Use by dates

[hourstokill]

We have a Tesco ready meal in the fridge it's 2 days out of date...

I threw it... hubby says he would have eaten it?

AIBU for throwing it

I don't pay much attention to dates, even "Use By". If it looks all right and smells all right then I'll eat it. I'm still alive.

I'd have eaten it if it smelt and looked OK. Supermarkets have to be very strict with use by dates as they could face lawsuits if customers were getting ill but most foods are fine to eat a couple of days after them.

I think it’s wasteful to just throw food out before checking that nobody else would have been happy to eat it - so YABU. Ready meals have preservatives added for extended shelf life so it would probably have been fine.

Mind you, those who thought it looked all right and smelt all right and ate it...but consequently died, aren't on here to give their view! 😉

I don’t care much for use by dates, you can see or certainly be able to smell your food - that should tell you if it’s off.
Mind you, and I’m not being snobby about ready meals here!!! But we don’t buy ready meals, just meat/veg etc and I wonder if it’s easier to tell when eg a chicken has gone off or your broccoli is mouldy. Ready meals have loads of preservatives, colourings, flavourings etc added to them which could either help by keeping it fresher for longer or mask anything dodgy because it ‘smells okay. As I said, I’m not being rude by saying we don’t buy ready meals, I’m not judging either, I’m just musing if it’s generally harder to tell with eg a ready made cottage pie or something!!
I think if it was chicken or fish anyway I’d be more wary but other than that would have gone for it.

While it's true that supermarkets have to be strict with dates as a pp said...

Supermarkets and manufacturers don't set a Use By date for fun. It will be based on testing and data. It's in both the supermarket and manufacturer's interest to maximise the shelf life because they'll waste less. There's only so much time that can be tagged on 'to be safe' before a product would no longer be commercially viable.

For that reason, we trust the dates! It's not like food turns to poison on the stroke of midnight, but the risk of getting poorly will increase as time goes on.

Bad food doesn't always smell or taste off. Toxins produced by microorganisms can be tasteless and heat stable (that's why nuking bad rice in the microwave for ages won't make it safe to eat).

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

I'm a bit OTT with use by dates and am with you.

I would have eaten it depending on what it was I'm immunocompromised don't tell my doctor
If it was in a cold fridge and not an over warm one
Fish? No
Veggie something then yes
Meat I would have sniffed first but more than likely eaten it

Proper food (meat, veg) I would be OK with a ready meal has already been mucked about with so I would be more concerned. Probably perfectly fine though if you have looked after it properly, they have to have a margin.

Do people still worry about things like this?

I would have eaten it. It's going to be heated, isn't it?

I’d be hesitant about prawns, chicken etc but most other food items are an open
and sniff job.

I'm also in the sniff and decide camp but even if it smelled ok, I wouldn't eat chicken or fish over the date as it's just not worth the repercussions, and if it's in a sauce, that could mask the off smell? Beef, lamb or pork I'd probably eat as they keep much longer.

What kind of meal was it?

I'm also one of those heathens who doesn't pay much attention to use by dates. I had a yogurt earlier that had a use by of 27th March, tasted fine, same for milk as long as it doesn't smell off, fish no, don't eat meat much, cheese, don't care what date is, just cut off any odd looking edges, eggs yes sometimes up to two weeks after use by and always fine in an omelette or baking.

I use the vinegar trick for fresh fruit, keeps for ages in a container, and I put fresh lemons in a kilner jar of water, last a month. So many things will be ok, I promise....

I think you kind of know the items that won't kill you. I think!

It always surprises me the sheer number of posters who come along to say 'if it looks and smells ok it's fine'. It's pretty basic science to say that isn't always the case.

I work on the assumption that use by dates are likely to be shorter than the actual time food stays safe given some people might routinely ignore them for a while or others may have fridges not set to the optimum temperature. I guess no manufacturer wants negative publicity from their food causing illness, so it makes sense the dates would be on the cautious side. I also smell / check the look of food, and if anything tastes off I bin it. For certain foods more likely to cause food poisoning, I might just throw it away though.

I can confidently say Tesco houmous is safe to eat at least two days beyond its use by date!

Give it a sniff, have a taste. Seems okay? Ready to eat.

@qquizzys what's the vinegar trick for fresh fruit never heard of this! I also am of the opinion if it smells ok I would eat it. I often keep yogurts and various other things past their use by date, and go by look, taste, smell. The only things I wouldn't take a chance on are fish and chicken.

I run a food shop and we eat most of our out of date stuff. If it hadn't blown I'd still have eaten it

Yes, look at it and smell it, it’s likely to be fine as the supermarkets have to build in a lot of other options like temperature control, storage conditions etc.
If It looked ok, smelt ok, I’d eat it but I might give it an extra few minutes in the oven/ microwave

It isn’t always, but surely most people follow their eyes and nose when they don’t buy in plastic packaging from the supermarket? My meat from the butcher doesn’t come with a use-by-date, nor do the fresh things from the market. Using common sense and your senses is the norm in a lot of circumstances.

No but they err on side of caution and the use by dates aren't that accurate and are arbitrary.

Do the smell test see what it's like and look what it looks like but a few days it should be fine.

@ComtesseDeSpair so you don't believe in / agree with science then?

I'm with your husband, it would have been absolutely fine to eat.

I buy loads of yellow sticker food and I think 80% of the stuff in my fridge must be past it's use by date. With ready meals, I wouldn't think twice about eating one that was four or five days past its date. I wouldn't even bother giving it a sniff or close examination until it got to six days.

eta: I'm a vegetarian though, so I don't know if you have to be more careful if it's got meat or fish in it.

No. Clearly I don’t believe in the existence of science whatsoever, simply because when I buy undated oxtail from the butcher I use my eyes and nose to gauge whether it’s fresh and how long it stays that way.

How do you tell whether non-supermarket meat, cheese, fresh produce and farm eggs are safe to eat or not? What’s the scientific method for gauging that?