Posted on 06/18/2019 3:55:13 PM PDT by EdnaMode
Last year, Mom’s Organic Market founder and chief executive Scott Nash did something many of us are afraid to do: He ate a cup of yogurt months after its expiration date. Then tortillas a year past their expiration date. “I mean, I ate heavy cream I think 10 weeks past date,” Nash said, “and then meat sometimes a good month past its date. It didn’t smell bad. Rinse it off, good to go.” It was all part of his year-long experiment to test the limits of food that had passed its expiration date. In the video above, we interviewed Nash about his experiment and examined where expiration dates come from and what they really mean.
It turns out that the dates on our food labels do not have much to do with food safety. In many cases, expiration dates do not indicate when the food stops being safe to eat — rather, they tell you when the manufacturer thinks that product will stop looking and tasting its best. Some foods, such as deli meats, unpasteurized milk and cheese, and prepared foods such as potato salad that you do not reheat, probably should be tossed after their use-by dates for safety reasons.
Tossing out a perfectly edible cup of yogurt every once in a while does not seem that bad. But it adds up. According to a survey by the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic, the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, and the National Consumers League, 84 percent of consumers at least occasionally throw out food because it is close to or past its package date, and over one third (37 percent) say they always or usually do so.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I’m done testing the expiration limits. I ate a can of soup that was maybe 4 months past its due date. Opened it first. Smelled fine. But something about the consistency seemed slightly different. But no big deal, I thought. I was sick from both ends for the next 3 days. I’m done with that. Don’t even think about it.
I know a millionaire that virtually 100% of his food came from a grocery store dumpster, including lots of steaks.
” Foods cooked (effectively sterilized) in steel cans will last through the next ice age”
Not always. I did have the acid in a can of tomatoes eat through it!
I think in the past people used common sense. If it smells or tastes bad...DON’T EAT IT! I also suspect use by dates are a legal CYA to protect companies from idiots who will eat anything and then try to sue if they get sick.
Beef has become so expensive I go to the grocery stores as soon as they open at 6:00 am all the meats that expire that day are marked down 50% I bring it home and freeze it, otherwise I would not by beef at all, it has become way to expensive!!! Chicken and pork also I usually do this about 3 times a week different days have different beef products marked down!! Always depends on what days they cut pot roasts, steaks, stew meat, ect.!!! The normal shelf life in the grocery store is 3 days if product is not gone in 3 days they slap a 50% sticker on it!!!
We did a storage test on MREs at Yuma Proving Ground about 20 years ago.
I asked the chief test person, a PHD from Nadick, if you were really hungry, how long the MREs would be edible without harm?
He said: “by the time it gets to be bad for you, you will not be able to eat it.”
I have found his information to be correct. On some MREs that were not stored well (exposed to AZ summer temperatures for a few years) several items became so unpalatable I could not stomach them. Extreme acrid/sour chemical taste I had to spit out after putting it in the mouth.
Apple sauce and Chocolate seemed to go bad first.
Main entre’s a few years later.
I have encouraged a tolerant digestive system over my lifetime, but I could not eat those MREs.
Stored in good conditions (shaded, underground), they seem to be fine 20 years later...
I have eaten many canned goods that were “out of date”.
I have had canned tuna go bad in as little as 3 years.
I grew up eating home canned food.
Most things you just removed the mold on top and ate it. My mother lived to just short of 98 and my father 90 yrs old eating the same.
Texture, Taste and Smell tests were important. If the dog turned his nose stay away as he ate dead groundhogs.
The same was true of fish and wild game even when fresh. You watched for worms and diseases in the animal prior to cooking it. (I always disliked biting into the lead shot though)
I get there at stater brothers about 7. The steaks are 6.99-12.99 a pound. But they usually have one or two good cuts 3.99
I take mold off of blocks of cheese all the time, blue cheese is molded cheese no ones dies from it!!!
Very true. Sometimes milk will start to go before its 'use by' date and sometimes it can be as sweet as the day it was opened two+ weeks after.
When I'm in doubt I pour a little in a glass and taste just a touch of it. No need to take a swallow to know if it's good or bad.
I have wine and beer that I bottled over 30 years ago... still tastes wonderful and getting better.
Of course common sense should apply but anyone with a brain ought to know this. Expiration dates are BS.
I drink raw milk so I am super careful.
The taste is far better than pasteurized, but it’s never more than 24 hrs from the cow with very low somatic cell count.
Only way to shop for beef these days, I used to buy beef filet all the time my freezer was loaded with it now it is 12.99-13.99 a pound WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED??? I have also noticed that choice beef is not nearly as tender as it used to be either, the cost SHOT UP and the quality is nothing like it used to be!!
All cheese is made with some strain of fungus. Each one specific to the type of cheese being made. The mold that grows on cheese after it is made is not the same in any way as the type it is made with. Some (that grow after production) are extremely toxic.
Milk can spoil earlier than posted if your refrigerator door is being opened and closed regularly people with teenagers would have this problem, when I was a teenager I used to stand with the frig door open just looking!!!
We have a store up here that sells expired foods. Its a laugh riot. Really. The parking lot is always full.
So some folks don’t mind, especially since stuff is marked down to pennies on a dollar. 3 candy bars for a dollah.
I buy their TP and foil items, soap; name brands, very cheap.
http://www.mrgssuperstores.com/
Me and some friends ate 17 year old MRE’s on a campout
Our local food banks use canned goods up to a year “out of date”.
Nothing at all wrong with that food.
I have never had the pleasure of drinking raw milk. Someday I will give it a try.
As for canned foods, regarding smell, texture and taste, botulinum bacterium has no smell, taste and doesn’t change the texture of the food. A doctor told me that canned peppers are the most common food to contain botulinum. Tomatoes would probably be second also being from the Solonacea family and having similar acid content.
If there is no noticeable vacuum release when you open the can or jar then forget it!
That’s true but I live alone and my eating habits are pretty uniform so the difference in how long my milk lasts has to be entirely due to circumstances prior to my buying it.
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