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?

These threads usually end up with a competition of who worries the least about these things, lots of tales of ‘eating 53 year old jam and I’m fine.’ Only for someone else to have to outdo that person by eating 54 year old jam. Anyone that sticks to dates and guidelines is accused of single handedly ruining the planet by being wasteful

@PoorMissDior You do know that in 99.9% of cases with bottled or canned food, it's a marketing ploy to make you throw it out and buy more?

With anything like that just use your common sense. If it looks ok and smells ok it's going to be ok.

I make a lot of homemade preserves/condiments. The recipes normally use within 6 months. It's utter rubbish. A friend texted me last week to say she had found a forgotten jar of chili jam that I made 4 years ago and had eaten it that day and it was still delicious.

And I will definitely be freezing pesto in future. It's a genius idea. That stuff goes off so ridiculously fast. We seem to throw away more than we eat.

The ketchup doesn't last long enough in our house to go mouldy!

Ketchup gets binned when/ if it’s fizzy. I’m sure the fermentation wouldn’t actually harm you but it tastes nasty. I’m amazed so few of you have had fizzy ketchup!!!

Otherwise look at it, then sniff it, then taste it, then eat it.

Is anyone else sick of these threads where 80 odd people like to give the exact same answer (i.e. smell the pesto, check for mould, ketchup never goes out of date) and their own experience of finding mouldy jam?

Pesto freezes really well. I tend to use half a jar at a time so once opened and the first half used, then the rest goes straight in the freezer in its jar.

The weirdest thing I saw was a use by date on a tub of Himalayan salt. Damn that primordial Health & Safety!

My ex used to write the date of opening on the bottles with a marker. I just use them until they look or taste manky. I’m a bit more careful with mayo but that doesn’t tend to last very long in my fridge anyway.

If there's no visible mould, foul smell, or fizzy alcoholic fermented edge to the taste, then it's fine. If something says to use within 6 weeks of opening, there's not a time-bomb that means it's perfectly fine to eat on day 41 but suddenly poisonous by day 43. They will write "use within X of opening" if they are 100% confident it won't actually kill you if consumed about 2X after opening. I regularly eat houmous 5 days after opening, despite the packet instructing me to eat within 3 days, and am not dead yet!

Very few things like jam, marmalade, pesto etc are going to 'poison' your family OP, if given to them past the use by date. And many of those will have BB dates anyway, not Use By. The little thing on the side of the jar that says 'use within 3 days/2 weeks/one month of opening' - I didn't think ANYONE ever obeyed those! Otherwise I'd be constantly opening new jars of things and chucking them out half full.

Chutneys and pickles and olives and so on have loads of vinegar and salt in to preserve them, jams rely on the high sugar content to keep them going for ages, even in cupboards, and I've scraped the mould off the top of the jam for years and am still going strong. I might be a bit more cautious with something like mayo or curd which has eggs and dairy in, but I'd always taste it first anyway.

People really need to deploy their common sense and instinct in these matters.

There we go, Barmyfarmy - did I fill your MN Bingo Card for Use By Dates adequately?

Is anyone else sick of these threads where 80 odd people like to give the exact same answer (i.e. smell the pesto, check for mould, ketchup never goes out of date) and their own experience of finding mouldy jam?

Almost like it's an online forum

If it looks weird, sniff it. If it's mouldy, throw away.

There's a big difference between a sealed sterilised jar of jam/pickle/mustard which will keep for years and years and an opened one which will gain bacteria from the air and knife. Keeping an open jar in the fridge will slow down the bacterial growth so it will last longer before it goes mouldy.

I teeat all dates on good for what they in my opinion are.
A guide and most importantly a safety guarantee for the company, rather than me. Can't sue them if it's gone off after the date or I kept it in a fridge for 12 days instead of 2 they said I should... There was an article not so long ago that red meat should have dates changed because it lasts considerably longer and short dates just encourage waste.

If it looks and smells OK, we eat it.
Yesterday I made some mince pies with the tail end of a big jar of mincemeat inherited from a friend who left the U.K. over 2 years ago.
The best before date was sometime in 2017.
It was a bit dried up, so I sloshed a bit of brandy in.
Mince pies were fine, dh and I are still alive.

Things like ketchup, I don't pay attention much since it's used up quite quickly. Other things that doesn't get used so often, I would write the date opened with marker.

My son practically drinks ketchup so our spare ketchup is very handily kept at Aldi 😂 Other than that, we just eat condiments until they’re gone.

Condiments we just use until they're gone.

Jars of pesto, pasta sauce etc we use a permenant marker and write the date opened on the jar.

I take a photo on my smartphone on the day I open it.
I also take a photo of the packets of items I need before recycling them- like a visual shopping list!

When I open an item, I write the date on the item using a sharpie.

I disagree with most people I must have poor gut flora but my stomach gets upset by old jars of things way before they go mouldy or smelly so I throw open jars away of most things after week at the most (I only buy little jars with a planned recipe). DH always buys reduced pots of hummus and similar things than expire that day, and if I mistakenly eat some the next day when it still looks fine I always spend the day running to the toilet. If I can't remember when I bought an open jar it goes in the bin even if it looks ok.

All the gung ho healthy people going "eat it".

Yes, you will probably be fine but some people cannot risk it. Diarrhoea etc. can kill some people so please don't go around calling others names who are being, what you consider, overly cautious.

Many years ago, my GM nearly died of it, had to be hospitalised. She was so tight with her money that she thought she would risk it until she nearly shat herself into the local crematorium.

Also, a few days off work with illness can mean a missed mortgage or rent payment to more than the odd few. To risk that trying to save 10 pence by not throwing out old ketchup is frankly bizzare.

@Quartz2208

When they get the first sign of mould surely?

Or when the mould is so deep you can't scrape it off the top.

We had salad cream that sat in the fridge for ages (as in, two years past BBE date) because we stopped having fish and chips so much.

Had fish and chips in the Christmas holidays - salad cream was fine. Had fish and chips on Good Friday - salad cream was quite obviously not fine. You will know!

If I've not used anything for absolutely ages think months and months I bin it. I had Bailey's that curdled. But that was after around 6 years or maybe more. Not in fridge.