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? :)
Don’t eat pizza pockets that are more than a year old. Never got sick, but the color was awful...lol.
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.
If the sour cream is moldy or curdled looking.
Sour cream can last several weeks past its expiration date if opened, even longer if unopened. A good and cold fridge is also essential. We set ours low enough to just start to freeze the milk, and then very gradually bump it up until it stops freezing it. It keeps it at about 34° F at that rate and leftovers last about forever.
Expiration dates are more likely valid for perishable items, not canned or dry.
The one food item I would be careful with is acidic foods, like pineapple in tin cans. The acids can eat away at the coating on the inside of the can, a process called detinning, and ruin the food.
I home can all my acidic foods so don’t have to worry about that.
Another item to be careful with is the pull top cans. Those don’t keep as well as the kind you need a can opener for.
Good question. I usually throw out the half filled container when the mold is over 1/4”
It grows mold or gets an unappealing texture, in my experience.
...embarassed itself on the world stage...
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Dairies are pretty reliable in dating and sour cream usually has a fairly long refrigerated life. If any of it starts to separate AND has any pink or green spots, dump it.
I only buy the 4% milk fat sour cream, so IDK if that applies to the low-fat version.