Posted on 08/23/2022 6:58:18 AM PDT by daniel1212
Avoiding unseen food hazards is the reason people often check the dates on food packaging. And printed with the month and year is often one of a dizzying array of phrases: “best by,” “use by,” “best if used before,” “best if used by,” “guaranteed fresh until,” “freeze by” and even a “born on” label applied to some beer.
People think of them as expiration dates, or the date at which a food should go in the trash. But the dates have little to do with when food expires, or becomes less safe to eat. I am a microbiologist and public health researcher, and I have used molecular epidemiology to study the spread of bacteria in food.
The United States Department of Agriculture reports that in 2020 the average American household spent 12% of its income on food. But a lot of food is simply thrown away, despite being perfectly safe to eat. The USDA Economic Research Center reports that nearly 31% of all available food is never consumed. Historically high food prices make the problem of waste seem all the more alarming.
The current food labeling system may be to blame for much of the waste. The FDA reports consumer confusion around product dating labels is likely responsible for around 20% of the food wasted in the home, costing an estimated US$161 billion per year.
The dates on those food packages, however, are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. Rather, they come from food producers. And they may not be based on food safety science.
For example, a food producer may survey consumers in a focus group to pick a “use by” date that is six months after the product was produced because 60% of the focus group no longer liked the taste. Smaller manufacturers of a similar food might play copycat and put the same date on their product....
in the absence of a uniform food dating system, consumers could rely on their eyes and noses, deciding to discard the fuzzy bread, green cheese or off-smelling bag of salad. People also might pay close attention to the dates for more perishable foods, like cold cuts, in which microbes grow easilyt in the absence of a uniform food dating system, consumers could rely on their eyes and noses, deciding to discard the fuzzy bread, green cheese or off-smelling bag of salad. People also might pay close attention to the dates for more perishable foods, like cold cuts, in which microbes grow easily
As part of a ministry that provides privately donated food, I myself often eat extra surplus food (as well as compost greens) that is past its expiration date, with very rare issues, and minor if any. Nuke any refrigerated food at least 2 minutes in the mic, which will at least kill bacteria. Thank God.
I had occasion to see government contract procured items (same as found on store shelves) religiously marked with expiration dates, when the ‘civilian’ product did not have exp dates.
As soon as it hit the expiration date, the government (military in my case) was mandated to destroy the items.
GINORMOUS amount of waste caused by this practice - but it keeps the boxes rolling out of the shipping departments.
The things I have thrown away in the past.....my goodness, what a waste! I WILL in the future let my eyes and nose do the work and not some stamp on a label. I have just one question....how do you know sour cream isn’t safe to eat at some point? :)
Just slice off the green parts. You’ll be fine.
You will eat bugs and rancid canned foods!
Don’t eat pizza pockets that are more than a year old. Never got sick, but the color was awful...lol.
One hole in this system: there is literally no chain of custody between the production plant and your mouth which guarantees that the food was always stored at the correct temperature.
It really all depends on storage and the food item itself.
There is a guy on the internet who routinely gets old food kits for GI's from an army surplus store, usually Korean or Vietnam war era. The are vacuum packed, but he opens them and tries the food that it contains. Much of it is still edible.
THAT stuff wasn’t edible when it was edible, so to speak!
For me it’s always been to toss it if it doesn’t pass the smell test. Why eat food that smells and (probably) tastes bad? Also, if I can see mold or slime, out it goes...
Back in the 1960s I ate 10-20 year old military surplus rations. Don’t recall seeing expiration dates on them.
I volunteer at the main food bank in Austin. When we sort donated food, we accept food past the expiration dates which gets donated to the needy.
We are given a list of dates that are acceptable by category.
It will be something like this:
canned protein (tuna, chicken, etc), accept if expiration date is less than 1 year old.
cereal, less than 2 years old.
etc.
(dates above are examples, I don’t remember the exact dates. a list is posted at the sorting tables)
FWIW, food stored properly - i.e. cool and dry, fairly stable temps.
I have SAFELY stored and consumed mayo in a glass jar or plastic jar that is THREE YEARS out of date. Slight taste change, but no spoilage or oxidation.
Same for peanut butter, tomato sauces, canned veggies, meats, fruits in UN-DENTED cans.
NET: LOTS of foods, stored properly, last a LONG time just fine.
Moving to ‘processed food’ i.e. prepared foods that are pre-mixed, especially freezer-meals. Some were terrible at the X-date.
Our experience is that ANY ‘processed’ foods in a box or wrapper that is NOT stored in QUALITY vacuum-sealed bag with O2 and H2O absorbents in it ... Will go stale/tasteless/hogs won’t eat it bad by the X-date.
In medicine we pick an end date for testing.
For example we know some of our products will be good for 50 years or more.
However we test to 10 years because if the product sells that slowly then it should be discontinued.
So shelf-life does have a marketing component, but it is tested to a point typically less than its actual life span. So that part is scientific, there are ASTM testing standards.
It’ll never be an exact science but it gives an orderly timeframe for grocery stores to clear out old stock and gives label reading consumers a rough sanity check of the age of what’s on the shelf. Otherwise you’d have low wage stock clerks making the call on when something is expired. The grocery system has decided it’s best for the manufacturers to provide that guideline even if it’s imperfect and probably too conservative.
and you will be happy
These days, science in general doesn’t have much science behind it. A lot of wokeness, though...
Sour cream and yogurt can’t go bad, because they have already gone bad during manufacturing. Seriously, though, I’d pitch it if it has discoloration beyond the very slightest yellowing, or if it smells like something you wouldn’t want to eat. A little liquid separating is fine.
As for smelling food, we all do it, but it isn’t infallible. Some types of spoilage have no odor, and I’ve been told that by smelling questionable food you can inhale enough of certain bacteria to make you sick.
Try a little on the cat; cats are pretty reliable about refusing spoiled food. Dogs, not so much. We had a Dalmatian die from eating fish guts that a neighbor had put under his rosebushes after a fishing trip.
I’ve done volunteer work at a County food bank (church out reach program). My job was to sort donated cans and to check the expiration date. As long as the days date was less than a year over the printed expiration date, the can was deemed acceptable.
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