just look at it. I have had food within the date thats mouldy and other stuff well after the date that whilst not looking fresh was not bad and fine to eat.

Meat is the same. Il mostly freeze stuff unless i plan to eat it soon. Though i have had brown looking meat within date il personly look at and go oooh hmmmmm my brother says its oxidization of the meat that makes it go like this (yet wont eat a out of date tin - but he works with meat so i guess its what u know how u decide)

Only thing is eggs. best before but they say dont use after the date. so shouldnt that be a use by? anyways chuck in water. if it floats i throw them at my neigbours dog.

[IngramJohn]

Just been with the missus shopping at Tesco's BB and the only thing I can't understand with the labels is the fookin PRICE written on them!!!

No bloody wonder Tesco's lost profit this year ... bloody RIP-OFF merchants I call them. We only go there because its not far from home.

ASDA/ICELAND RULE!!!

Salut BB

[larsson]

i used to work in community health and nutrition and have done 2 level food hygeiene courses.
its common knowledge but in the current lawsuit happy culture that sellby and useby dates are generally placed very much on the conservative side.retailers are shit scared of lawsuits.
in commerical kitchens people tend to use and are encouraged to use their eyes and nose to tell them- not a sell by date.for example if the food hasnt been stored correctly e.g. temparature, the sell by date is meaningless.so use your eyes and nose, its your best guide.of course some bacteria cant be detected this way so its not foolproof and if youre not sure err on the safe side as stomach bugs are literally v shitty

[palo5]

Originally Posted by billybunter

Is it nanny state rubbish or will we die if we eat a day out of date food?

You're right, partly it is the nanny state - they tell producers of anything that has the potential to be health-harmful (food, pharmaceuticals etc) that they must put a use-by date or a best-before date on their products. Producers don't have an option

The state means well, of course. But the truth is that many products that are kept perfectly dry and sealed, or frozen, can be safely consumed years, decades or even centuries after their supposed use-by date

Some really good examples of this are the 200+ year-old bottles of wine recently recovered from the Baltic seabed, or the cans of food discovered from 1911/1912 Antarctic expeditions

Though I admit, I wouldn't want to consume it myself unless I was borderline starvation or shaking from booze withdrawal

But I have eaten rice that was more than 10 years after its use-by date. It had no bad effects and tasted quite normal. Also used pharmaceuticals such as aspirin and migraine pills that were seriously old, but they did their job and didn't kill me

In the end, it's up to you and your own good judgment. You read what "they" say - now it's up to you to decide

[Estreeter]

Originally Posted by palo5

But I have eaten rice that was more than 10 years after its use-by date.

Gulag food eh
Served plain

[palo5]

Of course you consume it all on the same day, Comrade, but I don't think he was talking about beer

[Sirch]

I see no problem with expiration dates. It dosent self destruct by the end date. If you want to take a chance on it, that's up to the individual.

Really wish we didn't have to live in a world of extremes. People are either for no over site and no regulations or want to many. This is a reasonable thing to have on food packages.

Adhere to the "warning" or don't. Its up to you.

[tygrkhat40]

It all depends on the product. A sell-by date tells the stores that product is old and should be removed from the shelves. I see these mostly on easily perishable items like milk and eggs. Use-by dates are to tell the consumer how fresh the product is and many products are perfectly fine well after the use-by date has passed. The last time I made spaghetti, the jar of sauce I used was about 3 years past the use-by date, and it was fine. As long as the jar or can the food is in isn't damaged or compromised in some way, you should be OK.

In some of the restaurants I worked at, occasionally we'd have something that was still perfectly edible but not "fresh" enough to charge fine dining prices for, so the usual solution was an employee meal.

With certain medications however, the use-by date can be very important as some medications deteriorate into harmful substances. But this happens more with prescription meds rather than OTCs.

[Estreeter]

Originally Posted by palo5

Of course you consume it all on the same day, Comrade, but I don't think he was talking about beer

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate, I don't care what it is, solid, liquid or gas, if it's in my fridge or pantry, every effort is made to make sure it needs filling again the next day