PREPPER QUESTION...
Do food items in plastic bottles last longer than their expiration date?
Too bad they stopped putting them in glass bottles and container.
Anything I buy in plastic bags or containers I transfer to glass. I don’t buy a lot in plastic. Plastic is just nasty in many ways.
PS - for instance, I buy 12# of honey at a time from Azure Standard and we immediately put into two half gallon glass jars. 12# honey is a gallon. We use a fair amount of honey.
According to the Food Pantry sorts of groups they don’t care how far past the sell by/ use by date is, as long as the container is sealed and un damaged.
In my own experience one needs to be selective about the container. Heavier plastics that have some color, ie, black, grey, can be 25 year stable. Containers that hold acidic sorts of foods, like say, tomato based, maybe barbeque soss, tend to be long-term-stable. Really light weight, squeezable sorts of containers seem to be good for a year or two, but I don’t trust them for longer.
Most plastic containers have a code on the bottom that sometimes gives a hint as to how long they should last.
If you really want tough jugs for storage the toughest are the red ones rated for fuel. I have a couple that are upwards of 40 years old and still work great. Just label them when new, if you’re gonna use them for something else.
For long term storage I would repackage them in glass with sealed lids. As for just 'how long are they safe to eat', I wouldn't take the expiration too seriously - using your best judgement. Those expiration dates are probably written by lawyers to protect the food companies.
There is speculation about plastic 'leaching' out into food over time, especially wet foods, I imagine. ❓