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?

My motto is if it smells ok and isn’t hairy , then all is fine (doesn’t apply with DH though, need to sort him out )

I know someone who writes a label with the date whenever anything is opened and religiously throws them away once the recommended time is up. I think it's a horrible waste.

Anything the vinegar or alcohol in it will be fine for just about forever. That’s why these are used in pickling and preserving.
Products with dairy and eggs are time limited. Commercial mayonnaise with a good proportion of vinegar is ok for quite some time until it smells sort of funny.

I've just had some mozzarella pearls. The water it came in when that weird shade of off white and smelt bad but I've seeped out the water and ate the pearls. Fingers crossed.

Some things keep much longer. But otherwise, permanent marker the date on which you should throw it out on the lid.

I often write use by dates on products with sharpie so I can see it when I open the fridge - I don’t worry about condiments though - ours often go over the 6/12 weeks . Opened jars I always check for mould - in my experiences it’s often on the jar lid before in the product. If there was mould or a change of colour / smell I throw it

I have a four-point plan for just this sort of thing.

• Does it smell weird?
• Has it gone a funny colour?
• Are there bubbles in it?
• Is it furry?

If the answer to all of those is no, then it passes the test. We're all still here.

If it looks off, or smells off, it is off. If it both looks and smells off, march it into the backyard and kill it with a hammer. And if it walks out of the refrigerator, let it go!

There should be a campaign to get the food industry to make their Sell by/Use by dates much clearer.

Fresh soups and fresh pasta sauces are dreadful, you have to tilt the container so the food makes a dark background before you have a chance of reading it. They don't give a thought to people with sight problems (my mum has glaucoma so I'm acutely aware of this kind of thing).

Found a packet of peanuts in the cupboard a few years ago ~ my son and I ate the lot. Saw the date just by chance when I threw it away later ~ two years out of date, we were both fine

@Quartz2208

When they get the first sign of mould surely?

Sometimes, the first post says it all.

@goopsoup

I've just had some mozzarella pearls. The water it came in when that weird shade of off white and smelt bad but I've seeped out the water and ate the pearls. Fingers crossed.

Those small mozarellas are the worst for going off - they are often bad before the use-by date. I don't know why - is it because they come from far away, or because they are not kept cold enough because most cheese is forgiving of not being kept cold enough, is there air in the packaging? They often smell/taste bad and the very small ones I don't buy anymore. The ones sized like cherry tomatoes are slightly more reliable, but still often gone rancid before the use-by date.

Honestly, people need to start relying on the senses they were born with rather than infantilising themselves by over focus on sell by dates.

@OneTC

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

Nice. I suppose I shouldn't expect much from mumsnet considering everyone thinks they can say 'mouldy pesto' or give the same advice in a much better format than anyone else.

I often eat things that have been open too long, especially hummus. The hummus we buy seems to keep for weeks, with only a mild change to the texture and no noticeable change to the taste. I can’t in all conscience recommend doing this - I can only say that we’ve noticed no ill effects.

HOWEVER, IF AN OUT-OF-DATE PRODUCT CONTAINS ANY COCONUT, JUST THROW IT AWAY!

Seriously, do not eat any out of date food containing coconut milk, coconut cream, even desiccated coconut. Coconut turns rancid and can make you feel awful. I learnt this the hard way.

@GlomOfNit

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?

This made me smile. I grew up with a mother who just scraped the mould off the top of the jam and said it would be fine. I survived unscathed and did the same with my DC. They also survived. Then my DS became a microbiologist and informed me how dangerous it was to do this as the mould isn’t only the bit you can see but it will have spread throughout the jam where it can’t be seen so I must never ever scrape mould of jam. I pointed out he had grown up with me doing just that. We’ve agreed to differ

when we open a jar we write the 'use by' date on it with a permanent marker

I don’t ever throw them out 🤣, jam is fine as long as it doesn’t have mould on it (my grandad would even eat it when it had mould on it, would remove the mould at eat eh jam underneath), ketchup probably gets used up within 3 weeks in our house, Mayo is in the fridge and as lot going as it looks ok it’s edible.

Loved the pp who said they eat it unless it's fizzy...

As a child my favourite yogurt was 'fizzy pineapple' i.e. the one that had already started fermenting. I'm still here to tell the tale.

“ She was so tight with her money that she thought she would risk it until she nearly shat herself into the local crematorium”

😂😂😂

If the date on it is 2 weeks then I kind of remember to eat it within the month at least, if it is six weeks plus I just sniff and check for mould. Managed not to poison anyone yet. Pesto beware, it really does need to be eaten if it contains cheese

I ignore the 'use within' instructions tbh. If it's not furry or niffy then it's grand. Only exception is pesto which seems to go off in nanoseconds I dollop what we've not used into an ice cube tray and freeze.

As for the branston pickle query, my jar was at least 2 christmasses old when I chucked it before moving house.

And I should have rtft first because someone has already posted that genius idea.

I just do the sniff test, never fails!