Shelf life of food

[DeniseCharleson]

We might quibble about some of the details, but this is reported to be fairly well-researched information:

http://visual.ly/shelf-life-food

 

[Wannabefree]

I like the notation at the bottom that says the sell by date on products is not the same as an expiration date if properly stored. i have been TRYING to tell people that about cereal and boxed tems for the LONGEST dang time!!!

 

[wooddustmaker]

I honestly can't say that I was overly impressed by the list. Thanks for the info, but I will continue as usual.

 

[Wannabefree]

I think the list was ay off on several things in my own personal experience, but some of the info is good.

 

[Bettacreek]

I really had a good laugh at eggs and ham. We keep eggs on the counter for longer than they say they last in the fridge...

 

[Hinotori]

I really had a good laugh at eggs and ham. We keep eggs on the counter for longer than they say they last in the fridge...

Oh man the eggs really made me laugh. A lot of the eggs are older than the refridgerated time when they get to the store.

And meat in the freezer. We'd have died growing up if that was the case on meat. Mom and Dad got beef once a year. Still do. That's what we do. I've eaten beef several years old. If it's freezer burned, it's edible if you have not money, just taste is off.

I'll continue on with what I know is good and works. There's a lot there I can pick apart. I have a pet peeve about the fruit "until ripe" they have listed since none of those fruits listed like that actually ripen after picking, they just soften and still have a sour unripe flavor.

 

[moolie]

Food "safety" these days seems to be more about "liability" than about actual guidelines one can trust.

As an example, we've recently had a news story about a lady in my province who got sick after eating canned seafood that was 2 years past its "best before" date--she claims she had just bought it at Wal-Mart. She didn't check the can till after she got sick.

I think that because we've lost most of the generations who knew how to make food keep as long as possible, the average person really just doesn't know what fresh or safe is anymore--and charts like this can really be off and therefore deceive people into chucking perfectly good food, as can those "sell before" and "best before" dates. Common sense just isn't there when it comes to food anymore.

As an example, a week or two ago we finished off the last of our garden carrots that were harvested back in mid-September. They had been kept in cool storage in the coldest part of our basement (unheated bedroom in a house with central forced air heating set to a constant 68F) layered in a bucket of dampish sand. For regular use we always had a tupperware veggie keeper container of carrots in the fridge. No noticeable degradation of quality through those 6 months, the odd carrot grew a few hairy side roots, and they all still tasted sweet and fresh (Nantes variety carrots).

I can keep a box of apples on the floor in that same bedroom for 4 months if I buy them fresh in the fall. And I've kept nearly all of the veggies on that list in my fridge WAY longer than the times listed, on occasion when they've inadvertently been forgotten in the veggie drawers. And as everyone has noted above, the egg guidelines are ridiculous, as is the notion that a ham only lasts a week in the fridge.

One thing that a lot of people don't realize is that the best before date on things like salad dressing and mayo goes right out the window once you open them--once opened they are only truly good for about a month or so, and that's only because they are so chock-ful of preservatives. But I don't buy them for my family because of all the questionable ingredients, we make our own.

Acidic condiments like mustard, ketchup, bbq sauce etc. last much longer (and in other countries like England they often aren't even refrigerated, English people also don't refrigerate opened jams and jellies). I'm sure the bottle of ketchup and the jar of mustard in my fridge are both over a year old and are both just fine to eat, we make our own bbq sauce each time we want it so no idea on that.

 

[Wannabefree]

Store bought barbecue sauce is about the same as ketchup moolie. We make our own too now, but DH still likes some of the store stuff handy for when we're out of homemade and I haven't had a chance to make it. I guess our bought sauce is about a year old in the fridge too...DH is the only one that eats it as far as I know.

I'm glad somebody said something about the meats, because yeah, we eat stuff MUCH older than that If it has been frozen, we eat it up to two years old if it doesn't look or smell off. I mean, I do double check if it has been there that long, btu not like we're going to just up and waste it...we don't do that here.

My SIL will toss stuff if it's been in her fridge a month, ketchup, mustard, and everything. If it's within a week of the sale by and unopened...tossed. And I'm sitting there shakin my head at all the waste :/

DD on the other hand, will eat meat that has sat out all day....and she aint dead yet, never even gotten sick, but I cringe at some of the things that kid eats! She must be immune to every possible kind of food cootie in the world by now

 

[Hinotori]

The potatoes are another one on there. I'm still eating on the potatoes we got back beginning of September from my Great Uncle. Not even one bad potato in the box. I probably got another month left on them before they shrivel to much. They'd keep even better if they were kept about 45 degrees instead of 52, not refrigerated. Even store bought potatoes will last fine for several months. Mom doesn't get quite as long out of potatoes as me. Hers were done a month ago. That's because of humidity differences though. Hers shrivel faster in the very low humidity there.

Maybe the chart is assuming that people are idiots and doing everything they can wrong to make stuff go bad? That is very possible with how litigious it is here in the US. I saw a bag of walnuts at the store that had a big bold warning on it of "May Contain Nuts".

 

[me&thegals]

We had a great trip to Mexico this winter, where all the eggs are stored in the kitchen cabinets. Yeah, I pretty much completely disagree with all stated about eggs, butter, cheese and meat, but the rest looks pretty good