For potentially poisoning my family with my utter incompetence...

[PoorMissDior]

How in gods name does anyone remember when to throw out opened ketchup, jam, mayonnaise, pesto etc etc

Once opened these items need to be used within 6 weeks or 12 weeks or some other defined time period.

I was vaguely aware of this but it's just occurred to me that I have a fridge full of condiments and absolutely no goddamn idea how long they've been open for. Could be weeks, could be months, could be years. Who the hell knows.

How does anyone monitor this? Do you all have calendar alerts set up? sophisticated spreadsheets? beautifully written little time stamped labels?

AIBU for not having the faintest idea what is going on in my kitchen?

@Snackasaurus

That's utter rubbish. Smell it and if it smells fine, eat it! If it smells off, don't

Pretty much this.

Although I will admit I’m slightly more cautious with what I feed dd(5) but I will be teaching her my reckless ways when she starts cooking for herself.

Nobody throws them away on the dates. You either finish them or they go manky.

It's obvious when they are manky. It's not like fresh meat or prepared fresh food where you could eat it and not know. You only need to pay mind to dates when something can spoil without always being obvious. Like houmous or cheesecake.

I wouldn't drink old Baileys (opened some 10 year old Baileys last year that my nan brought round, and was almost instantly sick) but everything else you just check for signs of decay. Never poisoned anyone else yet.

I know. I find it really baffling all these people who are throwing food away on 'the date' or even before the date, or because it's been out of the fridge for an hour or under a load of other circumstances where it would never occur to me that it needs to be thrown away.

There was also the teasmade thread where people thought that milk would go off if it was unrefridgerated overnight in a (presumably) unheated bedroom. Might do if you live in a hot country, or in the height of summer here, but not in most circumstances in the UK.

Smell/mould is good for things like jam but doesn't work for everything. Vegan "milk" lasts months without any discernible sign of going off. I can't believe it is still ok after all that time though and always mark a date on that. Jar sauces (I know, so unmumsnetty!) can also smell and look ok but taste off once heated up so they also need marking.

I'm a little paranoid about food poisoning as I'm an emetophobe, so I just cut a bit of white sticky label and write the date it needs to be thrown out, then stick it on. DP is much more lax about things only he eats (I don't stick labels on those as he claims not to need them to know when they go bad - fair play) and eats things that are way past, IMO, and he's never actually made himself ill.

I think it's good to have an idea of when something needs to go, but your body is much stronger than you (and certainly I) give it credit for.

At least you are keeping these things in the fridge! That is a good move. Just wait for people to tell you it's fine to keep jam and ketchup in the cupboard.
Pesto really only a few days (I know the jar might say 2 week - do not go beyond that). Mayo has egg in it, so maybe don't take any risks with that. Agree with pp that ketchup and jam probably OK for a long time due to sugar/vinegar levels.

Im puzzled why I have to use Branston pickle within 6 or 8 weeks. I thought the whole idea of pickles was that they wont go off ! ALso jam and marmalade now need to be in the fridge and eaten quickly.

I sniff it. If I'm still not sure, I lick it. If it smells or tastes weird I sling it, if it doesn't then its grand.

Nothing lasts long enough in our house to actually go off but I would just go by smell/taste rather than dates. We don't keep ketchup in the fridge and have never had a problem.

I feed it to MIL when she comes barging round and wait to see if it’s ok for the rest of us.

@user1495884620

Sharpie date opened on the label.

great hint!

also for the yoghurt pits where the foil but you throw away is the one with the best before date (that always irritates me- sharpies might change my life)

Yesterday we finished the bottle of sriracha. at least 3 years after opening. I opened a new bottle and saw that;

1. It needs to berefrigerated after opening (nope, never)
2. It needs to be used within 8 weeks.

Mind blown.

Write date opened on jar/bottle with Sharpie

A lot of these products are basically preserves and don't even need the fridge. Some aren't.....

The solution imo is to be sufficiently greedy that nothing lasts longer than its use-by date anyway ☺️

Mould or smell, we've evolved to be able to judge food with our senses, it's how we survived before sell by dates.

I have piccalilli on Boxing Day. No one else likes it. A jar lasts me years.

Jams and marmalades should now be kept in the fridge as the manufacturers have reduced the sugar content for healthy eating reasons, so they tend to go mouldy sooner.

Just wait for people to tell you it's fine to keep jam and ketchup in the cupboard.
I keep ketchup in a cupboard. Not jams though.

Yesterday we finished the bottle of sriracha. at least 3 years after opening.
😂 No bacteria eould touch that. Ours never lasts that long. It's really nice sauce.

Put a thin layer of olive oil over the pesto once you've opened it and it will keep for weeks in the fridge. It's only when it's exposed to air that it goes off. Pickles will keep indefinitely as long as the vinegar covers them (that's the whole point of pickling) and don't need to go in the fridge. Ketchup too – and we never keep it in the fridge. Never known it go off although we don't use it much and a bottle lasts about six months or more. Jam – we keep in the cupboard and just scrape any mould off – it's fine underneath.

Our ketchup stays in the cupboard as well, never lasts long enough to go bad.

ketchup is full of vinegar, and will never go off. And I like it in the fridge.

But I am sad to hear about the Bailey's - surely last year's bottle will be fine if I give it a shake? It's the kind of thing that I want about once a year. Current bottle was school bottle tombola win, an absolute corker.

I write the date I open them in sharpie on the label of things like pesto and tend to stick to it. A day or two over wouldn’t bother me unless it’s gone manky but if it’s much more than that I’ll chuck it.

Ketchup, soy sauce etc just keep going til either it runs out or goes manky.

I think if you are not getting ill, you are probably doing OK. People seem to be able to tolerate different amounts of bad bacteria. When I was little jam, ketchup etc was just in the cupboard and we were fine. These days I can get ill off pretty much anything past its best. Maybe you have built up a high level of good gut flora...

@BarbaraofSeville Freezing pesto is GENIUS. The amount of jars of it I've binned, especially when I lived on my own. You've saved me a fortune going forward!

Things like mustards, sauces, and anything pickled I'd never give a second thought to how long they'd be open so look as they look and smell ok when opened.

Exception being DP's posh sundried tomatoes that are in some kind of gloopy gelatinous stuff. It gives me the gips at the best of times, so I'm going nowhere near once they've been open a little while.