To ask if I can use cheddar cheese 5 days past Best Before date?

[Butterfly98]

Just that really! I was planning on making macaroni cheese for dinner this evening when I realised just now that the block of cheddar I bought on Saturday was obviously past its best then but was still on the TESCO shelf at full price for shoppers! That will teach me to look at the best before dates from now on! I'm not going to use the full block though and I haven't got time to go back with it today....

Yep

Absolutely fine!

Yes it’s absolutely fine

Yes

A million times yes

Yes! It best before not use by which are different. It's just something they have to put on the label. Two foods that I never even look at the dates are cheese and eggs. If it's mouldy I just scrape it and then eat. You'll be fine!

Ignore best before dates. For hard cheese you can often even ignore use by dates - provided there’s no visible fungus and it smells okay it’s ok to eat

Yep, if it looks and smells fine you'll have no worries. The date is just a rough guide.

Totally fine.

Good grief yes!

I've used Cheddar a month after a sell by date. It's just a guide and Cheddar doesn't go off if kept in a fridge.

I don't pay much attention to sell by dates but I'm old and used to buy cheese off a block with no dates on it.

I used cheese a month after expiring and it was great lol

Although the seal wasn’t broken and it had been in the coolest part of my fridge

Like the user above I only bin out of date hard cheese that has fungus on it

All about the sniff test! I am sure it will be fine

Yep

It would probably still be fine 5 weeks past the date!

Of course. I’ve eaten cheddar months past it’s use by date.

Totally fine.

Real cheddar is left to mature (sometimes in caves) for months. A few days won't make any difference.

Are you sure the date isn't this time next year? The supermarket cheddar I got a few weeks ago has a best before of late January 2020?

But yes, unless it's got black mould on it it's probably fine to eat for weeks yet.

If it's not covered in blue furry mould - then yes it's fine to eat

It wouldn't have occurred to me to check the date at all!

I wouldn't hesitate

If it's green and furry maybe not (though sometimes I just scrape those bits off..) but otherwise go for it.

My father used to cut the mould off and eat the cheese. He was 86 when he died. He also smoked until his last fortnight.

I totally ignore sell by/best before/use by dates. Use your eyes and your sense of smell. If there's no mould, use the cheese. And to be honest if there is mould I just cut it off. There isn't a magic spell that makes, say, a pint of milk suddenly go bad at the stroke of midnight on the date printed on the label. Smell it; if it's off your nose will tell you.

It makes me so mad thinking about the amount of perfectly good food that gets chucked into landfill every single day because people blindly obey these dates.

Ok thank you for all the quick replies! I've done the sniff and visual test and all's well so I will bung it in! I'm trying to be more economical by not wasting so much food. I find bread goes off so quickly and then gets binned, my Mum is horrified when she comes to visit and says she's going to buy us a bread bin to help preserve it better! Do people still use them or do you store your bread in the fridge like they do in the USA?