AIBU to use this in pancakes later?

[2468whodoweappreciate]

Plain flour, BBE Oct 2013
Eggs, BB 2nd Jan

Flour been in a sealed container. I've spread it out on a dark plate & no sign of movement to indicate weevils, is it safe to eat?

Eggs kept in fridge & I tested them in water, they sink, so still use able...?

Or am I putting us all at risk!! I hate food waste & I'm short on time to shop, obviously I don't want to make us ill but nor do I want to throw away food if it's actually fine to eat, too much of that goes on in the world. WWYD?

Krap, but you would not use the eggs if it was obvious they were bad.
Use your instinct and judgement.

No, and I eat out of date food.

Eggs almost two months over their already fairly generous bb date

Eggs don't last three months, I can tell you that now! We have chickens and I work on a farm.

creampastry you're not invited so no worries

I routinely ignore most food safety guidance and use my own judgement. This includes using out of date food that appears to be OK.

As I said before, I would never have eggs or any other fresh food for that matter so far out of date. I would have used or frozen it on the date or very shortly afterwards.

I sometimes take meat out of the freezer to defrost, change my mind and then refreeze it. I reheat rice at least a couple of times a month. I eat out of date yogurt, cream, cheese etc if it looks and tastes OK. I don't panic if something gets left out overnight.

I have had food poisoning once in my entire adult life (25 years) and that was almost certainly from a prawn sandwich from the work canteen over 20 years ago.

Which is why I don't fear food poisoning, because the risk seems to be fairly none existent. If someone fairly careless never suffers from it, the risk to someone who follows all the rules to the letter must be even lower.

No. Flour too out of date for me.

How about looking at it like this?

You have already wasted the flour and the eggs. You have kept them without using them beyond a safe date. If you were serious about not like waste, you would have a stock rotation system in place by now. You should feel a little bit bad about not having done that already. Let yourself feel that. There, you've learned something.

Move on without making your family ill. Use the emotional energy you generate from wanting to avoid having the bad feeling of wasting food again in the future to help you devise a food rotation system so you avoid the waste happening again. For example, a system could be as simple as check through fridge once a week, freezer once a month, cupboards once a quarter so you use up anything going out of date. You could also put a small whiteboard on the fridge door and write down use by dates of very perishable items (meat, fish etc ) on it, so you know what you have to use/freeze quickly.

The food you save going forward by having such a system will far outweigh the eggs and flour. So their sacrifice has not been in vain.

If you are serious about not liking waste, get organised. Don't risk people's wellness over a mistake you have already made.

We eat loads of technically out of date stuff & never in any of our lives have any of us ever had food poisoning / illness due to it. I'm just not too sure with these 2 items & the timelines if this is pushing it.

Generally I think ppl are too quick to throw food away, without any discretion, relying completely on the date. BB dates are totally different to UB dates.

Did u not just waste an egg by seeing if it sinks??? Go and spend £2 maximum and get fresh. And your kids will not be ill

I would, if you crack the eggs you will know if they are off, there will be no doubt at all! Not quite sure what could go wrong with flour either

CathF where in the food processing industry do you work? so I know to give those brands a wide berth

Come to think of it, it's that kind of attitude that is a big part of why I try to avoid processed food as much as possible.

Saying it's fine to use 4 year old flour and eggs that are a couple of months out of date and it's ok because you work in food processing, it not a great advert for processed food!

Ha no charlotte you do it in the shell!
It's to do with the air it takes into its little sack, when it has taken in too much & therefore 'turned' the egg floats. That's the science

2468 that's funny, generally I think people are too quick not to take responsibility for their own food mismanagement and so apt to disregard use by dates in an attempt to cover up their own sloppiness.

If the eggs don't smell when you crack them, they are fine.
If the flour is dry and hasn't got legs, it's fine. If it's self raising then it probably won't rise, but that is different.

Eggs are either bad or not. If they look fine and smell fine, they are fine. There is no way they can make you ill if they are not gone off, and you will soon know it if they are. Eggs keep really rather a long time for a fresh product, at least 3-4 weeks past their sell by date (which are designed to account for this).

Flour would probably be fine but 3 and half years old is pushing it even for me.

What the bloody hell are weevils?! they sound terrifying!

I read that they are considering doing away with 'use by' dates for food which is not dangerous. They hope we will recover the skill of using our eyes and nose to check food is safe. Milk and cheese, for example, is often thrown away unnecessarily.

I'm very cavalier about use by dates but no, I don't think i'd use either.

And remember Best Before is NOT a Use By date. They are very different things.

I'd definitely not use the flour

crack the eggs and see

I'm with you on this. It's not about the few £'s I hate food waste and go by gut feel, look and taste. I use my own judgement and have never made anybody ill. I'm sure most on here would refuse to eat at my house as well but my food bill is minimal and I could quite easily cope with monthly bin collections as we throw very little away.
Trust your own judgement.

Weevils are little beetles. Sailors used to tap their biscuit to get the weevils out before they ate the biscuits. Unless they were extra hungry...

Break eggs into a bowl and see if they split.

Most eggs these days last ages.

Flour - no weevils, surely fine?

And you're frying the pancakes anyway...the heat will surely kill off anything too bad?

Maybe someone with a good knowledge of micrbiology could come along and confirm/deny!

Don't be silly PaperBag.
How do you think we managed before BB dates?
Of course my business would not use four-year-old flour, because we would not have ingredients sitting around that long.
Such hysterical nonsense. Use your common sense.