Are we going to die?

[AGreatUsername]

Over dramatic title.

My husband is an idiot. On Monday I realised 2 packs of diced pork had gone off before being used. Bin day is not until Friday so I discussed the best way to dispose of them, he suggested leaving them in the fridge until bin day so they didn't stink out the bins. I had new pork arriving Tuesday so clearly told him the old stuff was on the bottom left.

This evening I was out at a college open evening, and he cooked pork kebabs. Predictably, he used the old pork, and this did not come out until we had finished eating. I once again mention it was HIS suggestion to leave it in the fridge 🙄

The bloody stuff went off 8 days ago. 8. We all ate 2/3 kebabs of it, so probably 8-10 pork chunks each.

We have 2 toilets and there are 4 of us who ate it. Are we going to have to do bathroom lottery tonight? Will we be dead by morning? Shall I offer hubby as a sacrifice if the rest of us can avoid illness?

If it tasted ok it wasn't off. Maybe past 'best before' date, which is a guideline and nothing to do with going off. It's a farce anyway. We used to buy meat from shops, butchers and also supermarkets, that had no dates on whatsoever. We were sensible enough not to eat something that smelled 'off' and it it didn't smell 'off' (and off meat smells rank, you'd notice the taste, too!) we ate it.
And if it was 'off' and smelly, put it in the outside bin.

Which arrangement shows the stupidity of not having weekly collections, and having bags instead of bins. I'd have chucked the lot in the general bin. Not my job to recycle stuff.

If bacteria was present in the food it could multiply during the period before the use by date? You should know that you’re much more likely to get food poisoning from food that is stored incorrectly, reheated several times or not heated to a high enough temperature than food that’s a few days past it’s sell by date!
Incorrectly storing food and cross contamination are the biggest causes of food poisoning!

I saw a video of maggot infested pork years ago and haven't felt quite the same about it since. Glad you're alive.

Food poisoning bacteria is usually always present in raw meat that you buy, which is fine, as long as it's not given the conditions to multiply. The bacteria can still multiply in the fridge, just at a slower rate. It needs food, moisture, time and temperature to multiply, if you take any one of those away it won'tmultiply. So the longer it goes past its 'use by' date is giving the bacteria the 'time' to multiply, all be it slower. Whilst multiplying it's producing those poisonous toxins which cause illness and won't be destroyed by cooking. It won't "go off" at midnight on the day of its use by date, but after that date (to be fair supermarkets will be cautious with their dates) but time is one of the four conditions to multiply.

Also "use by" and "best before" aren't interchangeable terms. One is a legal requirement, the other is not. It's illegal to sell goods past a use by date, best before isn't, you just need to let the customer know.

If the packets hadn't been opened they would have been slightly better than if opened regardless of date, pork is awful when gone off, like sausages, (can't bear the smell) you would have known either before or during eating, as long as it was cooked properly you should be OK.
I did buy a leg of lamb once and it was in date, but my elderly mum cooked it next day (no sense of smell) but omg i could smell it, had one little taste and that was enough 🤢, actually took back to the shop, got money back , I wouldn't even give to the dog lol

Funny!

Dear, I think you'll live, but will you update us on the answer?

Why this simple but obvious fact is beyond so many beggars belief!! I'm 76 and lived for many years quite happily and safely in a world without 'sell by' or 'best before' dates and if most people would just learn to use some common sense AND their noses we could all do so again without much problem!! Grrrr!! 😡Silly people on here saying they would be 'panicked' by this...Get a life is all I can say!! 🙄

Yes that's pretty nasty too!

We have a very good fridge, stuff is regularly days, sometimes weeks past the use by date and still gets eaten. We go by look, smell, taste to decide whether to use. We're all still alive, no problems so far.

Off pork is disgusting. The fact you ate the pork suggests it wasn't disgusting. Meaning that it wasn't off.

Many years ago when I wsa a child my mum had the idea of doing a victorian traditional christmas. She bought a whole pheasant and hung it in the garage for over a month around 6-8 weeks and it was very pungent. She then plucked it and recreated the bird arranging its feathers in floristry oasis as a table decoration. She then prepped and cooked the bird. It hummed before cooking and the smell was awful during cooking. It was then served for xmas dinner and still hummed a horrid pungent smell on the plate. We were made to eat at least some of it, to try it as she had spent months preparing this meal. So we ate a few mouthfuls (overlooked by the table decoration of the recreation of the bird). It was rancid. Even my mum despite all her prep and efforts and iron stomach coudlnt stomach it. But none of us were actually ill. So I wouldnt worry too much. Although it was officially out of date, if it was properly rotten it would smell bad and look rancid and your husband would have detected the terrible smell when cooking it, and you would have noticed the horrible smell and taste when eating it.

First thing I learned on a Food Hygiene course many years ago is that you cannot smell or taste food poisoning 🤷🏻‍♀️ so the people who say surely you’d smell it are wrong 🙄

I’m sure you will be fine though if it was cooked to a high temp and eaten straight away ☺️ plus it was refrigerated before cooking 👍

I saw a marketing guy on tv once , he said of all the marketing ploys , sell by and use by were the greatest !! Guidelines at best and responsible for millions of tonnes of good waste every week !!!!

That very much depends on where you live wouldn't you say?

Thank you for the update @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime, hurrah! Very pleased to hear all is well.

And today's shopping expedition included Tesco (which I don't if I can avoid it because the Tesco here now has bumps all round its car-park designed to destroy the suspension of cars even at 2mph) just for the diced pork, and they had some hurrah! So thank you very much for this.

This sounds like a hilarious story problem fit for a hip new entertaining mathematics text-book! You have great writing style. Hope you all came out unscathed, maybe even a few lbs lighter ;)

There was an article I read about a young lad who ate an old pasta meal that had been out on the side in the kitchen (not in the fridge) for 5 days and he got terribly ill and sadly ended up in hospital and then died. So the risks of food poisoning and bacteria are not just modern day nonsense. Pasta and rice are ones to be cautious of too.

Well of course it's not a nonsence.
But I will be absolutely brutal here as sad as it is. Eating 5 days old left out pasta is just... What would one expect after...
He even noted the odd taste iirc. Still eat it.

The first meal I ever cooked for DH was a fish pie using a pack of fresh mixed fish. As we was about to sit down to eat he noticed the fish was a couple of days out of date. I was mortified but he ate it, enjoyed it & lived to tell the tale! He actually says if he was on death row & had to request his last meal it would be my fish pie followed by my milk jelly!

Wtfrig is milk jelly?

I think you are younger than me!

Jelly but made partly with milk - milk, gelatin, water, and some sort of flavouring

Half a pint of boiling water to dissolve jelly cubes/crystals then instead of adding cold water use a can of evaporated milk. Stir then stick in the fridge to set as normal. I promise you it is delicious. I'm always surprised by how few people have heard of it as my mum used to make it all the time growing ip.