Ignore Expiration Dates...
- Thread starter RobsanX
- Start date
Question - Would you use mozarella that was 11 months expired, yet unopened?
You might find this of interest.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/04/29/dnt.mn.salvage.store.kare
Or this
http://consumerist.com/2008/06/is-it-legal-to-sell-expired-food.html
You might find this of interest.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/04/29/dnt.mn.salvage.store.kare
Or this
http://consumerist.com/2008/06/is-it-legal-to-sell-expired-food.html
K
Kimchee
Guest
I definitely use my nose, eyes and common sense before I rely on a date.
Guidelines, not rules!
Guidelines, not rules!
Milk here has a "sell by" date on it. It rarely spoils in my house, but we use a lot of milk.
Intriguing! It could just be that it gets to market faster.
I think I found the answer!
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=experts-organic-milk-lasts-longer
there's a lot of misunderstanding about food "freshness" dating floating about. the Federal laws (i.e. apply everywhere) are very limited -
/q
Is Dating Required by Federal Law?
Except for infant formula and some baby food (see below), product dating is not generally required by Federal regulations.
/uq
ref: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/Food_Product_Dating/index.asp
the "not generally required" is an interesting catch phrase - (some) shellfish must carry not only harvest date, but place of harvest, for example - mussels, clams . . .
past that it's up to state laws - so there's a whole bunch of those - few of which "agree" - and recently while researching some state laws I found state examples where state laws explicitly do not require manufacturers or retailers to "pull" out-of-date stuff from the shelf, nor legally ban the sale of stuff 'past the date.'
essentially manufacturers establish their own guidelines for sell by or use by dates - typically based on their concepts of 'product / quality' deterioration.
another oddity is for example eggs - it's legal, at least in some states - for egg suppliers to remove 'expired' eggs from the case, rewash/reprocess them and put a 'new' date on the package. our local market recently made a big deal out of "our eggs are never re-processed"
it certainly pays to know your own local / state laws - regrets I've not found a site that summarizes all the known state regulations.
/q
Is Dating Required by Federal Law?
Except for infant formula and some baby food (see below), product dating is not generally required by Federal regulations.
/uq
ref: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/Food_Product_Dating/index.asp
the "not generally required" is an interesting catch phrase - (some) shellfish must carry not only harvest date, but place of harvest, for example - mussels, clams . . .
past that it's up to state laws - so there's a whole bunch of those - few of which "agree" - and recently while researching some state laws I found state examples where state laws explicitly do not require manufacturers or retailers to "pull" out-of-date stuff from the shelf, nor legally ban the sale of stuff 'past the date.'
essentially manufacturers establish their own guidelines for sell by or use by dates - typically based on their concepts of 'product / quality' deterioration.
another oddity is for example eggs - it's legal, at least in some states - for egg suppliers to remove 'expired' eggs from the case, rewash/reprocess them and put a 'new' date on the package. our local market recently made a big deal out of "our eggs are never re-processed"
it certainly pays to know your own local / state laws - regrets I've not found a site that summarizes all the known state regulations.
FryBoy
New member
Check this site: http://stilltasty.com/
Generally, it's irradiated.
suziquzie
New member
Wow, that's a great site, Doug!
Good to know that gin keeps indefinitely!
Lee
oh mine keeps at LEAST a week in the freezer......
TMI......
PanchoHambre
New member
If it smells or has fuzz or slime I chuck it.. otherwise I generally use it... unless I can't even remember when I bought it. In that case it goes. Generally rely on the senses though.
I do the same thing, Pancho. If it looks normal and doesn't stink, I consider it relatively safe. It drives my girlfriend at the coast crazy. She sneaks into my house when I'm not there and throws away everything that is expired.
PanchoHambre
New member
LOL FM you play fast and loose just like me. I have an iron stomach though... beer and vinegar kills most pathogens!
buckytom
Grill Master
i laugh every time is see someone toss out cheese that is a day or two past expiration. it's freakin' cheese! ya know, the stuff that was invented to preserve milk? or ham. again, preserved pork.
in january, i made some italian dishes with mozarella that was 2 or 3 months past expiry. it was easy to tell that it was still good because it was solid and smelled ok. mozz gets runny when it starts to go bad. i also used eggs that were past due, so to say. in that case, i cracked one open to see what it smelled like, then i boiled a few to check further. my birds love to eat my experiments so nothing was wasted.
something that i've found goes bad fairly quickly was canned soda. i don't recall ever tasting bad soda years ago, but recently a few of us discovered someone's stash of soda behind a rack of equipment in a lightly used control room. we figured that it was about a year old from the last time the room was used for ncaa basketball. so, of course we took it back to our office. unfortunately, it tasted like the flavour chemicals had seperated from the carbonated water. yuk!
in january, i made some italian dishes with mozarella that was 2 or 3 months past expiry. it was easy to tell that it was still good because it was solid and smelled ok. mozz gets runny when it starts to go bad. i also used eggs that were past due, so to say. in that case, i cracked one open to see what it smelled like, then i boiled a few to check further. my birds love to eat my experiments so nothing was wasted.
something that i've found goes bad fairly quickly was canned soda. i don't recall ever tasting bad soda years ago, but recently a few of us discovered someone's stash of soda behind a rack of equipment in a lightly used control room. we figured that it was about a year old from the last time the room was used for ncaa basketball. so, of course we took it back to our office. unfortunately, it tasted like the flavour chemicals had seperated from the carbonated water. yuk!
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