to hate expiry dates on jars of breakfast goods

[flamingnoravera]

I look after a lot of children and this morning the boy I was looking after wanted nutella on toast for breakfast. I dutifully got out the nutella and he began spreading it on his bread. Then he looked at the label and said "I cant eat this it expired last month". I told him it was fine to eat- the nutella is mostly sugar and you can tell if it is ok by looking at it and tasting it. He started to moan so I took it away- then he moaned because he had no nutella. I wish those bloody dates on labels would go away and prevent breakfast breakdowns. AIBU?

Know your labels - 'best before' means that the food will taste best before this date, but is OK to eat after this. 'Use by' means that you shouldn't eat it after this date as it may be dangerous. Nutella is almost certainly 'best before'.

I know about best before- kids so rigid though, they don't get it. They check everything. I get why some do it- they were possibly from a family where food was either scarce or bad, but this child has not experienced food neglect.

I think this depends on the context of "looking after".

If it's your child's friend at your house on a play-date/ sleepover then fine if you'd also feed it to your children.
If it's a paid-for breakfast club or a trip associated with a club or organisation, then not fine.

There needs to be more public information about the Best Before/ Sell by/ Use by dates. If the child can read the date and know that the product is "out of date", then they should be able to understand the different types of date if they are explained to them.

If this child is a guest in your house and not having Nutella is such a big deal, then does he need to visit again?

Two of my kids (teenagers), who I have never yet poisoned and who are not food deprived by the way, do this and it drives me nuts. No matter how many times I explain to them the difference between sell by and use by labels they always give me that raise eye browed distrustful look before putting the item back in the cupboard. There was much talk about stores doing away with labels ages ago.wasn't there? I wish they's hurry up and put it into practice as it would save so much unnecessary food waste, not to mention the risk of my kids getting hit over the head with a jar of tasty edibles