Which Expired Foods Are OK to Eat?

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Which Expired Foods Are OK to Eat? - by Cassie Shortsleeve/ Nutrition & Fitness/ FoxNews.com

"Expiration dates are like threatening work deadlines: They loom overhead, and if you’re even a day late, you’re in for it.

Or so we think..."

Richard

 

[Patri]

Ahh, now I don't have to feel guilty, even though I didn't feel guilty. We have eaten canned food years expired. Even cake mixes past due. I just think, in the old days there was no expiration date. What did people do then? They ate and lived!

 

[BevL]

Kind of common sense although the egg test was something I didn't know.

 

[Passepartout]

Many, if not most package expiration or 'best by' dates are there for inventory control. Retailers can see at a glance that shelf stockers are putting new stock behind the old stuff. Obviously, dates on fresh produce or meat/fish need to be considered before buying. I regularly shop the discounted meat bin at my neighborhood market, but just for that day's consumption. Fact is, that a little age and darkening on beef will make a more tender and flavorful cut.

 

[csxjohn]

I have noticed that if I let Jiffy Corn Bread mix sit too long, it won't rise properly but it's never made me sick.

 

[isisdave]

Most things are safe until they violate your ick-detector. I have observed that some bread things won't rise right, sometimes before the "expiration" date. I have found by accidental experiment that 3-year-old Gatorade is not so good.

Another thing that is good far longer than you think is medicine. When the pharmacy puts a date on your Rx, it's usually a year out. But the bigger bottle your pills came from probably had a longer date. And here's the thing: they put a date on their products that will cover pills shipped up the Amazon and left uncapped in 90-degree-90-percent-humidity conditions. If you keep yours in a more conservative environment, they'll work fine much longer.

 

[Wonka]

Constant battle

This is an ongoing controversy with my sons & DIL (mostly DIl...ugh). It doesn't matter how much I reference articles,etc. The best advice is "if you don't like it don't eat it". Of course, my DIl also states as fact, "a dog's mouth is cleaner than a humans", and "chocolate won't hurt a dog" as an irrefutable facts. Go figure..

 

[Passepartout]

I have noticed that if I let Jiffy Corn Bread mix sit too long, it won't rise properly but it's never made me sick.

Baking powder, the stuff thst makes quick breads rise, does lose it's fizz over time. It won't hurt you, but the finished product isn't something you'd serve company.

I saw a demonstration of this on America's Test Kitchen once. It might be searchable, but I'm not sure. Anyway, check the date on that red can if you can't remember when you bought it.

Jim

 

[csxjohn]

Baking powder, the stuff thst makes quick breads rise, does lose it's fizz over time. It won't hurt you, but the finished product isn't something you'd serve company.

I saw a demonstration of this on America's Test Kitchen once. It might be searchable, but I'm not sure. Anyway, check the date on that red can if you can't remember when you bought it.

Jim

A pet peeve my wife has is that the can of baking powder is as large as it was when her grandmother baked and we never use the whole can before we have to throw it away.

 

[geekette]

A pet peeve my wife has is that the can of baking powder is as large as it was when her grandmother baked and we never use the whole can before we have to throw it away.

sounds like she is not baking up to her full potential!!

I agree, tho, some of the larger containers house the stuff that goes bad.

not for the easily-grossed-out, but a few months ago I saw an episode of Extreme Cheapskate (I think it was) where the woman made a really good living but was super cheap when it came to food. She had a new boyfriend that was trying to come to terms with her ... eccentricities in this regard, but he refused to eat the dumpster cake (yes, she fished the cake and other "food" from the dumpster and served it to others, and she also ate it).

She foraged for "salad" in the weed patch (on the apparent theory that if it's green, it's good for you).

The thing that floored me was that her son and DIL ate whatever crap she served. Son had lived with this weirdness a long time and said it was worth periodic diarhea to make his mother happy that he would eat what she served! Last damned thing I would do is bring my spouse and kid to that dinner table.

Expiration dates are subject to one's own judgement and to me it largely depends on the nature of the product and how it has been stored. There are many things I will not risk.

 

[Patri]

I hope the BF dumped her quickly! (After his 15 minutes of fame on the TV show, of course).

 

[geekette]

I hope the BF dumped her quickly! (After his 15 minutes of fame on the TV show, of course).

Me, too. There are many compromises that I can make in order to have someone in my life but I draw the line on ingesting that which can make me seriously ill. Why the son didn't turn to PBJ for life decades ago puzzles me.

I cannot picture any scenario in which I proudly proclaim to my guests that this meal comes from the dumpster! Unless, of course, I have a drastic change of fortune and live in a cardboard box under the overpass, in which case I would probably be lucky to have anything called "a meal" and even luckier to have some to spare to host a dinner party. Should it ever come to that, I hope to also find an only half wilted flower arrangement for the table.

 

[Big Matt]

Some things that really never go bad:

prepared mustard
honey
sugar
salt
most liquor
Worchestershire sauce

 

[csxjohn]

Some things that really never go bad:

prepared mustard
honey
sugar
salt
most liquor
Worchestershire sauce

Mustard may not go bad but after time it loses flavor, quality, and freshness . So much so that even though it may not hurt you it may gross you out.

I agree on the honey but I've had to put in hot water to de-crystallize it.

Salt won't go bad but iodized salt is not indefinite. The iodine will go bad over time, Morton says five years.

Salt is interesting because it's used to preserve other things like meat. Such as the salt cured "corned beef" we've been talking about.

 

[csxjohn]

I didn't think vinegar ever went bad but today I put a spoonful of apple cider vinegar in my tea along with some raw honey as I always do when I feel that a cold may be coming on.

I looked at the bottle after I added it and saw a bunch of little floaters in it.

We went to the bigger bottle in the pantry that we fill the small one from and in it were strings of what look like mold. The darn thing is only 4 years past the "best by" date.

We filtered out the mold and will keep a closer eye on it before I add it to the tea.

The honey was purchased 2 years ago so I didn't bother looking for any date on it.

The part I hated was throwing out the tea with that spoonful of honey melted in it.

 

[MuranoJo]

I believe honey has a very long shelf life--something to do about it having low water content so bacteria can't grow. We've got some old crystallized honey from a local grower that we sometimes warm up and use and we're still kicking.

Now vinegar, not sure. Never had any long enough to see floating thingies in it. But we use a lot of it for salads, descaling the coffee maker, and cleaning wood floors, windows, etc.

 

[1950bing]

It's a ploy by the food ind. to sell more product. If the stuff goes bad make smaller volume offerings.