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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think we are going INSANE over food 'expiry' dates??

78 replies

PacificDogwood · 12/02/2012 16:02

Bread that gets thrown out on its sell by date?
Sugar/salt with sell by dates?
Nothing can be reheated for fear of Death by D+V?

As far as I am concerned, if it looks ok, smells ok, has not grown fur and cannot move under its own steam and I want it, I will eat it.

All this throwing out of perfectly good food really gets on my wick.
Supermarkets locking bins so nobody can help themselves to out of date stuff that is being chucked out anyway? WTF?

We have gone insane. Please nobody spoil my rant by mentioning the very rare case of botulism from tinned food - I'll still take my chances.

I feel better. Thanks for listening.

OP posts:
rhondajean · 12/02/2012 16:04

I'm with you. I'm about to check what's furry in the fridge to see what's for tea.

rhondajean · 12/02/2012 16:04

What's not furry!

WorraLiberty · 12/02/2012 16:04

YANBU

I've always used my nose to tell me if something is off and it hasn't let me down in 42 years.

I did read the other day though that use by dates are going to be relaxed to stop so much waste.

WorraLiberty · 12/02/2012 16:05

So it's all round to rhonda's for roast Guinea Pig? Grin

orangeeyebrowss · 12/02/2012 16:06

if it looks ok and smells ok, its ok

rhondajean · 12/02/2012 16:07

You'll have to bring your own guinea pig but I'm happy to knock together some sauce using hummus, pepperoni and cottage cheese and an only slightly limp salad to go with.

Think I need to do a shop soon.

MrsTerryPratchett · 12/02/2012 16:08

I have grades. Bread, cheese, fruit and vegetables and the like, sniff and fur test. Chicken and similar, best before, sniff and fur all taken into account. Seafood and similar, much more wary.

DH is North American so he is hysterical about this stuff running around with the out of date salt screaming that the sky is falling.

Original poster
PacificDogwood · 12/02/2012 16:08

rhonda, if you are lucky the 'fur' will be Penicillin and actually protect you against illness Grin.

I'd rather have 4 week expired yoghurt (as I did this lunchtime) than GP, no matter how in date they might be...

Worra, yes, I hear too that they are going to become more like recommendations. But people will remain fearful: I worked with a perfectly nice, sensible woman who would not eat a slice of toast on its expiry date. It was like a phobia, even she could not really explain what she was worried about. And before somebody says, she did not actually have any kind of phobia.

OP posts:
Thetokengirl · 12/02/2012 16:09

I agree with OP. However, I sometimes have to sneak food out of the fridge which is past it's use by date to cook with, otherwise DH throws it away Grin

Original poster
PacificDogwood · 12/02/2012 16:10

I think a lot of people forget that many foodthings are processed to within an inch of their lives. Or they are evil french farmhouse cheeses that turn into biological weapons if left too long...

OP posts:
Original poster
PacificDogwood · 12/02/2012 16:12

I recently found a Tunnocks Sultana Cake behind a larder unit (not in the back of the unit, behind it; must have fallen), still wrapped in its cellophane wrapper from 2010.
It was still Not Mouldy. How is that even possible??
I have to admit, I gave it to the birds - but then again, I am not that keen on that cake anyway Grin

OP posts:
BumFunHun · 12/02/2012 16:13

Right there with you...the mushrooms in today's spag bol felt a bit slimy, so did something I almost never normally do, and washed them and took the skins off before using them - I'm damned if I'm chucking out anything from my fridge this week - we're brassic, and it won't kill us!

Agree with MrsTP; chicken and seafood I'm a bit wary with...but with everything else, smell and sight are all I take any notice of!

piprabbit · 12/02/2012 16:15

I heard this week that the advice has changed to say we can freeze food before the use by date expires, not only on the day of purchase.
Apparently lots and lots of people were throwing food away if they forgot to freeze it on the day of purchase.

It never crossed my mind not to freeze food that was within it's use by date.

acsec · 12/02/2012 16:16

I cooked mince yesterday that went out of date on Friday. I smelt it, it was fine, we all ate it we are all fine. Didn't tell DP as he would have refused it and thrown it away. If he had eaten it then found out he would have made himself believe he had food poisoning as he has done in the past.

I think common sense is the best way to tell and the Use by dates are just guidelines.

KatyMac · 12/02/2012 16:17

My dad says if it goes off, sour, bad, mouldy, rancid or generally manky eat it ideally before it does one of those; but if it stays fresh forever, steer clear

Notcontent · 12/02/2012 16:17

I always just check if it smells/tastes ok.
The only thing I am really paranoid about is meat, chicken and fish. I like meat products to be really fresh.

SarahLundsredJumper · 12/02/2012 16:18

Come over to the Frugal February thread in Credit Crunch.
Lots of MN on that thread have used Approved Foods - as recommended by Boffinmum (I think) .
I got £150ish of food for £40 and its perfect.

SarahLundsredJumper · 12/02/2012 16:21

Sory should explain they sell food over or near its best before date -nowt wrong with it !

jubilee10 · 12/02/2012 16:21

I just made Kofta curry with mince that went out of date yesterday. I haven't eaten it yet but here's hoping!

fivefoottwowitheyesofblue · 12/02/2012 16:23

acsec we are definately married to the same man!

Original poster
PacificDogwood · 12/02/2012 16:26

KatyMac, your dad is a man after my own heart.

I knew one of my greatgranddads who had spent some time as a POW in a Russion POW camp and he repeatedly said to us kids when we came in from playing, complaining that we were hungy 'you don't know what hunger is'. At the time I found him scary and intimidating, but I am sure he was right.

Now, I don't think that a single starving child less will die because I eat anything that does not actively turn my stomach, but I just cannot stand the waste.

And yy, a bit more wary of uncooked chicken and seafood, I wouldn't disagree with that.

OP posts:
Tee2072 · 12/02/2012 16:27

I never follow dates. Things can say they are in date and still be bad. Things can be out of date and be fine.

I have never bothered to hurry to freeze on day of purchase. Again, I use my judgement when I get around to wanting to freeze it.

So glad Sainsbury's is taking that information off their packaging.

ilovebabytv · 12/02/2012 16:30

I has someone on yesterday asking if it was alright to eat a banana that was one day expired Confused I didn't even realise bananas came with an expiry date. Surely common sense would dictate that by just looking at the banana would tell you if it was edible or not?

Original poster
PacificDogwood · 12/02/2012 16:34

Do you think this fear of 'expired' food is to do with how far removed we have become from where our food comes from?? And how it is preserved?

ilovebabytv (do you really?? makes me feel drugged Wink), that kind of thing is exactly what I mean! Bonkers.

OP posts:
Naoko · 12/02/2012 16:35

If it looks ok and smells ok, I will cook it. Even chicken and fish - because more than anything else, if chicken or fish is off you will know about it the minute you open the packet and you'll spend the next hour trying to stop gagging and airing out your kitchen.

If it's within use by and freezeable, I'll freeze it. Hell, I've been known to freeze things that were slightly out and passed smell/furriness test. Never poisoned anyone yet. Conversely, I've been known to throw things that were well within use by date because they stank the place out and must've been badly stored at the supermarket. I also don't cut the mould off things and eat the rest - the spores go all the way through, so if it's developed fur anywhere it's going.

I also don't cook things within an inch of their lives. Chicken, yes, obviously, but only to 'white all the way through and piping hot', not 'drier than the Sahara'. Fish - opaque, but soft. Beef can bleed all it wants, prefer it not too cooked. But I'm not British, and a bit more cavalier about these things than most of the people here, I think.