am I going comepletely insane, or am I right in thinking that the government are thinking about taking the 'best before' dates off of many foods??

[GhostOfPsychomum5]

and if so, does that mean that I can ignore all the dates, unless for obvious stuff like meat and fish etc??

please say yes, as I need hummus, and the only stuff I have 'ran out' 5 days ago, and I am too stressed to care so am eating it

Have a look at THIS info about dates on food.

I hope not. That means there could be year old eggs on the shelf

Ha. Just read the link

ok, I may need to bid farewell as the hummus is actually a 'use by' date.............

Anything with a Use By date should be stuck to, as the food has been tested and can be microbiologically unsafe after this date. If it has a Best Before or Best Before End date, it's OK to eat after that date as it's still safe but the quality might not be as good.

GhostOfPsycho, I'm afraid houmous falls under the Use By category...

ooops, x post

but I heard on the news, I was sure......

But, if it helps, if it smelt ok, I would eat it

me too Stirling, and I have been

a) a Food Microbiologist
b) involved in setting the shelf life of foods whilst working in the chilled food industry

well, smells fine, tastes fine, looks fine, and am not dead (yet)..........hopeful that I might have got away with it this time!!

i knew meat was a no-no, as was fish, but this is a dip.............surely it is worthy of being safer for a little longer??

Fraid not Psycho

And for once I actually know what I'm blethering on about... have worked for a company that produces chilled dips. I think a day or two would probably be OK but any more than that, I'd bin it tbh.

Unless it smells and looks okay of course

until I read the 'smells ok and looks ok' bit

I will report tomorrow how I am faring.....

Usually, when they go off you can tell. By the enormous furry or yeasty colonies on them

ah, now I might have some sight probs, but furry islands or new life forming is one I can spot

A couple of weeks ago, I accidently ate them eggs that were three weeks past their use by date.

I live.

them = some.
It's Friday, I obviously need alcohol

lol diamond

I do find eggs are easy to spot if they are off, by account of the smell!!

Anyone eating hummus deserves to pop their clogs anyway, foul revolting stuff even when in date. Have cake, much better

ahhh, but cake WOULD kill me on account of the milk allergy I have!!

hummus is a poor, but tasty substitute

Yeah yeah we know about the allergy just have, I don't know, a macaroon or something! Meringue. There you are. No milk

No excuse for dipping your pitta in cat puke.

We treated the only known case of food-borne Botulism in the UK in 2004 - cause was hummus.

We joked that his MIL was trying to kill him off!

Apparently it is the garlic & oil combo.