OH keeps food past it’s sell by and I want to kill him

[BellaFreckle1]

Ok so this is a really random subject but I need to know if anyone else is in the same boat as me ...

My OH is a nightmare for keeping food past it’s sell by date and claims it’s only a guideline. It’s starting to really upset me because imo he’s risking food poisoning and sickness. He also leaves cooked food on the kitchen worktop overnight and uncovered then freezes or refrigerates it the next day. I made Mac and cheese a couple nights ago and left the remains in the oven dish on the worktop and asked him to refrigerate it for the following days lunch. I got up in the morning to find it still sitting on the counter so I asked him to throw it in the bin and when I got home from work I found it in the freezer!!!

I know this is probably so trivial but it’s really upsetting me and I’m concerned that one of us is going to become really ill.

I accidentally threw out cheese that was within the sell by date and he almost started crying - honestly his eyes glazed over and he was so mad.

Any advice would be great - I need to nip this on the bud before one of us ends up sick!!

So what time of day does food become one day over it’s best before date? Midnight?

If we have any bread at home that's just one day over the best before date,

How do you deal with the days when the clock changes and a day is 23 or 25 hours long?

And what about home made bread, or a home made cake? How do you know when that is a day over?

Sell by date is a guide. It wastes so much money throwing stuff out adhering to a printed date rather than smelling it/looking at it.

Macaroni cheese would be fine left out overnight as long as you reheat it thouroughly.

The only thing I am strict on is rice and any meat or fish. They should go in the fridge as soon as they are cool.

#teamDH

One of the life lessons I have taught my Ds is how to put eggs in water and see if they float or sink.

BertrandRussell
Oh come on, are you stupid?

Everyone knows food becomes highly poisonous and grows masses of green and grey mould at one minute past midnight on its best before date

I'll let you all know when he keels over

And what about home made bread, or a home made cake? How do you know when that is a day over?

Do you think that the sort of people who worry about things being a day "out of date" bake? Imagine their anxiety when there are eggs being used. Imagine their anxiety around yeast.

I've never heard of anything so ridiculous as chucking out milk and bread according to the use by date. That is awful and so so wasteful.

My fridge is very cold and milk can last 4 or 5 days past the use by date. Some people must have more money than sense. If just thinking about using milk the day after the use by date makes you feel sick, you need help of some sort. At half past midnight that milk is exactly the same as it was at 11.30pm. No wonder people struggle with their grocery bills if they are throwing everything out left right and centre.

This is MN though an luckily I know no one who does this in real life.

Roussette
I know people in real life who won't eat dairy or chicken the day before is use by date, I was speechless when the first one told me, but now I know at least half a dozen

Oh god you’re a supermarkets dream!

I do absolutely everything in the house as I think your big issue is not some dried out pasta. I’m sure many of you do as well erm no because my husband isn't a disrespectful dick. And I say that as a SAHP.

If we have any bread at home that's just one day over the best before date... I don't trust anything as soon as it's the day after it's use by/best before date. It makes me feel sick just thinking about it

I'm curious. You're hungry one night so make toast. You notice the bread has today's date on. You make some. Hot choc tooand use up the last of the milk, also with today's date.
You sit down, bite of toast, sip of hot choc. Mmmm. Yummy. Before you get half way through the clock bongs 12, tis midnight. The bread and milk are out of date.
Do you finish or bin??

Some people must have more money than sense

As someone who enjoys the expensive end of the supermarket, I am always amazed at those "how much is your weekly food bill?" threads. but then I don't throw food away. I presume people with big supermarket bills don't plan, and then throw stuff away.

@MitziK the same happened to me! Ate shrimp in spicy marinade, less than an hour later was in the hospital with what looked like a full blown anaphylactic shock. Only later discovered that shrimp were past their use-by date, and after extensive testing, it is also determined that I did not develop a sudden allergy.

So while I would not throw out apples, yogurts or spices, I will not eat meat or fish/seafood that is not fresh and properly stored. That was not a fun experience.

I'm in agremeent with your husband. I've never had food poisoning and I've eaten loads of stuff past the 'best before' or 'use by' date. I have left food out and eaten it the next day. I've even reheated rice and eaten that.

I eat stuff beyond its use by date. I very much doubt that the suppliers time it to the last possible hour and leave themselves at least 24 hours and more likely 48 hours leeway. Meat I won't eat after 48 hours but I routinely drink/eat milk/yogurt which is up to a week over (if unopened).

I think there's a middle ground.

I don't like eating things more than a day or 2 past their use by date because I get a lot of stomach upsets and I'm always scared if I eat the wrong thing I'll be up all night throwing up. I'm also terrible at noticing if things taste/smell off - I once drank milk every day for a week that was a month past its use by date, I only realised because I kept being sick around 5-10 minutes after breakfast every day .

My dh otoh is far too easygoing. He once served me frozen fish that was a year past its use by date - he thought it would be ok because he'd cooked it through . Another time I refused to have any cream from the opened pot in our fridge because it was a week past its use by date. He told me I was being too fussy and it was perfectly fine. When he tried to use it it was so thick and lumpy it wouldn't even pour!

I'm normally asleep when the clocks change so I don't notice a difference at all. I just literally can't eat anything that's past it's best before or use by date.

Only later discovered that shrimp were past their use-by date

It's almost certain you would have had the same reaction had they been in date. Shellfish are a lottery because there is a lot of faecal contamination in the production areas. I have only had severe food poisoning once in my life, and that was with some impeccably fresh oysters where the supply chain was the ten yards from the boat to the restaurant. I was just unlucky. As an argument for careful handling and careful checking of sources, shellfish are right there. But dates are almost irrelevant: they don't develop contamination over time, they're usually dangerously contaminated to start with (in which case the date is irrelevant) or they aren't (in which they'll usually be unappetising long before they are unsafe).

You do realise that by definition, cheese has already gone off?

He once served me frozen fish that was a year past its use by date - he thought it would be ok because he'd cooked it through

Yep, that's right. It might be a bit tasteless, but from a safety point of view fish can be kept at -18C pretty much indefinitely. I used to buy big lumps of tuna direct from the boat via a colleague, and I found one at the back of the freezer five years after said colleague left the company we had worked at. It was a bit flabby and more suited for a curry than slicing into steaks, but it was perfectly safe.

Onlyjoined I know no one! I'm agog at this thread and the chucking out!

Eccles it's not that you can't eat food past it's sell by date, it's that you won't. Fair enough, your decision.

People's food bills must be absolutely astronomical.

The only thing I don't like is when broccoli is that funny yellow colour because it's been hanging around too long (I like my broccoli bright green!) or carrots are soft and bendy. But apart from that, I don't chuck anything!

Cream, I taste You can tell straight away if it's off or not. We had some double cream on a crumble on Sunday that was 3 days past it's use by date, but it was absolutely fine.

Roussette
this will sound stupid but cut the very bottom off you broccoli and put it in a glass of water in the fridge, it keeps much longer if it can have a drink.

Carrots and parsnips I sometimes soak for a couple of hours if they are only a little bit rubbery then the absorb the water and can be peeled easily and taste fine

Can you tell I hate waste too?

I grew up before dates on foods and learnt from my mother and from school Home Economics ( cookery) classes how to assess food for quality when buying, how to store it safely and how to judge its viability.

What do people do when they buy goods that’s are not sealed and labelled - fruit and veg from the market, meat from a butchers, deli items sliced to your requirements? You have to learn to make your own judgements.

Am still reeling at the thought of throwing away cheese just because it has gone beyond a use buy date - it’s a matured product, there won’t be a magic standardised date for that piece of cheese to be safe/ unsafe - just a bit harder or softer.