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....

Before use by dates (I think refrigerated items tend to have use by rather than best before) you really had to rely on look and smell. If it doesn't look mouldy or smell ridiculously strong I'm sure it will be fine. Have no idea how you would tell if stilton etc were off though!!

Yes @RoomR0613 it is dated 2019 but it's a good point though as some stuff is dated 2 years in advance!

I don’t think I have ever looked at the best before date of cheese.

I cut off the fungus or mould and still eat it.

If you don't eat bread quickly enough just freeze it and take slices our as you need them.

Not a good idea to store bread in the fridge, apparently:
'you're better off keeping it on the counter, because bread gets stale much more quickly in the refrigerator. The reason for this is that as soon as bread has been baked it slowly begins a process called retrogration where the starch molecules begin to dry out or crystallize.'

@Butterfly98 - I have a bread bin but rarely use it as DP can't find anything that isn't under his nose. I did find though, that when I did use it the bread stayed fresher for far longer.

Cheese starts life off... off!

Cheese has best before dates?

Bread in the fridge takes longer to mould but goes dry quickly. If I'm not going to be able to get through a loaf I bung it in the freezer and use for toast, breadcrumbs, etc.

Best before is just the date that the food will taste best by. So safe to eat after the date. I think Tesco should have discounted it though if they are selling it past that date Use by is more important and is about safety I never use food beyond its Use By date but I know people do.

Bread does keep better in a bread bin. Especially good bread.

If it's just me I' freeze it and take out slices for toasting.

Yogurt - got a huge tub on the go that must be 5 weeks out of date, still fine, as, again, you know when that's really gone and it starts life off.

Soft cheese you have to be a bit more careful of once it gets mouldy but hard cheese, just scrape the mould off.

It's fine. You can tell when cheese is off. Nasty aftertaste.

Break a bit off and have a taste test.

yes. 5 weeks past would also be ok IMO. 5 months not so much.

@TimeIhadaNameChange yes same here lol! The problem in this house is just for example packed lunches one person wants crackers, one wants oatcakes, one wants rice cakes, one wants bread and I like Ryvita! There's too many packets open at once and there's no way everything can get eaten while still packet fresh. It infuriates me that a lot of items are just half eaten because crackers for eg go bland and softish after being open for a few days!

Freeze sliced bread, it doesn't take long to defrost a slice.
Buy proper unsliced bread for the bread bin and it'll go stale after a few days and then it's good for toast, but it won't go mouldy. Only the pappy supermarket stuff goes mouldy because it's full of all sorts of preservatives to keep it moist and soft. Real bread dries out first.

We had mint sauce last night that was 2 years past its Best Before date and we're still alive to tell the tale (it hasn't been sat opened for all that time, it was still sealed and in the cupboard) so I wouldn't hesitate to use cheddar 5 days past the date. The amount of food that is wasted in this country due to being past a Best Before date is scandalous.

If it looks and smells ok then I’d eat it.

We use a bread bin and it lasts ages. I saw on that "Inside the Factory" programme ages ago a food scientist explaining why bread is best kept Inna dark cupboard rather than in the fridge but I don't remember why.

Cheese is already "off". It was developed afaik as a way of storing milk and it keeps for ages. We don't even check the dates on our cheese and the only time we chuck it is when it's mouldy.

For things like crackers, rice cakes etc store them in an airtight tin or seal the original packet with a klippit. I'm appalled that you throw half-eaten packets away!

I'm usually rather paranoid about these matters, but I ate a packet of Raclette last week, with a use-by date from 3 months ago - 18 August 19! No mould on it. It was absolutely fine.

@Butterfly98 - try keeping all the crackers and oat cakes in a bread bin too. You may find they keep for longer as well as the bread.

if it's not green, you can eat it 5 weeks after, let alone 5 days.

it's a best before, not a throw away after date. Do people not use their (common) senses anymore to figure out if it's good to eat?

I noticed the other day that a packet of cheddar said 'eat within 3 days of opening' which I thought was pretty scandalous, it feels like a con to get people to chuck out perfectly good food and buy more. Cheddar is fine for weeks and weeks after opening, and as for best before dates, there's more nonsense to fool the unwary.

Just to add, if you tweet the supermarket you'll probably get a voucher...