The Briefing Room
General Category => Grassroots Activism and Living => TBR Kitchen => Topic started by: mystery-ak on March 03, 2024, 05:19:53 pm
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Dates printed on your food aren’t about expiration: What they really mean
by Addy Bink - 03/03/24 11:08 AM ET
NEXSTAR) — We’ve all been there: you reach for a bag of chips in the pantry only to realize it’s past the date printed on the package. Or maybe you’ve found a shelf of discounted food at the grocery store that’s nearing its printed date.
Once that date has passed, does that mean the food has expired and you shouldn’t eat it?
The answer is a bit complicated.
What does the date on my food package mean?
It all comes down to what that date means. Found on the lid, label or somewhere else on the package, that printed date will, in most cases, be paired with the text “Best If Used By” or “Best By.”
That date does not signify when the product has expired, the Food and Drug Administration explains. The FDA only requires a “use by” date on infant formula — this is to ensure “the formula contains not less than the quantity of each nutrient as described on the label,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture explains.
more
https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar_media_wire/4504902-dates-printed-on-your-food-arent-about-expiration-what-they-really-mean/
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Well, okay, that might work with some things...but not so much with salad greens...
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Well, okay, that might work with some things...but not so much with salad greens...
Especially salad greens. Sometimes even though they should last till the expiration date, they've already started to get old.
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Sniff it. If that's ok, lick it.... If it's questionable, feed some to the dog first. If he eats it, it's probably alright.
Seriously... Do people really pay mind to those dates? I don't think I have ever looked at em.
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Sniff it. If that's ok, lick it.... If it's questionable, feed some to the dog first. If he eats it, it's probably alright.
Seriously... Do people really pay mind to those dates? I don't think I have ever looked at em.
I found a case of tunafish in the pantry, 5 years past date. I ate it (that took about a year). Obviously, I died.
(NOT!)
But salad greens are lucky to make the date on the bag before they become 'browns', and nothing eating its way out of the can should be attempted. Milk doesn't last long when the clabbering date comes up, either.
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I found a case of tunafish in the pantry, 5 years past date. I ate it (that took about a year). Obviously, I died.
(NOT!)
But salad greens are lucky to make the date on the bag before they become 'browns', and nothing eating its way out of the can should be attempted. Milk doesn't last long when the clabbering date comes up, either.
It's weird. If it's gone sour, it's gone sour. If it ain't it ain't... I guess it's handy for handling inventory, but I always rotate oldest forward anyway, so I'm always eating the oldest stuff I have.
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It's weird. If it's gone sour, it's gone sour. If it ain't it ain't... I guess it's handy for handling inventory, but I always rotate oldest forward anyway, so I'm always eating the oldest stuff I have.
Yeah, me too, generally, but that case managed to get shoved to the back of the shelf in the pantry. :shrug:
The rack in there sat untouched for a couple of years, and all the individual cans of canned goods were cleared out before I started restocking a year or two ago. New in the top, old out the bottom...
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My family used to 'put up' (that means canned veggies in mason jars) food all the time. Nobody ever paid any attention to the date. We ate that stuff all the time with no thought about when it was canned.
Dry goods, rice/cereal/crackers/cookies/etc. will go 'stale' over time depending on how it is stored, but it does not go bad in the sense that it will make you sick, unless it gets wet or infested with bugs. That's why pioneers and soldiers always stock up on tons of it.
My experience is, if something is bad you will know it right away (with or without a 'date'). You will smell it when you open it or it will taste 'off', as they say. If it is bad enough to make you sick, likely you will not be able to eat it even if you want to because the very taste of it will make you vomit.
Interesting corollary is, meat/fish can spoil in the freezer. I still do not know why or how it happens. Obviously, I would never freeze bad meat. But nevertheless I have thawed stuff from my freezer and as it is thawing, I get that dead meat smell. The freezer is 'magic' for preservation, but it is not infallible.
As far as fresh greens, I eat those immediately or within 3-4 days of purchase. I have not found any way to store fresh lettuce. Even bought some 'miracle products' which promise to preserve salad greens for weeks. But nothing works except eating it right away. I once bought some hoity-toity high-end fresh hydroponic lettuce leaves. They only give you about 10 hand size leaves for sandwiches and such.
My god man, that stuff melted faster than I could eat it. I ate two or three when I got home and tried to keep the rest. It was impossible. They just evaporated/disappeared. So light and delicate you nearly had to eat them on the way home from the store. This was one-day only lettuce. There was no storing or waiting with this stuff. No wonder it is so expensive. The store has to sell it all in one day, or it's gone.
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Obviously, I would never freeze bad meat.
I have been known to do so, if I open it on Wednesday, trash collection day isn't until the following Tuesday, and it is the middle of August. The key is remembering to get it back out on Monday night when you take the garbage cans down to the curb.
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I have been known to do so, if I open it on Wednesday, trash collection day isn't until the following Tuesday, and it is the middle of August. The key is remembering to get it back out on Monday night when you take the garbage cans down to the curb.
@Polly Ticks
Why not just chuck it into the woods or in a ditch?
There has to be some place nearby you could throw it and forget about it.
The coons, dogs, and birds will take care of it in no time.
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@Polly Ticks
Why not just chuck it into the woods or in a ditch?
There has to be some place nearby you could throw it and forget about it.
The coons, dogs, and birds will take care of it in no time.
We live in a suburban subdivision. There are some wooded areas about 3 blocks down, but it's just as easy to freeze the bad stuff as smell it for those 3 blocks.
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Did you know that the date eggs are packed in a USDA labeled carton is on the end with the use by date and the plant number (in case of recall)? It is a three digit Julian number for the day of the year with 001 being January 1 and 365 being December 31.
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We live in a suburban subdivision. There are some wooded areas about 3 blocks down, but it's just as easy to freeze the bad stuff as smell it for those 3 blocks.
Ok? Where I am no matter where I chuck it, it is gone by morning. There is no smell because it does not last long enough to develop a smell. But that is just me. I must be lucky. Lots of critters outside.
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We’ve all been there: you reach for a bag of chips in the pantry only to realize it’s past the date printed on the package. Or maybe you’ve found a shelf of discounted food at the grocery store that’s nearing its printed date.
Once that date has passed, does that mean the food has expired and you shouldn’t eat it?
The answer is a bit complicated.
What does the date on my food package mean?
It all comes down to what that date means. Found on the lid, label or somewhere else on the package, that printed date will, in most cases, be paired with the text “Best If Used By” or “Best By.”
That date does not signify when the product has expired, the Food and Drug Administration explains.
In the 1960s, when I was young,
the only food that had a date printed on it was milk.
Then they started printing it on other dairy products.
Then they started printing it on packages of fresh meat.
I think it was the 1980s when they got around to
printing it on most other food products.
They did print lot numbers on food products before that,
but one had to know the code to figure out the actual date.
The reason "expiration" dates are printed on food products
is not so much for the customers' benefit.
It's more to protect the manufacturer from lawsuits.
That's why the dates are usually pretty conservative.
They set the date well before the time the food is likely to actually spoil.
For example, I recently found in my house
some Chips Ahoy cookies that are at least ten years old.
They're still just as fresh as the day my mom bought them!
So now I have some nice snacks to gnosh on for the next few weeks!
I still function much the way everyone did before dates were printed on foods.
If it smells okay, and tastes okay, it's good food.
If not, it gets returned to nature.
I have a few spots in my yard where I set spoiled food out for the animals.
I pay attention to my fresh food inventory,
so I don't have to throw away much of it.
A couple more things about food freshness -
"Rancid" means that the fat molecules in the food
are breaking down into other chemicals.
They're usually not harmful, but they smell and taste terrible.
I return rancid foods to nature.
"Spoiled" means that bacteria in the food has multiplied greatly.
If you eat spoiled food, it causes illness
not so much from the bacteria attacking you directly.
It causes illness more by poisoning you by the bacteria's excrement.
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There are many indications that the global planners
are now attacking the world's food supply.
Food shortage is the next manufactured crisis.
Food is now becoming more of a weapon than guns!
The global planners are starting to do to THE ENTIRE WORLD
what the Soviet Union did to Ukraine 90 years ago!
Stock up now on whatever long term storable food you can!
Preparing is the opposite of hoarding.
Preparing is stocking up ahead of time,
so that when the shortage hits,
you can stay on the sidelines when the shortage begins.
Preparing sends a message to the economy to produce more.
Preparing RELIEVES future shortages!
Hoarding is waiting until the shortage hits,
and then buying up what little is left of the short supply.
Hoarding INTENSIFIES the shortage!
Prepare now, so you don't have to hoard!
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If it’s dairy, or otherwise obviously very perishable, the date can be a very good indicator of when you should definitely check. Check dairy/cream products, always. Sometimes they’re just bad regardless.
Otherwise yes, the worst you worry about is just “stale” and unpleasant.
As for medicine, that is mainly the EFFECTIVE date. I’ve used 20-yo meds, and most are probably still effective. Never yet had something “bad” with evil effects. It isn’t about poison, it’s about being effective, though even that is probably conservative.
BTW, I read the main reason (beside US research) drugs are cheap in foreign places is because they’re using OUR cast-offs. I bet I could sell my mother’s many unused meds on the international market, as a “cast-off” that the pharmacies will not buy back.
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@Polly Ticks
Why not just chuck it into the woods or in a ditch?
There has to be some place nearby you could throw it and forget about it.
The coons, dogs, and birds will take care of it in no time.
We often do that, too. I’m in a “development”, but we are lucky to be near the edge with a sliver of woods. Even in our backyard, the hawks and foxes and deer and squirrels take a lot of things.
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If it’s dairy, or otherwise obviously very perishable, the date can be a very good indicator of when you should definitely check. Check dairy/cream products, always. Sometimes they’re just bad regardless.
Otherwise yes, the worst you worry about is just “stale” and unpleasant.
As for medicine, that is mainly the EFFECTIVE date. I’ve used 20-yo meds, and most are probably still effective. Never yet had something “bad” with evil effects. It isn’t about poison, it’s about being effective, though even that is probably conservative.
BTW, I read the main reason (beside US research) drugs are cheap in foreign places is because they’re using OUR cast-offs. I bet I could sell my mother’s many unused meds on the international market, as a “cast-off” that the pharmacies will not buy back.
Mostly true, but tetracyclines become toxic over time and cause kidney damage.
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Mostly true, but tetracyclines become toxic over time and cause kidney damage.
True. THere was a study done on shelf life of drugs in storage, iirc by the military. Tetracyclines are nothing to mess with after their use by date.
The one thing I have noticed is that bagged salad greens seldom survive the date on the bag.