Do you eat food that is past the 'use by' date?

Originally Posted by Littlepeahead

I laugh at the serving labels - M&S Lemon Tart, serves six. No, that is incorrect, it serves me on my own in one or two portions.

And god help anyone who dares to disagree or attempt to share it with you, eh?

[Bri w]

Colour and smell, depending on the foodstuff.

That said, I recently threw out a pack of bacon that was within date - not a nice smell.

Originally Posted by sarah

but eggs can be dodgy even if they aren't rotten and float. older eggs are more likely to give you listeria (or something like that)

Hmm not heard about that one, but then it wouldn't surprise me. I wouldn't eat eggs that were 3 months past the sell by date or similar though, not that much of a risk-taker

Originally Posted by Bri w

Colour and smell, depending on the foodstuff.

That said, I recently threw out a pack of bacon that was within date - not a nice smell.

I did that with some chicken recently, I always double check meat and if am not 100% sure about it will get a second opinion to confirm. I tend to ignore any dates on the packet except with milk as the dates on that tend to be pretty accurate.

[Messie]

Somehow or other the human race survived before sell by dates (and before fridges).

Biggest killers these days are heart disease, stroke and cancer, most of which are preventable by attitude. Throw away good edible food because of a label but carry on with blank blank blank* because it's your right/ it's fun/ it's only occasionally etc


* blank because I couldn't decide which example of bad lifestyle choice to put, because someone would take offense! Maybe should stick with 'riding a motorbike' lol

[timwilky]

Dates are just marketing hype.

Just eat the damm stuff, if it kills you then complain

[timwilky]

My meat comes from a good local butcher or over the fence, none of it has a date. Pate etc I make again no dates. Eating fresh local produce means no dates to worry about.

Milk in this house has no chance of ever getting near the sell by.

Like Dizzy, I too worked for a large supermarket chain and the same thing applied. Even the stuff with use by dates tend to be dated with a couple of days to spare to save the companies getting their asses sued by some numpty with a tummy bug saying they have got food poisoning. The same person who when they have a sniffle think they have the flu....

[Spiderman]

All the time tbh, it makes no difference to me what some supermarket or supplier tell me to cover their backsides in case i get a dodgy tummy.

Only real exception to this rule is fresh seafood but then again i very rarely buy fresh seafood from the supermarket unless i plan to cook it that day.

As others have all said, trust your nose and judgement.

I stick to use buy dates, particularly with chicken and fish. I buy all my meat from M&S, and regularly, so can't remember the last time I threw anything out. The dogs get a treat if I buy too much.

Originally Posted by shonadoll

The dogs get a treat if I buy too much.

That's true enough, any meat that accidentally goes off as a result of being shoved unnoticed to the back of the fridge ends up being nuked in the microwave for the dog