When it says use within 28 days...

[puffinpants]

Or a month or two and is something like pickle or fish sauce, do you pay any attention?

I keep throwing things out thinking they're past it but really it's ok to keep isn't it? So long as in the fridge? Or will I poison us all unless I chuck everything after 28 days?

I always keep them beyond that - most of them have so many preservatives in that they are fine. I do this with pickles, sauces (like ketchup) jam, mayonnaise - if they look and smell ok when i open them (i.e. don't have mould on) then i still use them

To be honest, i even ignore it when it says "use within 3 days" on things like yoghurt and Philadelphia - if it smells and looks ok then it's fine for me!

I had to check it did say that! Who knew?!? My bottle of Hp brown talks about throwing it with 3 weeks of opening, WTF? It's on all the jars! - some of which have lived with me for years not months-

Well, I ignore I suppose. I'm not dead yet

I keep things like this for years and they've always been fine. My last bottle of ketchup was 2 years out of date when it was finished. I've just finished a massive bottle of soy sauce from costco and I think that was about 2 years out of date too - that wasn't even kept in the fridge.

The half used red thai curry paste and fish and sweet chilli sauces in the fridge are all at least a year out of date and are absolutely fine.

The 28 day think is total bollocks and they might as well write 'we want you to throw this away and buy some more'.

Good to know! I've recently been replacing a lot of things as we didn't have a fridge for a while and you realize how much all these jars and bits of sauces you need for a fairly standard set of recipes and how expensive it would be to replace them all if you followed the advice to the letter ..

I have noticed that spices that are years out of date don't smell of much anymore- but that's a different thing really. It may be past its best but so long as it's not actually harmful I can make a judgement on whether its worth replacing or not

If it looks OK, it is OK IMO. Last night the Philadelphia had some white and green fur growing on the top, but it was perfectly good underneath.