Expired foodstuff

[Maes]

Sometimes, despite my care to not let any of the stuff in my fridge/shelves go bad, it does happen. So sometimes I'm stuck with a carton of milk 1 or 2 days past expiration day, salami, cheese and yogurt a few days overdue, and fruit that's already starting to have an alcohol content.

Now, since I hate throwing away food, I generally give those foods a shot:

e.g. if a carton of fresh milk is still sealed one day after expiration, I just drink once from it or at most during the day and throw the rest away.

I've eaten 6-days overdue yogurt, which looked and tasted fine with no side-effects afterwards. I've eaten smoked salmon a couple of days overdue with no side effects, same for cheese and salami (salami is particularly resistant, I've even went 10 days past expiration). For cheese, I've often shaved off a portion of a piece of hard cheese that was prematurely covered with mold, the rest was just fine and didn't mold again.

So, what's your story?

[Enjay]

Provided that it hasn't gone massively over date, if it smells OK and looks OK and doesn't have furry stuff growing on it, it probably is OK. ;) I use the date as a guide, not a rule.

The use-by/eat-by dates are generally pretty cautious, I suspect they are there to protect the seller as much as the consumer. Ate it after the "use by" date? You can't sue us then can you.

[cynic] Having people throw away perfectly good food only to replace it on their next visit to the supermarket increases sales too. [/cynic]

[Jodwin]

Durrr. Sticking strictly to all expiration dates is for lazy asses who don't care about wasting perfectly good food (and money). For a lot of stuff the expiration dates are too early, ranging from a few days to weeks. Basically fresh meat of any kind is the only thing that can be bad by the expiration date, and storing it in an extra cold refrigerator can further push the expiration, or you can just fry the meat on the expiration date and then use it a few days later. For everything else "it's bad when it's got mold on it", or any other real way of telling that it's bad (rotten eggs, clumpy milk, etc.).

And let's not forget that you can use a freezer to preserve perfectly good foodstuff for a long, long time.

In fact, thinking that using "expired" food is somehow "hardcore" is fucking stupid.

[Maes]

For fruit and vegetables that are too mushy/funny to eat normally (I am not particularly fond of juicy and ripe/overripe fruit) I've found a good solution: if you have a juice extractor, just throw them in. You will consume them quicker, and turn something normally unpalatable into a pleasant drink.

You can also try juicing stuff like tomatoes, cucumbers and carrots, which for me are just disgusting to eat solid if they soften up in the least, but have no difference from fresh ones if juiced. Great for blackening apples/bananas, too.

[Lord_Z]

As Enjay said, as long as it does not have any growths on it, it would still be eatable. Eating it would depend on what the item actually is though. I don't really pay attention to the dates on stuff like yogurt, I just open it up and check for mold. If it is milk/chocolate milk and it is getting close to expiring I will just drink the whole thing (which may not be the best idea in the case of chocolate milk but it is pretty tasty). I too, don't like to throw food away so I always try to eat fruit, vegetables and sandwich meat before they become too old.

A good thing to remember in regards to expiry dates is that the item is best before, not dead after.

[Zaldron]

Maes said:

For fruit and vegetables that are too mushy/funny to eat normally (I am not particularly fond of juicy and ripe/overripe fruit) I've found a good solution: if you have a juice extractor, just throw them in. You will consume them quicker, and turn something normally unpalatable into a pleasant drink.

Jam is the quintessencial spoiled fruit sink

[Kirby]

Maes said:

For fruit and vegetables that are too mushy/funny to eat normally (I am not particularly fond of juicy and ripe/overripe fruit) I've found a good solution: if you have a juice extractor, just throw them in. You will consume them quicker, and turn something normally unpalatable into a pleasant drink.

You can also try juicing stuff like tomatoes, cucumbers and carrots, which for me are just disgusting to eat solid if they soften up in the least, but have no difference from fresh ones if juiced. Great for blackening apples/bananas, too.

I remember the days when my father used to have a juicer. It was perfect for any fuits or veggies that looked like they be going bad. Throw a couple of carrots and a tomato in with the fruit juice and it still tastes delicious with no one being the wiser :)

Regarding the date thing - what Enjay said

[AirRaid]

Enjay said:

[cynic] Having people throw away perfectly good food only to replace it on their next visit to the supermarket increases sales too. [/cynic]

That's not even cynicism.. I know someone who works at a spice packing plant, and when they get their big wholesale bags of spices in marked with a year, say, 2016, they go out with a date 2 years prior to that, purely so that people will replace them sooner.

I'm happy to eat things a couple of days out of date, but I'm more wary when it comes to dairy products. Those can go ew fairly quickly.

[Nomad]

I'd like to point out that spoiled milk isn't bad for you or anything, it just tastes and smells disgusting. There are plenty of recipes that utilize spoiled milk if you like to cook.

[Hellbent]

Maes said:
Sometimes, despite my care to not let any of the stuff in my fridge/shelves go bad, it does happen. So sometimes I'm stuck with a carton of milk 1 or 2 days past expiration day, salami, cheese and yogurt a few days overdue, and fruit that's already starting to have an alcohol content.

Now, since I hate throwing away food, I generally give those foods a shot:

e.g. if a carton of fresh milk is still sealed one day after expiration, I just drink once from it or at most during the day and throw the rest away.

I've eaten 6-days overdue yogurt, which looked and tasted fine with no side-effects afterwards. I've eaten smoked salmon a couple of days overdue with no side effects, same for cheese and salami (salami is particularly resistant, I've even went 10 days past expiration). For cheese, I've often shaved off a portion of a piece of hard cheese that was prematurely covered with mold, the rest was just fine and didn't mold again. I'm honestly shocked you put so much stock in an expiration date. Seriously wasting your money.

So, what's your story?

Are you serious?? Milk is good until it's too sour to drink... expiration dates are for the fucking birds. You throw away an unopened milk container a day or two after exp? >·< Total fail dude. If it doesn't smell, if it's not growing something... it's good to eat. Who trusts the fucking FDA for crissakes? The most corrupt piece of shit organization in the world.

Nomad said:

I'd like to point out that spoiled milk isn't bad for you or anything, it just tastes and smells disgusting. There are plenty of recipes that utilize spoiled milk if you like to cook.

exactly... whaddya think yogurt is?

[Maes]

Of course there's a dark side in food expiration... a couple of years ago I watched a (somehow sensationalist) journalist's inquiry showing how certain shifty food businesses "recycled" oven products like unsold/expired bread, cookies, crumbs, etc.

It was actually disgusting, seeing how they stocked stale crumbs and other such "goodies" in rat-ridden basements, only to use them as raw material for "new" dough, to bake into "new" cookies. In a scene, an infiltrated journalist working in such a business picked up a cardboard crate full of rats' droppings and told his coworkers about it...luckily they told him to "put that aside"...for the time being. They didn't hesitate to drop maggot-infested flour into the dough machines, though: "They'll be torn to pieces and baked anyway, there's no problem".

I was amazed that they did the same thing with much more perishable things such as processed chocolate products (mostly unsold stuff after festivities) and butter/margarine.

Hellbent said:

Are you serious?? Milk is good until it's too sour to drink... expiration dates are for the fucking birds. You throw away an unopened milk container a day or two after exp? >·< Total fail dude.

Haha...well, fresh milk is the only product I'm somewhat careful with. Expiration dates are already stretched compared to the past (used to be 3 days, now they are typically 4 days or even 5, for full fat milk) so I consider it to be at its safe limit.

Plus, it always smelled funny to me after 1 day overdue, but that may depend on whether it was sealed or opened but close to full on that day.

[Hellbent]

And you're worried about a sealed container of milk a day or two past expiration.......

[Maes]

Hellbent said:

And you're worried about a sealed container of milk a day or two past expiration.......

Well, since these were mostly local bakeries/small factories providing large supermarkets and I only buy biscuits and food stuff from LIDL, I consider myself safe from them...but I always shudder when I see a box of local/store made coffee-treats :-/

Hellbent said:

exactly... whaddya think yogurt is?

I think that proper yoghurt is made from specific bacteria, not just any strain that can thrive on it. So yeah, yogurt is fermented milk, but not all fermented milk is yogurt. Maybe sour milk/kefir if you are lucky, or an extreme diarrhea-inducing concoction if you are less lucky ;-)

Today's mass-produced yogurt (re)uses specific bacterias strains to have constant quality.

Pretty much like what happened with beer since Carlsberg isolated specific yeasts that gave consistent taste and quality. There is only one manufacturer of beer today, Lambic, that relies on "spontaneous fermentation" of beer.

[Sharessa]

I never pay attention to expiration dates. I just use my own judgment. You might be surprised at how often restaurants do the same. I throw away my milk when it starts to smell bad, but sometimes I use it if it's at the point I can't taste it over my cereal. I've also been known to carve mold off of cheese. For the record, I've only ever gotten ill from undercooked stuff, never old/expired stuff. Also, bread mold is good for you. It kills bacteria. :P

[kristus]

AirRaid said:

but I'm more wary when it comes to dairy products. Those can go ew fairly quickly.

Yeah, but it's pretty easy to see/smell on it if it's gone bad.

My mom used to buy expired milk because it was cheaper.

[Maes]

kristus said:

My mom used to buy expired milk because it was cheaper.

You do realize how much an outsider casually reading this thread might pity us DWers, right? ;-)

[Hellbent]

Danarchy said:

I never pay attention to expiration dates. I just use my own judgment. You might be surprised at how often restaurants do the same. I throw away my milk when it starts to smell bad, but sometimes I use it if it's at the point I can't taste it over my cereal. I've also been known to carve mold off of cheese. For the record, I've only ever gotten ill from undercooked stuff, never old/expired stuff. Also, bread mold is good for you. It kills bacteria. :P

If there isn't any mold on the cheese, then the cheese ain't no good. We live in a society that is totally cut off from what real food is. Have you ever had raw milk? Greatest stuff on earth.

[myk]

Maes said:
You do realize how much an outsider casually reading this thread might pity us DWers, right? ;-)

But they already do that because we still play some old DOS game regularly :p

I recently drank a milk sachet that was past its expiration date by a week, and it seemed fine. Ultra-pasteurized milk seems to last a good deal.

Danarchy said:
but sometimes I use it if it's at the point I can't taste it over my cereal

Yeah, there's a point where it taste a tiny bit sour but not truly spoiled yet, and then it can be okay for cereal or cooking but not really for drinking directly.

If I'm eating expired bread, I just check whether it's moldy, and eat it if not. Sometimes it's just drier or less tasty than when it's within the expiry date, but seems alright otherwise.

I don't like throwing food away.

As long as the package hasn't been opened, food seems to last a few days over the expiration date which has to assume you might open the food and leave it half eaten in the fridge or the like for a few days.

As for cheese, once you know what the harmless mold looks like it sometimes adds a taste that's not bad in itself. The more natural cheeses without preservatives seem to attract the good kind early. In these slices of cheese I eat sometimes, the greenish mold seems harmless but occasional blackish stains taste like poison.

[Maes]

myk said:

Actually, they already do that because we still play some old DOS game regularly :p

They don't know what they are missing. Expired milk is great.

myk said:

If I'm eating expired bread, I just check whether it's moldy, and eat it if not.

I'm actually more picky about bread, even if it does not mold or smell funny right away: it's just not too great when it doesn't have the right consistency (first it gets softer, and then hard as a brick). It becomes acceptable if microwaved or toasted though.

myk said:

green and black mold

Trying to find the perfect poor man's Roquefort? :-p

[geekmarine]

Unless it's meat I'm dealing with, I hardly ever pay attention to expiration dates. Generally, I use look and taste to determine whether something is still good. If a fruit or vegetable has become squishy, I pitch it, otherwise it's just fine. If the milk tastes okay, I keep it. It's only if something looks, smells, or tastes funny that I throw it out, except for meat, because you can't take too many chances with meat.

[kristus]

Maes said:

You do realize how much an outsider casually reading this thread might pity us DWers, right? ;-)

Heh. Well. We were poor. By Swedish standards anyway.

[EarthQuake]

Expiration dates are for retarded people who want to waste money on throwing away perfectly good food.

I bought a half gallon of milk and didn't open it for almost a month. It was perfectly fine when I opened it and it lasted an additional week and a half after that. Usually the milk in the opaque yellow jugs tend to last longer.

For bread, one thing people don't realize is that bread won't mold if there isn't any mold spores in the bag! Don't reach your grimy hands into the bag when you want some bread. Instead, use your hands from the outside, and manipulate the bread out. I've made a habit of this, and I have never had a loaf of bread get moldy. As with bread getting stale, make sure you squeeze the air out after every use.

Eggs, they last upwards of a couple months. The more willing it is to float on water, the more gas which has developed inside, and the more likely the egg is bad. If by any means the water level around the egg is at about halfway, throw it out (trust me). God forbid, you don't want to crack open a rotten egg. I'm strict about checking old eggs.

On cheese, mold growth is a lot harder to control, but again, not touching the cheese directly will help a great deal. If cheese does get moldy, you can usually salvage it by cutting off the outer walls where the mold is growing, just don't touch the mold so the spores get redistributed.

For raw meat, you would think it would be rather easy to tell if it has gone bad or not, but a lot of people are very clueless when it comes to this. Color isn't a good indicator of whether or not it's still good, especially when it comes to red meat. It's the smell that counts. Usually things like steak or hamburger will have a faint smell of what that meat would smell like when cooked (chicken less so). If it smells unpleasant at all (or makes you gag), it's time to pitch it. I had a near-month-old pound of hamburger in the fridge that I really wanted to cook, and although it looked good, the outside had a slight slimey coat and it had a subtle pungent smell. I followed my instinct and threw it away. If I had eaten it perhaps only a week earlier, it probably would have still been good.

[myk]

EarthQuake said:
I've made a habit of this, and I have never had a loaf of bread get moldy. As with bread getting stale, make sure you squeeze the air out after every use.

I'm careful with food, pretty much as you describe, but that's relative, as in the humid clime I'm in mold spreads easily, and bread gets noticeably while mildly less tender even when still packaged.

[Maes]

EarthQuake said:

I bought a half gallon of milk and didn't open it for almost a month. It was perfectly fine when I opened it and it lasted an additional week and a half after that. Usually the milk in the opaque yellow jugs tend to last longer.

I hope this was UHT or at least fresh microfiltered milk. AFAIK, UHT can last several months unopened and out of the fridge (I guess even more if you also put it in the fridge), but once opened it's just like normal fresh milk.

Microfiltered fresh milk should last 10 days or so (in the fridge) for what I can remember.

Unless it was microfiltered UHT milk :-p

About foods going really bad, I had two most dire experiences:

One was a week-old roast chicken left in the over unrefrigerated. It wasn't a pretty sight (the meat had actually melted away from the ribs, and the oven smelled like a cadaver).

The other was a bag of potatoes forgotten in a corner, which started losing a blackish juice that smelled like a dead cat and made you gag. Just try making POTATO CHIPS out of these ! (Though I guess certain factories wouldn't not be that "picky" :-( )

[SaladBadger]

I once ate a slice of bread. I reached for the next slice in the bag to see that it was moldy. It turns out that the loaf was actually moldy and I never noticed it. The slice I ate didn't taste very off but it was probably also affected by the mold.

EDIT: I've also had a moldy hamburger bun or two. Usually it's only bread that will go bad if anything is actually going to go bad. The rest we tend to finish before it would go bad (or before it reached its expiration date)

[david_a]

The milk we have in the US is more pasteurized than the European variety and lasts longer. It's always a bit of a shock going back to Sweden and seeing the much shorter dates on milk cartons. It's possible to keep opened milk for a month here (especially if it's organic; it always seems to last longer).

[Quasar]

Some things which only have a "best by" date will pretty much last forever, since they're so pumped full of artificial industrial-toxin-bearing preservatives. I've eaten some things that were "best by" a date 6 or 7 years ago. They tasted pretty bad (like eating the wrapper or can) but weren't harmful.

As for true expiration dates, I stick by those pretty strictly, especially on dairy and meat products. Also to avoid is consuming expired fresh fruit or vegetables, which can grow such toxic goodies as botulinum. Molded bread is also dangerous, and never be tempted to safe the good looking half of the loaf if just one end is spoiled - the mold can be growing throughout in colonies that aren't visible yet, but can still be harmful. I can't even stand milk that's close to the date, let alone past it. It gets progressively worse-tasting to me :P

[Maes]

david_a said:

The milk we have in the US is more pasteurized than the European variety and lasts longer. It's always a bit of a shock going back to Sweden and seeing the much shorter dates on milk cartons.

There must be a fuckup with the definition of what is fresh milk then. For example, microfiltered milk, the only "fresh" variety than can last that long is not allowed to be sold as "fresh milk" in the EU.

No matter how well it is pasteurised at the factory, each time you open the carton/jug to pour some it will get more and more contaminated, and pasteurization doesn't mean it's antibiotic too (unless there are additives used that actively prevent spoilage). And from what I recall, no preservatives are allowed in milk here, not even in UHT, thermally pasteurized or condensed milk.

Those durations of weeks once opened sound totally outrageous, at least for milk without preservatives.

[EarthQuake]

This was this stuff, from Smith's Dairy.

I've had nothing but long-lasting, great-tasting experiences with this milk.

[david_a]

I personally haven't kept opened milk that long, so I guess I shouldn't repeat that claim.