To think cream should have a date ON THE CARTON!!

[StrongerThanIThought76]

Ffs. Just treating myself to late night apple pie and cream. Cream was opened at the weekend, lid discarded.

Cream liberally poured over pie... and it's sour. Bleurgh.

Milk I will throw out at the best before date because I can't stand the thought of sniffing sour milk, but cream - and come to think of it every cream carton I've recently had - has the date on the peel-off lid that gets chucked out!

I feel a strongly worded letter is needed, but who to?

MY PIE IS RUINED!

Yanbu. I've had this a few times and it drives me nuts, can't remember what supermarket does it though.

Use by dates should be on the tub.

You're meant to eat it within 48 hours of being opened though.

I completely disregard the date on cream cartons, cream consistently last days and days past it in our fridge - but I always have a sniff and a taste if necessary before pouring.

Ignore best before dates. Trust your nose. Like Gandalf.

Yes this annoys me too!

Yep - trust your nose! Always by-pass the use by date, anyway, once the carton's been opened. Often cream, yogurt, etc are still fine beyond the use by date!

Sorry about your pie, OP, but you might have saved yourself from some unnecessary calories!

I ignore sell by / use by dates and sniff things

Ignore use by dates, use your nose and (common sense) I never eat milk or cream without a sniff test first

The lids are bloody annoying I'm sure they used to be foil so you could fold them out the way to pour then fold them back over. The stupid plastic/film lids are crap. But yes trust your nose ! If the date was on the pot I would probably spill the cream looking for the date

Use your common sense and your nose. Use by dates are bullshit anyway and lead to tonnes of wasted food.

Is cream not one of those 'Once opened, refrigerate and consume within X days' things? Rendering the date on the lid somewhat irrelevant?

I write in the lid with a Sharpie!

The other one is double packs of something like bacon, so I cut pack one off to use, then come to use the next one and find that the date was on the other half.

I do tend to go by checking colour and lack of odour, but it is daft where particularly for a meat product, the use by is so easily lost.

the plastic lids can and should be kept too, it'll last longer with the better seal

The tubs of milk you get in cafes sometimes send you on a treasure hunt to find the best-before date.

On the lid it says "Best Before: See base". Then on the base it says "Best Before: See tab", where the actual date is stamped (rather than "See lid" which would be even better/worse obviously)

Smelling stuff doesn't tell you if you are going to get poisoned. Spoilage bacteria tend to smell, pathogens don't.
Milk and cream will spoil via lactic acid bacteria so you have smell / off flavours, you can sniff or taste. The lowering of pH in Pasteurised milk, due to lactic acid bacteria means you are unlikely to get any pathogenic growth. Raw milk is different, you could potentially pick up something really unpleasant from that without smelling or tasting anything ( although good animal husbandry will reduce the risk).