Out of date potatoes.. are they safe?

[Charliechoco]

All these potatoes okay to eat? Their best before date was the 4th of March. They have weird white roots growing out of them.

They’re perfectly fine….they’re just growing. Cut off the tubers and eat as usual.

They aren’t ‘weird’ , they are the potato being alive and growing. You can eat them, just cut the shoots off ( they would appreciate soaking for a few minutes if they have gone a bit soft)

They are perfectly safe unless they have gone green. The roots are just potato roots which grow out of the "eyes" in the potatoes - just dig them out as you would the potato eyes.

You're not meant to but I do eat them, I just cut a bit extra away around the sprouted bits.
Green is an indication they're getting toxic too.

Thanks everyone!

Of course they are. Potatoes are the plant's storage vessels and are designed by nature to last a long time, then burst into growth. Those white bits are roots. Just cut them off and use the potato as normal. Don't eat potatoes if they've gone green though.

How does everyone cook potatoes for a roast dinner? Do you think best to remove the skin first or boil first then remove the skin?

peel, boil for ten minutes, drain and pop into a tray with hot fat

I never knew green = toxic. I just assumed very unripe and extra hard.

I have always eaten spuds that have started growing as well, but thrown away green ones (thankfully!).

Potatos don’t really “go out of date”.
They get softer as they get older and some start sprouting, but you can eat them at any point.

Go for it as long as they aren't green. Someone I know got potato poisoning recently from old potatoes.

I am now googling potatoes poisoning …

Blimey, I’ve chopped much bigger roots than that off a potato and cooked it. It’s fine.

Yeah it is an actual thing, she was pretty ill!

Bleeeeee. I’d bin these. (Just to add some balance to the thread!)

Why?
fruit and vegetables shouldn't have a best before date really, it's just common sense. Potatoes are absolutely fine to eat, just rub the sprouts off and use them as normal.
Potatoes can be stored for months.

@FetidMoppetIm the type of person who buys pre prepared fruit half the time and won’t eat anything past a use by or sell by date.

but I now see the question was ‘are they safe?’ to which the answer is probably yes. Would I personally eat them? Answer is still no.

Give them a little shake in the pan after draining, to rough them up and get the tasty crispy bits. (essential)

What a lot of waste for some people
.most of the spuds I buy don't even have use by dates on them
Best before only means slight degradation of taste or vitamin levels
.look up the chef Angela Hartley.

I didn't type Hartley,HARTNET

I'll be glad when farmers learn to grow things that come out of the ground with use by dates on. Instead of us all playing russian roulette with dangerous carrots.

Just cut those bits off, as a child we had sacks of potatoes that did us months.

@60andcounting hey do have any idea how many people dangerous carrots kill each year?

😉

I've eaten potatoes like that countless times.

When potatoes go soft cut them in halves, or better still quarters, and leave them to soak in water for a couple of hours. In my experience this hardens them back up.

With carrots that have gone soft, there's no need to cut them up or peel them to revitalise them. Soak them in water for a decent number of hours and they become as good as new.

First thing is timing. Start this process an hour before the roast is going to come out:

Put lots of fat in your baking tray. Use bacon fat or duck fat if you have it (I collect the fat whenever I cook bacon in a pan, just for this kind of thing), and top up with sunflower oil. If in doubt, use more rather than less. Put the tray in the oven to warm up.

Boil the potatoes for 5-6 minutes, then up-end them into a colander. Put the pan lid on top of that, hold on to the lid, and give it all a good shake. This makes the surface of the potato rough and helps the fat get in there. (If you have too many for the colander then do this with the lid on top of the pan that you cooked the potatoes in.)

Take the tray out of the oven and quickly transfer the potatoes in there with a couple of spoons. It's important to keep the fat hot, so you could even consider putting a gas burner on low underneath the tray. Try to keep the flat sides of the sliced potatoes in the air at this stage, as the flat bit is more likely to stick to the base of the pan until it's cooked for a while. Spoon some of the fat over the potatoes.

Put the tray in the highest part of the oven. After 25-30 minutes, take the potatoes out of the over and turn them over. Give them another 15 minutes while the roast finishes.

When you take the roast out to rest, whack the oven temperature up to 220° and give the potatoes 10 or 15 minutes to crisp up.