Posted on 04/23/2015 9:19:33 AM PDT by Olog-hai
The Agriculture Department has determined that 36 pounds of food per person is wasted every month, about 21 percent of the available food in the United States. And one big reason: those expiration dates are wrong or overly cautious.
The solution: Hold your nose and just eat it. Even if it is 18 months past the expiration date.
It sounds yucky, but officials think they’ve got the trick to get moms to feed expired but safe food to kids and adults alike—they’ve even got an app. It’s called FoodKeeper and it is supposed to have a more accurate calculation of food expiration dates, even for baby food and eggs. …
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
I believe this is about food stamp bums but one size fits all. Easy come easy go.
See my post #18.
And that's part of the problem right there. Properly canned food can stay good for 20 years or more. So a "best buy" date there is essentially meaningless.
But a "best buy" date on, say, fresh chicken does have a real meaning. So the uninformed consumer ends up confused.
The only thing we toss is things like bones, coffee grounds (which I have thought of using a second time, maybe) and chicken fat. Most get composted.
36 lbs. Puhleeze.
Yep! See my post #23.
I'm a little bit more careful with tomato sauce, because it can eat the cans, and because of that vile white lining stuff. I only buy canned tomato products that don't have BPA linings now.
Your post #23 is EXACTLY right!
i don’t believe the average american wastes over a pound of food every single day... no way
Most likely that is exactly what this is all about. I challenge their stats as inaccurate. Not at all true in my circle of friends.
We are trapped in an insane asylum.
and this coming from an agency that dines on nothing but the best and most expensive foods thanks to we he people-
Let’s see- we can save perhaps millions of dollars by requiring people in government to eat at soup kitchens, and out of dumpsters where the food is ‘smelly but safe’ Heck, Ill even have an app designed to show where the best dumpsters are-
Also, if one plans well [ha!] one wouldn't have things hanging around in the fridge to go bad in the first place. Just saying--I finished off the last of the sauteed mushrooms that have been in the fridge over a week, and they were fine. I keep my fridge very cold, it makes a big difference in longevity...
When I began prepping, there were no expiration dates required on grocery food, so, I called the companies myself and asked about how long their food was good in the can/box, etc., and under what conditions that would require. Two companies I made sure to call was Hellman's Mayo company about their Mayo and Hormel about all their canned meat including Spam.
For all cans, my rule is, if the can has bulged at the top or anywhere else, toss it or if the can has a hole (never found one), toss it. Out of caution, I choose cans that haven't been bent.
I store packages of pasta in the fridge in order to know it's okay from elements that lower shelf life, but without refrigeration, if stored in the dark without much humidity, and away from pests, it lasts almost forever.
36 lb a month is over a lb a day. Very hard to believe.
For a family of 4, that’s 33 lb a week. How many families pull their trash can to the curb every week, weighted down with 33 lbs of food?!?!
The entire premise is absurd.
And based on this absurdity, somebody in the government is teaching us how to manage our fridge?
No one is talking about Botulism or that green moldy science project under your kid’s bed.
The thing is people throw out unopened food past the best used by and expiration dates. One, the government insists on the dates and two, the manufacturer can put earlier dates on the product so you’ll have to buy it more often. Related to that is how much the manufacturer recommends its use - you really don’t have to use as much laundry detergent as the jug says but by doing so you’ll buy less of their product.
Too lazy to put the chicken into the freezer before it rotted?
Open it ... does it smell bad or weird ?
If not ... heat it/cook it and eat it
Your chances are as equal as a worker with the flu that HAD to work that day as she packed those HUGGIES, or packaged the carrots
AMEN, AMEN, AMEN MY BROTHER !!!!!!
so few people know about cheeze
I don't pay any attention to those dates myself. My mom, a hospital dietician, taught me to use common sense. If it smells bad, it probably is bad. If the milk smells sour, then throw it out. But to discard everything in your pantry or refrigerator because of a mandated expiration date, is expensive and foolish. I have a high school friend who throws out all of her leftovers after every meal, and if the food has been opened and in the refrigerator for longer than three days, it gets tossed. Guess what? Her monthly grocery bill is almost three times what ours is. That's because we eat leftovers until they are gone. We don't throw good food out. We take with a grain of salt, the mandated expiration dates.
People need to stop living their lives based on instructions and directions from manufacturers and the government. If they can't figure it out on their own, then maybe they need a good dose of wake-up-and-get-a-clue.
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