to tell you that food that "doesn't go off" does go off

[Msplace]

There's labels on food that tell you to use it within a period of time of being open. I was advised those labels didn't matter and if it smells ok it probably is, and they're just designed to make you buy more food more often make money. Don't listen to people who tell you this! This poor advice made me very ill.

I've left yogurt open for a month and it's still been fine. I don't think it's the yogurt that made you ill unless you had it sitting out in the sun for days.

What a lot of people fail to realise is pathogenic bacteria (aka what gives you food poisoning) has no taste or smell and you cannot see it. So the "sniff test" is completely pointless to detect it.

I often eat yoghurt that has been open for five days. No one else in my house eats natural yogjurt and I only have it with berries at breakfast, so a 500ml pot takes me 5 days to get through.

Are you sure it was the yoghurt that made you ill? Was it already on its BB or sell by date when you opened it?

My mate is a microbiologist and always points out that the "sniff it" test is bollocks because the early stages of bacteria developing are not remotely detectable by humans either sniffing or tasting food. It can rule out some foods but not all of them. Her advice is to, well, follow the advice!

Unless you had stool samples and the yoghurt tested, then you cannot be sure what made you unwell. It could have been noro or something else entirely. I did read somewhere that if you do have noro, the last thing you ate becomes completely unpalatable.

I mean this one is on you really isn't it.

You can't just rely on smell.

Were you able to look at it? Even then I wouldn't risk it 5 days - exposed to air.

Same here. And i always eat yogurt well past its date.
But then I had one last week that went mouldy after 3 days, and well within date.

Yes! And dips that say use within 1 day of opening mean it.

You need to use your smell and taste power too, you can’t just blindly eat past it’s best food.

No one would advise that, OP.

I’d suspect your fridge isn’t cold enough or something like a dirty spoon used to scoop out intruding contamination.
We but the 950g Greek yoghurt and never had any issues.

I think you were confused OP.

Yoghurt can be eaten long after it's best before date, if it hasn't been opened. But after it's opened it will only stay fresh for so long.

Opened, but with a lid put back on. I buy a big tub which will last me a week or so.

Yeah 5 day old open yoghurt is a daft thing to consume.

If it was a sealed jar of jam that you'd had in the cupboard for half a decade you would have been fine.

This.

I eat Greek yogurt which has a long date on it, usually 6 weeks or so. But I wouldn't open it and then expect to still be able to eat it 6 weeks later. The tub says eat within 3 days if opening, but as long as I reseal it and my fridge is working correctly (it has a temp indicator on the outside) I would expect it to be ok after 4 or 5. I assume they put three as the minimum it should be ok for, not the maximum.

5 day old yoghurt wouldn’t have made you ill. It was just a coincidence unless it got contaminated with something else.

Goodness, I’m always eating yoghurt that’s been open longer than three days. I’d never get through a tub of Greek yoghurt in three days.

My fridge keeps yogurt happily for a week. So does my mum'sand sibling's...
But I am very anal about fridge temp, dedicated spaces in feidge and never ever dip spoon into anything after it touched something else.

Threads like this come up surprisingly often on MN.

It's simple. Use by means exactly that,and best before means exactly that.

We always buy the large 1kg Greek yogurt ( well 800g since shrinkflation).
Have never eaten all that in 3 days. It lasts us a good week. Can’t say it’s every gone off or made us ill

I don't know who told you that the labels don't matter after you've opened the product but that's crap advice. The only foods that tend not to go off are unopened tinned foods

Some last ages! I think my longest so far was 2 weeks. Bought massive tub since dh was supposed to eat at home more but he ended up busy and I don't do food waste😂 Still tasty.

How do you know it was the yogurt? I buy 1kg Greek yogurt and it can be open for weeks if I am just using it on chilli.

Interestingly basically all results on google suggeat7days + after opening.

I'm not sure I'd eat yogurt 5 days past opening date but the use by dates on yogurt are far too short. But there's a significant difference between it being sealed, and being open.