Using out of date food...

[LadyRussell]

Does anyone else do this?

Fresh food and meat I will smell (with the exception of chicken - I don’t mess with that) and judge.

Herbs, uncooked rice and pasta I always used years past the best before date.

I have never poisoned anyone.

I just made some oatmeal cookies with porridge oats that went out of date in Jan 2015 and half of them have already been eaten ... I never tell anyone .. am I going to hell..?

But the processed reformed meat is so rammed full of preservatives etc that it could be full of bacteria but still look and smell fine

But don't the preservatives stop the bacteria multiplying to dangerous levels rather than hiding their presence? Genuine question.

What did people do before plastic packing and use by/best before dates

My dad was born in the thirties - before fridges so I guess they had to decide by smell, look and touch, and obviously went through rationing.

We were brought up to NEVER waste food.

Not sure if being bought up in times before use by dates, preservatives and health and safety has given him a strong constitution or if we are a bit too cautious these days

Yes I have tried baking bread with out of date flour - it doesn’t work 😂

I find that many goods, such as stone fruit, avocados or nice cheeses are only just starting to ripen properly when they get to their best before date.

I use my eyes, nose & common sense to assess the edibility of my food, not an arbitrary date on a packet. I’m still alive.

Perhaps it's easier when it's only you that's eating it but I think in general it's only the flavour that might be compromised. I'm certainly alive and well, lol.

Yes, I do too. No one died or had a whistling, screaming diarhhoea

I'm with you LadyRussell.
I hate food being wasted (well, anything being wasted) and will look at food, and smell food and judge for myself. I'm happy to cut 'bad' bits off food and continue to use it.

If it’s smells okay or hasn’t walked out on its own then I’ll cook it and feed it to my family.

I have a couple of friends that refuse to use anything past date so I often leave theirs with load of food. Last time I got 3 day’s worth. Don’t mind if I do, thank you

1CantPickAName

It's the best before dates on salt and sugar that crack me up.

I use out of date stuff all the time. I trust my nose. Nobody's had any ill effects yet.

Last week I used some tinned beans from 2014 and frozen wraps from 2013.

I feel smug when I do it.

I have no idea why

Barbara, I think they put stuff in to make it pinker and look more appetising etc which makes it harder to tell if it's off. Plus it tastes. Wet salty and is full of flavour enhancers. Also all ham smells like farts when you first open it anyway😁 I wish I could be more concise but I watched a program on use by dates several years ago and they said basically trust your own judgement on whether it's ok to eat on everything except pre packed reformed sliced meats, So there you have it!

I won't eat ham or bacon if it's developed that greenish shine (sometimes even while it's still in date) but that's about it.

I asked my mum for a tennis the other day, she had a packet and the best before date on it was 1999! I decided not to take it but fine with most other stuff

Rennie! Not tennis!

I do the same!