little spot or Do you pay much attention to expirations dates?

[enjoy the ride]

I guess that is a good reason to only stock up on what you know you will use regularly- I bought some roast beef hash in a can, thinking that might be good. It has just sat there- I'd better go use it up. Heck if I don't really like now, I'm not going to like it better when it's 10 years old.

 

[onebuggirl]

Food doesn't usually linger in my household......so we don't have this probelm. We meal plan and stick to it, so our cupboards may look bare to people but really they have everything we need for a week. That is not including any home canned stuff in the basement.

 

[Beekissed]

I have teenagers....

 

[WestTexasFarmboy]

We found some cans of dried apples in a cellar at an old farmhouse once that were from WWII, so we opened em up and ok, they were a tad tough, but heck, they tasted like dried apples for sure. I didnt die from it. My girlfriend won't eat ANYTHING past its expiration date, and it drives me crazy!

 

[enjoy the ride]

West Texas- while I wouldn't be as fussy as your girlfriend, you need to marry that gal quick. Don't you know that married men live longer? I can just tell she'll be saving your life sometime.

 

[Homesteadmom]

You tell him ETR!!

 

[2dream]

DH was reading this over my shoulder - The first thing out of his mouth was old produce would probably make great wine. The next thing out of his mouth was "food has expiration dates"?

As I scrolled down, he said things like yeah you cut the mold off of old cheese. Nothing wrong with that, and yep just cut the bad spots out of produce. He roared at the moldy bread/sponge post.

WestTexas - he was wondering if he was with you that day when you ate the ancient apples.

Then we got to ETR's post and would you believe I had to explain the whys of that one.

At any rate as you can tell from his reaction expiration dates are not a thing of importance around here. Unless it is totally obvious that whatever is completely unusable it will be eaten. And by completely unusable I mean you can't cook it with something else and make it better.

(I keep a real close eye out when he cooks)

 

[freemotion]

I only look at dairy dates when I buy, so I get the freshest, and meat, too. It is really a sell-by date, not a use-by date. With ultra-pasturization (killing the last bit of nutrition in our milk, hence my quest for a dairy goat!) the date is quite long, but the milk can go bad long before the date. Sniff test. I have eaten sour cream that was many weeks past the date but had never been opened, and it was just fine. I have had milk that had not yet reached the date, but had been opened a while ago, that was bad.

Sniff!

 

[On Our own]

I won't eat questionable meat.

That's about it. I'll cut the bad parts off and eat what's left. I got sick once - but it was from store bought eggs!! Not any expiration date issue!

Now, I have chickens>

 

[DrakeMaiden]

Unless it is noticably bad, I will use something past it's expiration date. We have found that cream (and probably milk too) will stay fine after the expiration date as long as it hasn't been opened. Canned goods I don't worry about, but try to keep them in rotation.

Also, like Pat said, I never serve other people questionable products. I always buy fresh if I have guests.

This reminds me that I have recently come across some home-canned jams and fruit syrups that I canned probably going on four years ago. In the interest of being SS and also because I was curious (I know they say the nutrition degrades after a year) I have gone ahead and opened some and have used them. I'm really careful and inspect the jar/lid, the contents and then I will taste some and wait before I eat more. They have been just fine, in my opinion, although my mom thought maybe the raspberry jam had fermented a little. He he he, she didn't seem to mind though. (I know I said I don't serve questionable products to others, but the jam went into some cookies that I made and my parents insisted on having their share).