I think they should just have use or best by date because sell by means it’s still fresh afterward but who knows for how long. Use by I think is best because they know to Use it before that date or it’s no good.
It depends on what it is?! Canned food can last longer that use or sell by dates. You need to open and check out what your nose detects?!? WHEN IN DOUBT, THROW IT OUT!
@@clairethomas1440 yes true. But if a few months past, I then just go ahead and get rid of the cans for my safety. I am afraid they aren’t any good if 3 or more months past the date posted.
I don't follow them at all besides a glance. I'm not one of those poor feeble minded people who believe everything they are told especially when it concerns "for profit". Imagine if you can get the feeble minded to throw out perfectly good food in order that they buy more and profit you more? Wouldn't you do it? For Profit? Human cows are easily milked for the eternal and entitled profits of the great winners and the great winners know how to play the suckers like a violin. Remember, we live in abundance or used to, not profit. Profit is a concept used to concentrate the abundance of our world into the hands and control of the few, the elite, the entitled, and those great winners in a perverted world of win/lose. Profit as a lie requires the constant expenditure of YOUR time, energy, and belief to exist. Right Santa? Of course the paradigm shift from "for profit", to "nor for profit", can only be denied by the afflicted for it exposes them for the brainwashed "for profit" economic slaves and feeble minded filth they truly are. Have a great one, ... and good luck.
milk ? by smell along instant oatmeal ? I enjoy packets over a year old. canned food ? not until the can 'pops' could be a few months, could be a few years. common sense is the key.
I work in a store that sells food and I happen to work in the food department. The amount of food that we NEED to throw out on a monthly basis makes me sick!! If it is passed the best before date it has to be thrown out. Employees are not allowed to take it home as it's considered theft. All I keep saying every time I have to throw out food is that there are so many people out there that could really use this, and yet there is nothing I can do.
...and if the store sold it they'd get sued by some Saul Goodman-type ambulance chasing attorney... and definitely lose because everyone hates private enterprise in today's culture.
So sad, like restaurants getting rid of food and the homeless can not have it. Well look at the seniors, and lots of people could use the food especially now!!! I hate waste!!!! Who makes these rules (the rich people???) maybe the politicians????
In California that would happen. I knew a group of women who would pick up "spoils," foods that were expiring that day or within a couple of days. The foods had to be thrown away according to some random law. The ladies would pick up the food and redistribute it. Bread or fresh foods did not usually last for more than a day or two beyond the sell by date. If bread looked good (no mold) I would take it home, break it up and bake it for breadcrumbs. When the store got complaints from the people who received the freely-distributed food, the store stopped allowing the ladies to take it. It was sad, really.
It’s messed up because if they give it to the needy and they get sick from it they can get sued, a lot of needy people are selfish af so a lot of them would sue, its a damned if you do damned if you don’t thing
Back in 2014, I got hungry one night and rummaged thru my cupboards to see if I could find something to eat. I hadn't grocery shopped in a while, so my supplies were scant. I was elated when I found a can of chili in the back & proceeded to heat it up and eat it. Halfway thru I happened to notice the top of the can. Stamped on it was BEST BY 02/08. It gave me a moment's pause, but the chili was delicious, so I finished it off and had no ill effects. It only reinforced a suspicion I'd always had, that this whole 'best buy' thing is basically a scam to sell more food.
Just to make a point, I found three canned foods in my cupboard that have a used-by date between 6 months and almost a year past. I opened them all, smell them and they smelled fine. So took a bite and there wasn't anything wrong with them. So, before tossing food, at least check them.
I found a can of sardines 5 years past the best before date and it was delicious. Even in my army service we where given canned food that was 10-15 years past the best before date and they were tasting just fine.
@@honkyjesuseternal Good point! Maybe we arebeing trained to hoard food. Its only of benefit to the conglomerates that control the industry. Ee are far more manipulated than we realize!
Even though it smells and tastes ok, there could be bacteria present that won't harm someone with a cast iron gut or a great immune system, but could make someone who is susceptible to that bacteria very ill. It is them the expiration dates must help protect. Btw, I have a strong gut but not willing to take any chances. Also, if food tastes off (like souring milk) I'm not eating or drinking it. No way. Edit: tastes or smells off . . . .
Canned food can last a very long time regardless of it's date, there were no dates on them when I was growing up and the canned food was perfectly fine. Just don't buy/eat cans that have bulges in them. Some people are conditioned to be wasteful and stick to the dates on their food. At the rising cost of food today who can be wasteful? Look at it, smell it, give it a little taste first before tossing.
Went to open a can of baked beans at 4th of July. I didn’t read the date when I bought it. Well past sell by date, it looked like someone pooped the beans already. Needless to say, I returned it to the store. I would have never cooked that slop.
A lot of can foods at the local food banks have no expiration dates or best by dates. Like the old days, you have to wing it. I guess they don't care if the poor and the old people die from food poisoning. 😉
I don't toss good food; it has to be bad tasting or smelling or obviously rotten. Canned food stored at correct temperatures can be used well after expiry dates. I May have to adjust for flavour but usable. Freezer burn, just toss it into a stew or soup.
Flip your yogurt, sour cream, cottage cheese containers over in the fridge to make them last longer… Also never store dairy products like milk in the door of the fridge or near the front of the fridge as that will be the warmer part.
I grew up in the 60’s. We didn’t have dates on food. I don’t pay attention to dates, if it looks or smells off when I open it, I throw it out. I’ve never gotten sick from eating “expired” food.
Tip: People are told to set their fridge on the warm side to "save energy" but food lasts many times longer if you make it as cold as possible +1C (~34F) is ideal. It is just before freezing and food lasts much longer. Keep the fridge cold, you'll save way more $ on food than the pennies you save in energy. Another tip, try minimizing standing around with the door open. Plan what you want or make lists for the fridge door (particularly for leftovers).
You are exactly right! One group says, “save energy”. The other says, “save food”. The individual has to sort between all these guidelines to find the right answer for their needs and tastes. I was. In the hospital for a month. When I got home, my family had come in an dumped all my food, even the powdered cocoa mix, flour in the freezer. People: Use some common sense.
Sorry but I disagree. While that may generally be true, there are far too many exceptions to your 34F rule. There is a different optimal storage temperature for every food so it really just depends on what is in your frig. You can find charts by googling "optimum storage temperature for fruits and vegetables".
@@jasonjames4254 A good point as there are optimum temperatures for food quality and they are slightly higher for veggies. However if the issue is pure longevity, colder is better. But, that is what vegetable drawers are for. If you want to do less damage at the tradeoff of longevity, use the drawer, but any leftovers, bread, meat, milk, etc all last longer when colder.
@@LFTRnowAs the only occupant here, I freeze all of my bread and a lot of crackers and such since I live in a high humidity area. Keeps everything palatable for much longer than the cupboards here. Toss bread in the microwave for a few seconds and good to go. I would get maybe 1.5 weeks out a loaf otherwise.
They just make more money by telling you when to throw out because now you have to go buy more. Which keeps them in business. Young people really fall for this because they were not around when you just smelled your food and knew when to throw it out. They could save so much money by smelling your food. If it smells bad throw it out, if it doesn't smell bad it's okay to eat.
I love these dates they put on the cans. Stores will sell anything nearing these dates at steep discounts to avoid taking a complete loss and having to dispose of them. I've been eating canned foods that are years beyond their "best before/use before" dates with no ill effects for most of my 60+ years. Sometimes, there is a slight change in color or taste but they are still perfectly edible. I just make sure the can is fully intact and do a simple sniff/taste test for something that is really old. I've even eaten 6 month old yogurt and cheese.
I agree, so I’m sure stores would love to stop using these dates. The flip side of this coin is milk in my area. I definitely recommend everyone use the sniff test regardless of the date bc milk here is dated far after the spoiled date. Idk why, but I learned this around seven years ago by pouring a glass of what was labeled as fresh milk & spitting it across my kitchen due to reflex & my sensitive taste buds. According to the best before date, it should have been good for two more weeks. You are right about the canned foods, usually just fine a couple of years after the stamped date providing the can isn’t bent or dented to crack the inner lining. I’m likely considered OCD concerning wasting food bc I have felt hunger pains in my life. That’s an humbling experience which gives one a new gratitude for food, so I’d much rather share than waste food. Never been selfish with food anyway, so always willing to share what I have with anyone near me, if I know anyone with that need. An undiagnosed bad gallbladder is what lead to my hunger & me almost starved to death a couple of years ago. Food was available, but nothing would stay down long enough to nourish me, believed to be caused by my Parkinson’s once a CT didn’t show it. Finally it was shown clearly on a simple ultrasound is why I’m telling this long story. I DO NOT want this to happen to anyone else bc two years later, I still only weigh 68 pounds? THIS is likely my Parkinson’s, Vascular Disease with several blocked arteries, severe arthritis & a heart defect I was born with, a leaky valve that sticks open dumping blood making my heart overwork, pushing my heartbeats up to sometimes 200 bpm without a tiny tablet 3 times a day to relax it. Got the wrong generic a couple weeks ago, didn’t know bc it looked the same & my pharmacy didn’t tell me they couldn’t get the same, just replaced it with similar. Took me several hours to figure out why I felt like I was having another stroke, as I had had one in 2012 & was losing my speech, right eye was going blind, face was twisting, etc. Being under hospice care, my only covered call was to them. Fortunately I had one & 1/2 of my original generic tablets put away in case of emergency & this night was. Called & tried to explain to my current hospice RN, but I’m sensitive to many meds & have many allergies so I told her that my emergency meds should get me through the night bc my BP & HR had leveled off, but we would need to collaborate with my doctor & pharmacy in the morning. She came then, we contacted the pharmacy & my doc, who ordered namebrand, which I paid dearly with; 88% of my monthly income for a 50 day supply bc my pharmacy couldn’t get my generic that I’ve been using decades.THIS seems off topic but isn’t. Because I am SO sensitive to taste, chemicals, foods & medications that I’m not going to be here much longer, yet know our nation, maybe our world, is in trouble. It’s a fact I can’t last much longer bc I live alone & worked a taxpaying job, then career until medical problems made doctors take me out, saying no lifting over five pounds anymore in the year 2005. Then, getting dye-free Benadryl, working hard & having lunches special prepared was no problem! 😃👍 Was a hard working woman everyone knew working for big companies, so trustworthy it gave me power to hire, fire (rarely), schedule & assign the staff, who I considered friends and treated like one big family. Of course I was working with OPM, but that was in good hands. Those working under me were always treated with respect & dignity bc I never asked anyone to do anything I hadn’t done. Now, I find myself by myself so I gave too much of myself to my work. What I’m saying is I should have stayed in the food industry bc we NEED someone testing our food supply again, bringing required tests with food handler cards back into our food environment before we all end up terminally ill. There’s no consumer protection in place anymore which isn’t going to end well. Awe, I’m almost gone from this world, but I love all people & am asking people to remember what USED TO BE when the government groups worked FOR THE PEOPLE and those gradings in restaurants meant something bc inspections took place, requiring every place serving food be cleaned with Clorox, all dishes rinsed with water containing Clorox, foods kept in a fridge with working thermometers in each at a certain temp, etc. & all foods be within date. I am old now but was young working in food handling jobs in college but still remember that. Relocated on 1989, those rules disappeared crossing a couple state borders, so at the time, made it easy for me to do that until I got a job leading to my career. I DID buy the day old bread at the convenient little bakeries in this town, and shopped a little store next door to it for old can foods to stock my kitchen when I moved here starting over, bc I had moved away from family & friends. Was young & had never done that, so it calmed my insecurities to have a full kitchen. Didn’t mean to tell you my life story! Rest assured I didn’t; just agreeing WE should get a vote on that & insist on keeping expiration dates LoL! I really don’t think they can remove the dates, although they might call it Use by, Best by, or hopefully not Packaged on date. With my PD, that would leave me clueless!🤣🤣 Jason I want to thank you for your time. Have a blessed weekend ahead. May God bless you & your family to never go hungry or need for anything. ~
Whoever heard of opening the milk container in the store to 'sniff' it? It's sealed for a reason. Many stores donate not-so-fresh vegetables to food banks and soup kitchens when they're not salable. At least some of it can still be used. As for dumping vegetable waste in the trash, is there no effort to recycle as compost? Finally, I always believed that the dates on canned goods was to help stores rotate their stock and that it didn't indicate that the product should be discarded. It also serves the same purpose in the home.
@@probablynotdad6553 not really a scam - but, spoken like a man who eats expired food and has never gotten sick, but, likewise, did not get all the nutrients at their best quality. Once you get sick from eating food that has past it's desired taste and value, then you may think twice before eating something that is one day away from mold.
I recently found a can of soup in the back of my pantry with a best use date of back in 2007. Without that date on the can I would have no idea how old it was.
You would have smelled it. And if it didn't smell bad you could have eaten it. That's what we used to fo. Smell your food. You're wasting money if you don't.
It's sad that so much food gets wasted. There are so many families that cannot afford to buy fresh healthy food. I've seen videos where people do dumpster diving and finds so much food in them that are sealed & not out of date or even near. They're perfectly fine. All that could be donated to a food bank to be distributed to families who desperately need to feed their families. But unfortunately these days society is due happy and will sue over the slightest thing so businesses are afraid to donate the food for fear if someone gets sick, they'll get sued.
The reason they trash them is simple, anyone or homeless person eat the expired food doesn't matter if it was brought or not from store or restaurant. They are legally can sue them for money. That why they trash them to avoid all that.
If any store donates food to the food bank they are not going to get sued. I think there's a law that states that. But these stores get a huge tax write off for the pounds of food they throw away. And some stores throw it away if they get over stocked on the product and they can't sell it. it's to make room for new stock. And it is sad because the way things are with food prices going up.
Vox... Okay. Canned foods are generally good beyond their best buy dates. Milk or buttermilk is fine if it is not spoiled. I do not throw out canned or packaged food beyond a best buy date, we rotate foods so that they are consumed. It is a common sense idea to prevent waste (of food or money).
In California a construction crew tearing down a building found a cache of canned goods over 75 years old. The food was in the basement. Out of curiosity they opened a bunch of the cans, 100% percent of the food was edible although some of the vegetables were soggy and didn't look as good as fresher food. I store food because my parents were raised in the depression and did so as a precaution. As I have 6 kids, this is also economical, especially today. As an example, I bought 200 cans of soup, chili, etc. at 99 cents a can, these products are now $3 a can. I made 200% on this investment and also don't have to worry about going hungry during economic crisis and food shortages. I routinely open cans or jars, 3-5 years past the date on the can and have never found any spoiled food. I will tell you that if you drop a jar of food, the seal may break so check the jar to see if the cap is concave as it should be or pops up. If the seal breaks, simply use this product and store refrigerated until used.
I eat food all the time past the date. I cooked a box of brownies that was 3 months out of date. I use eggs up to 2 weeks after the date. My Mom cooked and ate oatmeal that was a year out of date. She kept it in her freezer. It was good. Just depends on the kind of food. Canned foods can be used after the date if the can looks good. I have eaten can food that was a couple of months over the date. I hate to see food wasted. Some of the out of date food could be taken to homeless shelters !! -My Mom would freeze food if it was going out of date. For instance lunch meat( wrap individually), take food out of can and freeze, bread, crackers, rice, coffee, tea bags, oats meal, chocolate, cake, cookies, sugar, flour, corn meal etc. I do it too. It works. Keeps bugs out !! Lots of things can be put in freezer and kept for awhile. No need to waste tons of food !! Invest in a freezer !!
Light coating of lard on egg shells and they will easily last 9 months in the fridge. Before fridges eggs were "water-glassed" (isinglassed) and stored in cellar. 1 year preservation not uncommon.
I have worked in the processed food and beverage manufacturing industry for over 40 years. Places like Coors, Wrigley gum, Frito-Lay, Dean Foods(dairy) and Starbucks. None of those companies guess or use focus groups to determine “best buy” dates. They have in-house expert taste groups that taste the product from when it is freshly produced up until the time it tastes really bad or when it has actually gone bad from a microbiology perspective. So when a new product is developed this done to determine the shelf-life of the product and one of the other terms: best buy, use before, etc. Any time they change the recipe it’s done and even when no recipe change is made it’s done by daily as a quality check. So yes products can still be good and edible past those dates at some point your taste buds and nose will know when it’s bad and your stomach may tell you when it’s microbiologically bad.
That's great info and good to know, but my stomach has never told me that something was "microbiologically bad". Maybe I have a cast iron stomach, but I've been eating canned foods that are years beyond the use before dates all my life with no ill effects.
The "Best By Date and Sell By Date" are more to protect the manufacturer and retailer. In fact in my State we have a company who sells nothing but good merchandise past the sell by, best by dates. Let your senses be your guide. Sight and smell. This is from someone who spent 50 years in retail and grew up on a farm with our own canned goods and harvested meat.
I only toss out milk once it smells soured. I only toss out bread and pastries once mold starts to grow. I have canned food in my pantry with a best by date of 2017. A few days ago my family had a delicious chili dinner with beans from a can with a best by date of 2019. We’re all fine, as always, and it hasn’t lost any of its flavor or texture. Please think twice before you toss! Just do a smell test and texture test! 😊
When I was in the military back in the early 1980s we had canned rations that had production dates back in the 1940s, during world war ll. I don’t know of anyone that got sick.
Use the sniff test with milk? But if it fails, I already paid for it! I also need to know which milk I can leave in the fridge and which one to use right now. Dates on milk - and other perishable foods - are important. They are also useful on canned goods. I have four cans of tuna in my pantry. Which can should I open first? Eliminating the dates favors the big food corporations and puts the consumer at a big disadvantage. They can sell us old food and we won't know until we try to eat it.
I know some expired food still tastes fine like canned food and milk. But different types of label date name confuse many people such as Best Before, Use By, and Sell By dates.
I was in our local grocery one day. I was asked by a worker if I could use 10 half gallons of OJ which the sell by date was that day. I took all of them & shared with family. It was still good. I also years before moved into my step-aunts home & there were canned goods with no dates on them I would heat them up & if they were good my family ate them. You can tell if they weren't good.
I want to believe you, but there's controversy. I need to learn to rotate. It's harder to eat up a big store of canned food when you live alone, and I can't offend people by giving "old" food.
For me, it depends what it is and if it's canned or what container. If it's open in Refrigerator & the Nose/Eyes will detect right away... WHEN IN DOUBT... THROW IT OUT!!!
I never throw away food. I buy enough to last me the week and use it up before buying more. Especially these days with money being tight and with living alone. Find it unbelievable that so many people throw food away all the time!
Might I suggest stocking long term food storage (i.e. dried goods)? If you only have one weeks' worth at a time should a SHTF event occur or a natural disaster, you're not going to be in a very good position.
@@jimbeam2705 I have so many things I can’t eat that I have a lot of food on hand in case of an emergency. I can’t eat just anything so I could be in REAL trouble! People need to have several weeks worth at least in case of an emergency. They just don’t comprehend that if the trucks/trains stop running they are in BiG trouble!
That really ticked me off, seeing all that fresh fruit being disposed of when so many are going hungry. Who cares what it looks like, a bruise or blemish can be cut off and the rest of the fruit eaten. I would have loved some of those oranges and bananas.
I use the best by, sell by or use by as a method to rotate my food with using the ones that are close ot that date first, so that nothing gets shoved back and forgotten about.
Strange the Army gave us C rats while I was in the early '70s and the cans were marked 1942-44. Yep, same WW2 food that my dad had eaten when he was in. I don't go by the use dates on can goods.
I've pushed beans , raviolis , spaghetti o's , spam , tuna , peanut butter , etc. that was stored at room temperature down low near the floor for 4 -5 years or more without any problems at all !! My test is this ..... if the cans are swelled , or pop back when you press in the ends , then toss them !!
Over half of everything I eat is past the expiration date,been doing It for over 45 years, and three times a year the doctor gives me a clean bill of health.
Best by mean, it is more flavorful. Use By means just that. Sell by means the store must sell it by that date. Also canned foods can usually go 6 months after the best buy date. I have noticed that some companies like Campbell's has a longer use by date than they did a few years ago. Home canners know that food in a jar can last any where up to 2 3 years as long as the lid is sealed.
I worked for the largest food company in the USA. The expiration dates were determined by running real time taste tests. Once the foods developed an off flavor (which a normal person might not be able to detect) that amount of time determined the expiration date.
I used to work in the food trucking industry and I have witnessed truckload after truckload of perfectly good food being thrown out because of these fictitious dates sad to watch
Back in the 60s and 70s, at my grandmother's house during the holidays, the mothers would send us kids to the cellar to get "canned"(jars) vegetables. Many were probably at least a decade old, as I don't remember an actual garden being there since my grandfather died in the early 60s.
In my experience, canned foods last nearly forever. And yes, I use my smeller for dairy products if I have any left past 'use' date. I buy butter and cheese on sale and freeze it-except for soft cheese and cheddar, those I refrigerate, and they still keep for months.
Removing the date isn't the answer. Establishing a standrdized food safety "consume by" date is the answer. In the US, the FDA & USDA should be tasked with this. If we have money for bombs, we have money to address food waste and safety
You can’t do that. Because the environment is different every time something is bought. How long was it in the car before the person gets home? What’s the temp in their fridge? Their car? How old was the food already when they bought it. There is no specific set time that something rots.
@EchoJae I agree that this should be done, yes is supposed to be being overseen by the FDA & enforced, yet our consumer protection agencies have been failing the consumers miserably in many areas, this being one of them. I remember as a child, my mother & grandmother had their state representative’s phone number listed along with others, as though he was friend or family. Decided to learn the name of mine a couple years ago re something. End result? Got added to his weekly email letter that brags of his recent conquests bc he’s a lawyer who sues those who wrong the state. Idk who prospers, but finally used the Unsubscribe at the bottom of his list bc I found him & his letters very distasteful & without benefit to myself or other citizens of my state. We DO need consumer representation again, but I’m a senior citizen now so too old & tired to repair what we, including myself, have allowed to replace the government offices that used to work for the people. Hopefully a new generation will see & repair the damages. If you are, my sincere apologies for what we have permitted. It may have always been that way here, bc I moved from WV to NC in 1989 for work & became a workaholic. Admittedly, I disengaged from most things political, simply kept voting of course. I agree that removing the date isn’t the answer & should never be permitted.
@@Citizen-pg8eu according to employees at various stores they are told to throw away foods that are close to date or past dates. They say because of any risks of getting sick off spoilage. It’s dumb. Most of these foods can last way past the dates.
I've ALWAYS thought that the "Sell by" date was a scam by the manufacturers to get people to waste good food and by more! I've always used the "smell test" for all foods - except the ones that are covered in mold!
I recently got food poisoning by using expired 2% milk which had expired, but didn’t have a smell. It expired August 30, I used on cereal Sept. 9th! I didn’t pay attention to the date until after the fact! I will forever go by the use by date in the future. I never want to be that sick again!
I have been around since way before these labels showed up on U.S. foods and managed quite well. I use "my own common sense" to determine whether to throw things out. It's pretty obvious when something has truly gone bad. I have always thought that manufacturers guess short of how long they believe it will really last. But I think it's been in the manufacturers best interest to make the "use by" dates as short as possible. Means they sell more food. What about medicines? You don't suppose these hard dry pills actually go bad? Do they even change potency? I think pharmaceutical companies just want to sell more drugs. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but you cannot trust anything these product giants have been telling us about their products. Are you aware of toxic metals in baby food? Yet they remain on the shelves.
Medicine is a real good example. Prescription drugs always have a 1-year-out use-by date when, especially for dry pills, it can last 15 YEARS before dipping below 90% potency. So, even then, still useable. Some meds can get toxic as they degrade so do your research and don’t just blindly throw them out
It depends on the products really. Nothing lasts forever and stuff does degrade over time to where the manufacturers can't guarantee quality/taste/effectiveness/what ever metrics for that particular product. Like bleach, it will slowly break down over time and be less useful as a disinfectant. So the date on that product would basicly mean "we can't guarantee that this will clean and sanitize correctly after this point." That doesn't mean it won't, just that they can't say legally it will
My friend is a nurse practitioner who volunteers for Doctors Without Borders. She said they will gladly use any medication that is even six years past the expiry date.
I used to save all my kids left over liquid antibiotics for my animals, never lost one dog or cat. Back in the 70s, I read a report from the bear company and the said the only drug that would lose their potency was antibiotics by about 2 percent.
I cant afford to throw away food so ive always use my nose or taste it to determine if it not good to eat! Has always worked for me most canned foods can last well long after the use by date.
That’s not a good idea with milk. They should keep the dates on there. I drink 2-3 gallons in a typical week. They can last up to 7 days after the date posted. So if it says sell by 9/25/22, it’s good up to 10/01/22 then turns bad. I have bought milk with a date just a couple of days away and said to myself, (this is no problem for me, I will have it finished in 3 days.) Also they will waste their money not knowing the dates of the milk in each jug if they buy one close to expiration. So they made a bad choice for something that lasts under a month. Unlike we can buy some boxed items or cans with dates up to 2 years before they start expiring.
I opened a slightly expired can of pasta sauce recently and tasted it. It tasted like the tin can it was in. Yuck! I hate throwing food away, but if it is expired, I throw it away. I avoid doing this by rotating the items in my food pantry or refrigerator. The older items get moved to the front, and the new items go to the back. Now I rarely have expired food!
That's because you left it in the tin can.you never leave food in the can it comes in. Always pour it on another container like plastic or glass and you could have kept it for months. Tin cans can cause rust. I'm glad you threw it out.👍
I’ve eaten canned green beans that were 5 years past their best by dates, and there was nothing wrong with them, tasted perfectly normal. As long as the cans of food are not swelled or distorted, I’ll at least open, and taste them, and if they pass the taste and smell test I’ll eat them
I also work at a Supermarket that sells a lot of food and when it goes bad it is either scanned out to make sure that the store gets credit for it; I myself have seen food come and go and the people who work there are going to make sure that the food is fresh and clean and ready for you to consume; I work on the front end bagging groceries and lots of people surviving in today's world
A can of potted meat survived ww1 and was put in a museum in the 1960's. In the 2000's they opened the can to find it still contained its caloric and nutritional contents. It was over 100 years old when opened.
We NEVER waste milk lol, we always run out. The stuff that we throw out is the well intentioned condiments, spices and random foods bought for a specific recipe, that either turns out not to be good or not to be commonly cooked
The whole modern food system is a nightmare...they got us away from self sufficiency lifestyle, and now we are the food corporation's and government's sitting ducks.
It made me sick to my stomach when I worked at Hardee’s that when breakfast was over they would throw away the food that was left over. I was working there and saving for scar, and I was starving. I asked if I can have one of those sausage biscuits your throwing away, and the manager told me you have to pay for it. I didn’t have any money to get it, and they threw it away!
I've been knowing this truth about expiration dates for nearly 40 years because I have been a Consumer Reports subscriber in the US for 40 years. I never throw food out because of expiration dates. I also buy any consumer product according to the testing that Consumer Reports does so that I get the highest quality product for the most reasonable price for me. The best service they offer is their new car-buying service. I've only bought three cars in that amount of time at great savings and such high quality that I've kept them an average of 18 years each. Don't let corporations treat you like sheep; educate yourselves.
Food expiration dates can often be compromised if the food was shipped in cardboard boxes. That's why it's best to buy your food directly from local merchants - rather than having your food delivered to your doorstep. You certainly don't want any spoiled food in your own pantry - and you certainly don't want to donate any spoiled food to charitable organizations. Shop local for not only you, but for our most vulnerable citizens who rely on us for decent food which will allow them to move forward with their lives.
I opened a can of chili that was 2.5 years past the best by date. It was totally fine. Canned foods will last years past the date if they are stored properly.
I don't throw food away but I like looking at the Best Buy or use by date because when I take groceries home I put the old in the front and the new in the back
So does that supermarket is England encourage customers to open everything in order to smell it? Unwrap blocks of cheese and take a whiff before purchasing? And if it smells bad to the customer, do they just put it back on the shelf? Do the open random containers of yogurt? Milk may be ok a few days after the stamped date, but is it fine after a few weeks? A month? I’m not buying a can of beans with an expiration date that reads 1/20/2018, and I don’t know anyone who would.
I'd like to know when food expires after I open the container bottled sauces marinades soups and whatnot I want to know what how long I can use them after I actually open them because you don't want to buy a bottle of $5 bottle of sauce and then not be able to use it in a month
The day they get rid of best by or use by dates is the day I ask a worker “explain how to read the code to me” or I’ll just look it up online and find out myself. Yes, use the sniff test before u buy? Have u seen stuff people will do? U don’t think someone would spit in it and return it just cause they think it’s funny. What, use the sniff test after you buy it? That’s convent. To me, this is just a way for companies to move waste lost money to profit. Why do things go bad? Cause the supply is greater than demand. Lower supply and problem solved. Companies don’t want to do that cause it’s less money for them. Yes I do use expiration dates - I look at them before I put the item in my cart. Why take it away? To lower food waist? How about lower production.
I’ve worked at Walmart for almost 2 years a few years ago. If food was close to expiration date, they would give it to a food bank. Ive seen it to where a pallet of fridge stuff was left outside and the whole pallet had to be discarded. Yes that was a big mistake by them but it’s still food waste. It went bad. My advice - lower food production or encourage food places to use food banks. Not once in this video did they talk about food banks and how some food places actually uses them. It is a thing and better than just throwing it out like the video says happens.
it's nothing more than a money making exercise.I've never paid any attention to it from the start. So many people get really pissed off with me about that.
I’ve been a garbage man since 1989 and the food that is thrown away is disgusting and disgraceful I believe the food industry does it for profit but majority of humans are sheep and will always do what they are told even when we can and should do things better
I got Covid in November 2020 and lost my sense of smell. I have regained some of my smell but honestly I can’t smell stinky things like rotten milk, food, someone passing gas, fecal smells. That may seem like it’s a good thing but it truly is not. I have started putting dates on all food that goes into fridge and I have to ask family members if it is starting to smell. I need those dates on store bought food but I wish they would be more clear about what date it is actually no longer able to be consumed.
To what extent do you follow the sell/use/best by dates on your food?
I think they should just have use or best by date because sell by means it’s still fresh afterward but who knows for how long. Use by I think is best because they know to Use it before that date or it’s no good.
It depends on what it is?!
Canned food can last longer that use or sell by dates.
You need to open and check out what your nose detects?!?
WHEN IN DOUBT, THROW IT OUT!
@@clairethomas1440 yes true. But if a few months past, I then just go ahead and get rid of the cans for my safety. I am afraid they aren’t any good if 3 or more months past the date posted.
I don't follow them at all besides a glance.
I'm not one of those poor feeble minded people who believe everything they are told especially when it concerns "for profit".
Imagine if you can get the feeble minded to throw out perfectly good food in order that they buy more and profit you more?
Wouldn't you do it? For Profit?
Human cows are easily milked for the eternal and entitled profits of the great winners and the great winners know how to play the suckers like a violin.
Remember, we live in abundance or used to, not profit.
Profit is a concept used to concentrate the abundance of our world into the hands and control of the few, the elite, the entitled, and those great winners in a perverted world of win/lose.
Profit as a lie requires the constant expenditure of YOUR time, energy, and belief to exist. Right Santa?
Of course the paradigm shift from "for profit", to "nor for profit", can only be denied by the afflicted for it exposes them for the brainwashed "for profit" economic slaves and feeble minded filth they truly are.
Have a great one, ... and good luck.
milk ? by smell along
instant oatmeal ? I enjoy packets over a year old.
canned food ? not until the can 'pops' could be a few months, could be a few years.
common sense is the key.
The fact that they put an expiration date on pure honey should tell you something.
the packaging degrades
I'd volunteer to eat honey from an Egyptian tomb.
They put a expiration date on water in glass bottles.
Yeah it's probably not real unpasteurized honey. Buy local.
Right?
I work in a store that sells food and I happen to work in the food department. The amount of food that we NEED to throw out on a monthly basis makes me sick!! If it is passed the best before date it has to be thrown out. Employees are not allowed to take it home as it's considered theft. All I keep saying every time I have to throw out food is that there are so many people out there that could really use this, and yet there is nothing I can do.
...and if the store sold it they'd get sued by some Saul Goodman-type ambulance chasing attorney... and definitely lose because everyone hates private enterprise in today's culture.
So sad, like restaurants getting rid of food and the homeless can not have it. Well look at the seniors, and lots of people could use the food especially now!!! I hate waste!!!! Who makes these rules (the rich people???) maybe the politicians????
In California that would happen. I knew a group of women who would pick up "spoils," foods that were expiring that day or within a couple of days. The foods had to be thrown away according to some random law. The ladies would pick up the food and redistribute it. Bread or fresh foods did not usually last for more than a day or two beyond the sell by date. If bread looked good (no mold) I would take it home, break it up and bake it for breadcrumbs. When the store got complaints from the people who received the freely-distributed food, the store stopped allowing the ladies to take it. It was sad, really.
@@annphillips3423 In California it is a liability issue. 'Sad.
It’s messed up because if they give it to the needy and they get sick from it they can get sued, a lot of needy people are selfish af so a lot of them would sue, its a damned if you do damned if you don’t thing
Back in 2014, I got hungry one night and rummaged thru my cupboards to see if I could find something to eat. I hadn't grocery shopped in a while, so my supplies were scant. I was elated when I found a can of chili in the back & proceeded to heat it up and eat it. Halfway thru I happened to notice the top of the can. Stamped on it was BEST BY 02/08. It gave me a moment's pause, but the chili was delicious, so I finished it off and had no ill effects. It only reinforced a suspicion I'd always had, that this whole 'best buy' thing is basically a scam to sell more food.
@Emmy_Reacher: If it had gone wrong your tombstone should read; "Believes in Best By Now."
Just give us a Manufacture date and let us be the Judge.
That is a excellent idea!
👍🏾
👎🏼
Just to make a point, I found three canned foods in my cupboard that have a used-by date between 6 months and almost a year past. I opened them all, smell them and they smelled fine. So took a bite and there wasn't anything wrong with them. So, before tossing food, at least check them.
Unless they are dairy, or other things like fruits and veggies. If you have a year old thing of butter you are buying too much butter.
I found a can of sardines 5 years past the best before date and it was delicious.
Even in my army service we where given canned food that was 10-15 years past the best before date and they were tasting just fine.
@@honkyjesuseternal Good point! Maybe we arebeing trained to hoard food. Its only of benefit to the conglomerates that control the industry. Ee are far more manipulated than we realize!
I frequently eat soup that 3 years out of date.
Even though it smells and tastes ok, there could be bacteria present that won't harm someone with a cast iron gut or a great immune system, but could make someone who is susceptible to that bacteria very ill. It is them the expiration dates must help protect. Btw, I have a strong gut but not willing to take any chances. Also, if food tastes off (like souring milk) I'm not eating or drinking it. No way.
Edit: tastes or smells off . . . .
Canned food can last a very long time regardless of it's date, there were no dates on them when I was growing up and the canned food was perfectly fine. Just don't buy/eat cans that have bulges in them. Some people are conditioned to be wasteful and stick to the dates on their food. At the rising cost of food today who can be wasteful? Look at it, smell it, give it a little taste first before tossing.
Went to open a can of baked beans at 4th of July. I didn’t read the date when I bought it. Well past sell by date, it looked like someone pooped the beans already. Needless to say, I returned it to the store. I would have never cooked that slop.
The cans do have expiration date. If you haven’t gotten sick in the past consider yourself lucky!!!!
Certain foods like pineapple and tomatoes damage the lining of cans so be careful.
Canned food from WW1 has been opened and found to be OK.
A lot of can foods at the local food banks have no expiration dates or best by dates. Like the old days, you have to wing it. I guess they don't care if the poor and the old people die from food poisoning. 😉
I don't toss good food; it has to be bad tasting or smelling or obviously rotten. Canned food stored at correct temperatures can be used well after expiry dates. I May have to adjust for flavour but usable. Freezer burn, just toss it into a stew or soup.
The dates are mainly about selling more food, not safety.
Flip your yogurt, sour cream, cottage cheese containers over in the fridge to make them last longer… Also never store dairy products like milk in the door of the fridge or near the front of the fridge as that will be the warmer part.
I have eaten a yoghurt three months past the expiry date, as long as it is refrigerated and factory sealed, yoghurt lasts past the expiry date
how would flipping them over make them last longer?
Fish paste as well store in fridge upside down. Lasts ages longer.
@@sharons8690 It reduces the air in the container that helps mold and bacteria grow. I also do this for ricotta.
Wow nice info 👍👍👍
I grew up in the 60’s. We didn’t have dates on food. I don’t pay attention to dates, if it looks or smells off when I open it, I throw it out. I’ve never gotten sick from eating “expired” food.
Tip: People are told to set their fridge on the warm side to "save energy" but food lasts many times longer if you make it as cold as possible +1C (~34F) is ideal. It is just before freezing and food lasts much longer. Keep the fridge cold, you'll save way more $ on food than the pennies you save in energy.
Another tip, try minimizing standing around with the door open. Plan what you want or make lists for the fridge door (particularly for leftovers).
You are exactly right! One group says, “save energy”. The other says, “save food”. The individual has to sort between all these guidelines to find the right answer for their needs and tastes. I was. In the hospital for a month. When I got home, my family had come in an dumped all my food, even the powdered cocoa mix, flour in the freezer. People: Use some common sense.
Sorry but I disagree. While that may generally be true, there are far too many exceptions to your 34F rule. There is a different optimal storage temperature for every food so it really just depends on what is in your frig. You can find charts by googling "optimum storage temperature for fruits and vegetables".
@@jasonjames4254 A good point as there are optimum temperatures for food quality and they are slightly higher for veggies. However if the issue is pure longevity, colder is better. But, that is what vegetable drawers are for. If you want to do less damage at the tradeoff of longevity, use the drawer, but any leftovers, bread, meat, milk, etc all last longer when colder.
@@LFTRnowAs the only occupant here, I freeze all of my bread and a lot of crackers and such since I live in a high humidity area. Keeps everything palatable for much longer than the cupboards here. Toss bread in the microwave for a few seconds and good to go. I would get maybe 1.5 weeks out a loaf otherwise.
Who the hell tell you to keep your fridge on the warm side 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
I learned in the military that expiration dates and refrigerate after opening mean nothing.
They just make more money by telling you when to throw out because now you have to go buy more. Which keeps them in business. Young people really fall for this because they were not around when you just smelled your food and knew when to throw it out. They could save so much money by smelling your food. If it smells bad throw it out, if it doesn't smell bad it's okay to eat.
Same with shampoo. "Rinse and repeat." Purely to get us to use twice what we need.
Medicine as well!
Many of us grew up before dates were put on foods. We managed.
Back when we didn’t have to have a warning label telling us not to drink bleach or stick our fingers in an electrical outlet ….
My mother-in-law wouldn't accept some day-old bread, but her med cabinet was full of out of date meds. 🙄
If the package isn’t bloated and it doesn’t stink and there’s nothing fuzzy growing on it, I’M EATING IT!
I love these dates they put on the cans. Stores will sell anything nearing these dates at steep discounts to avoid taking a complete loss and having to dispose of them. I've been eating canned foods that are years beyond their "best before/use before" dates with no ill effects for most of my 60+ years. Sometimes, there is a slight change in color or taste but they are still perfectly edible. I just make sure the can is fully intact and do a simple sniff/taste test for something that is really old. I've even eaten 6 month old yogurt and cheese.
I've eaten yogurt over 2 years past the best by date and it was just fine.
I agree, so I’m sure stores would love to stop using these dates. The flip side of this coin is milk in my area. I definitely recommend everyone use the sniff test regardless of the date bc milk here is dated far after the spoiled date. Idk why, but I learned this around seven years ago by pouring a glass of what was labeled as fresh milk & spitting it across my kitchen due to reflex & my sensitive taste buds. According to the best before date, it should have been good for two more weeks. You are right about the canned foods, usually just fine a couple of years after the stamped date providing the can isn’t bent or dented to crack the inner lining. I’m likely considered OCD concerning wasting food bc I have felt hunger pains in my life. That’s an humbling experience which gives one a new gratitude for food, so I’d much rather share than waste food. Never been selfish with food anyway, so always willing to share what I have with anyone near me, if I know anyone with that need. An undiagnosed bad gallbladder is what lead to my hunger & me almost starved to death a couple of years ago. Food was available, but nothing would stay down long enough to nourish me, believed to be caused by my Parkinson’s once a CT didn’t show it. Finally it was shown clearly on a simple ultrasound is why I’m telling this long story. I DO NOT want this to happen to anyone else bc two years later, I still only weigh 68 pounds? THIS is likely my Parkinson’s, Vascular Disease with several blocked arteries, severe arthritis & a heart defect I was born with, a leaky valve that sticks open dumping blood making my heart overwork, pushing my heartbeats up to sometimes 200 bpm without a tiny tablet 3 times a day to relax it. Got the wrong generic a couple weeks ago, didn’t know bc it looked the same & my pharmacy didn’t tell me they couldn’t get the same, just replaced it with similar. Took me several hours to figure out why I felt like I was having another stroke, as I had had one in 2012 & was losing my speech, right eye was going blind, face was twisting, etc. Being under hospice care, my only covered call was to them. Fortunately I had one & 1/2 of my original generic tablets put away in case of emergency & this night was. Called & tried to explain to my current hospice RN, but I’m sensitive to many meds & have many allergies so I told her that my emergency meds should get me through the night bc my BP & HR had leveled off, but we would need to collaborate with my doctor & pharmacy in the morning. She came then, we contacted the pharmacy & my doc, who ordered namebrand, which I paid dearly with; 88% of my monthly income for a 50 day supply bc my pharmacy couldn’t get my generic that I’ve been using decades.THIS seems off topic but isn’t. Because I am SO sensitive to taste, chemicals, foods & medications that I’m not going to be here much longer, yet know our nation, maybe our world, is in trouble. It’s a fact I can’t last much longer bc I live alone & worked a taxpaying job, then career until medical problems made doctors take me out, saying no lifting over five pounds anymore in the year 2005. Then, getting dye-free Benadryl, working hard & having lunches special prepared was no problem! 😃👍 Was a hard working woman everyone knew working for big companies, so trustworthy it gave me power to hire, fire (rarely), schedule & assign the staff, who I considered friends and treated like one big family. Of course I was working with OPM, but that was in good hands. Those working under me were always treated with respect & dignity bc I never asked anyone to do anything I hadn’t done. Now, I find myself by myself so I gave too much of myself to my work. What I’m saying is I should have stayed in the food industry bc we NEED someone testing our food supply again, bringing required tests with food handler cards back into our food environment before we all end up terminally ill. There’s no consumer protection in place anymore which isn’t going to end well. Awe, I’m almost gone from this world, but I love all people & am asking people to remember what USED TO BE when the government groups worked FOR THE PEOPLE and those gradings in restaurants meant something bc inspections took place, requiring every place serving food be cleaned with Clorox, all dishes rinsed with water containing Clorox, foods kept in a fridge with working thermometers in each at a certain temp, etc. & all foods be within date. I am old now but was young working in food handling jobs in college but still remember that. Relocated on 1989, those rules disappeared crossing a couple state borders, so at the time, made it easy for me to do that until I got a job leading to my career. I DID buy the day old bread at the convenient little bakeries in this town, and shopped a little store next door to it for old can foods to stock my kitchen when I moved here starting over, bc I had moved away from family & friends. Was young & had never done that, so it calmed my insecurities to have a full kitchen. Didn’t mean to tell you my life story! Rest assured I didn’t; just agreeing WE should get a vote on that & insist on keeping expiration dates LoL! I really don’t think they can remove the dates, although they might call it Use by, Best by, or hopefully not Packaged on date. With my PD, that would leave me clueless!🤣🤣
Jason I want to thank you for your time. Have a blessed weekend ahead. May God bless you & your family to never go hungry or need for anything. ~
Whoever heard of opening the milk container in the store to 'sniff' it? It's sealed for a reason. Many stores donate not-so-fresh vegetables to food banks and soup kitchens when they're not salable. At least some of it can still be used. As for dumping vegetable waste in the trash, is there no effort to recycle as compost? Finally, I always believed that the dates on canned goods was to help stores rotate their stock and that it didn't indicate that the product should be discarded. It also serves the same purpose in the home.
I so agree.
Our unsellable produce and bakery items go to a local pig farmer.
Nah, best by dates are a scam.
exactly!
@@probablynotdad6553 not really a scam - but, spoken like a man who eats expired food and has never gotten sick, but, likewise, did not get all the nutrients at their best quality. Once you get sick from eating food that has past it's desired taste and value, then you may think twice before eating something that is one day away from mold.
I ate eggs last week that were two weeks expired and they were completely fine.
I float my eggs after the expiration date. Put them in a glass of water...if they sink they are still good. If they float throw them out.
I recently found a can of soup in the back of my pantry with a best use date of back in 2007. Without that date on the can I would have no idea how old it was.
You would have smelled it. And if it didn't smell bad you could have eaten it. That's what we used to fo. Smell your food. You're wasting money if you don't.
According to the FDA Food in Kansas is safe for 100 years. Yes that's what I said. 100 years.
@@grlnexdoorable people in Kansas are so lucky !
I keep a marker in my kitchen and write dates I bought it into the house on stuff before I put it away.
I’m not a prepper….more of a be ready person. I have about 1000 canned goods in my pantry. If kept cool and dry, they’ll last for decades.
It's sad that so much food gets wasted. There are so many families that cannot afford to buy fresh healthy food.
I've seen videos where people do dumpster diving and finds so much food in them that are sealed & not out of date or even near. They're perfectly fine.
All that could be donated to a food bank to be distributed to families who desperately need to feed their families.
But unfortunately these days society is due happy and will sue over the slightest thing so businesses are afraid to donate the food for fear if someone gets sick, they'll get sued.
The reason they trash them is simple, anyone or homeless person eat the expired food doesn't matter if it was brought or not from store or restaurant. They are legally can sue them for money. That why they trash them to avoid all that.
If any store donates food to the food bank they are not going to get sued. I think there's a law that states that. But these stores get a huge tax write off for the pounds of food they throw away. And some stores throw it away if they get over stocked on the product and they can't sell it. it's to make room for new stock. And it is sad because the way things are with food prices going up.
Donating food isn't free. It's far less expensive to the corporation to toss the stuff in the dumpster than to sort and ship it to a food pantry.
Vox... Okay. Canned foods are generally good beyond their best buy dates. Milk or buttermilk is fine if it is not spoiled. I do not throw out canned or packaged food beyond a best buy date, we rotate foods so that they are consumed. It is a common sense idea to prevent waste (of food or money).
Marks and Spencers is FAR from the UK's most popular food shop. It's considered very posh and expensive, only well-off people shop there frequently.
m & s posh
have you lost it mate
waitrose ' s posh though
Use your senses. Eyes, nose and taste. So much food waste in this country
In California a construction crew tearing down a building found a cache of canned goods over 75 years old. The food was in the basement. Out of curiosity they opened a bunch of the cans, 100% percent of the food was edible although some of the vegetables were soggy and didn't look as good as fresher food. I store food because my parents were raised in the depression and did so as a precaution. As I have 6 kids, this is also economical, especially today. As an example, I bought 200 cans of soup, chili, etc. at 99 cents a can, these products are now $3 a can. I made 200% on this investment and also don't have to worry about going hungry during economic crisis and food shortages. I routinely open cans or jars, 3-5 years past the date on the can and have never found any spoiled food. I will tell you that if you drop a jar of food, the seal may break so check the jar to see if the cap is concave as it should be or pops up. If the seal breaks, simply use this product and store refrigerated until used.
I just ate a can of soup last week exactly one year old, tasted great.
I eat food all the time past the date. I cooked a box of brownies that was 3 months out of date. I use eggs up to 2 weeks after the date. My Mom cooked and ate oatmeal that was a year out of date. She kept it in her freezer. It was good. Just depends on the kind of food. Canned foods can be used after the date if the can looks good. I have eaten can food that was a couple of months over the date. I hate to see food wasted. Some of the out of date food could be taken to homeless shelters !! -My Mom would freeze food if it was going out of date. For instance lunch meat( wrap individually), take food out of can and freeze, bread, crackers, rice, coffee, tea bags, oats meal, chocolate, cake, cookies, sugar, flour, corn meal etc. I do it too. It works. Keeps bugs out !! Lots of things can be put in freezer and kept for awhile. No need to waste tons of food !! Invest in a freezer !!
Canned foods can last decades when stored right, but it depends on the type of food canned.
Light coating of lard on egg shells and they will easily last 9 months in the fridge.
Before fridges eggs were "water-glassed" (isinglassed) and stored in cellar. 1 year preservation not uncommon.
When in doubt about eggs, throw em in a bowl of water -if it floats toss it.
Eggs last a long time.
@@probablynotdad6553 In the sense that it won't make you sick.
Some of that canned food will be edible 100 years after expiration
I have worked in the processed food and beverage manufacturing industry for over 40 years. Places like Coors, Wrigley gum, Frito-Lay, Dean Foods(dairy) and Starbucks. None of those companies guess or use focus groups to determine “best buy” dates. They have in-house expert taste groups that taste the product from when it is freshly produced up until the time it tastes really bad or when it has actually gone bad from a microbiology perspective. So when a new product is developed this done to determine the shelf-life of the product and one of the other terms: best buy, use before, etc. Any time they change the recipe it’s done and even when no recipe change is made it’s done by daily as a quality check. So yes products can still be good and edible past those dates at some point your taste buds and nose will know when it’s bad and your stomach may tell you when it’s microbiologically bad.
That's great info and good to know, but my stomach has never told me that something was "microbiologically bad". Maybe I have a cast iron stomach, but I've been eating canned foods that are years beyond the use before dates all my life with no ill effects.
My stomach has told me and it wasn’t pleasant.
The "Best By Date and Sell By Date" are more to protect the manufacturer and retailer. In fact in my State we have a company who sells nothing but good merchandise past the sell by, best by dates. Let your senses be your guide. Sight and smell. This is from someone who spent 50 years in retail and grew up on a farm with our own canned goods and harvested meat.
I only toss out milk once it smells soured. I only toss out bread and pastries once mold starts to grow. I have canned food in my pantry with a best by date of 2017. A few days ago my family had a delicious chili dinner with beans from a can with a best by date of 2019. We’re all fine, as always, and it hasn’t lost any of its flavor or texture. Please think twice before you toss! Just do a smell test and texture test! 😊
Just don't drink milk in the first place
When I was in the military back in the early 1980s we had canned rations that had production dates back in the 1940s, during world war ll. I don’t know of anyone that got sick.
Use the sniff test with milk? But if it fails, I already paid for it! I also need to know which milk I can leave in the fridge and which one to use right now. Dates on milk - and other perishable foods - are important. They are also useful on canned goods. I have four cans of tuna in my pantry. Which can should I open first?
Eliminating the dates favors the big food corporations and puts the consumer at a big disadvantage. They can sell us old food and we won't know until we try to eat it.
use a sharpie to mark the date purchased before putting it away
I know some expired food still tastes fine like canned food and milk. But different types of label date name confuse many people such as Best Before, Use By, and Sell By dates.
I don’t understand how ppl are confused.. it’s pretty common sense
I was in boot camp in 1980 they made us eat c rations from the 60s still alive and I know we can food better than then
Expired foods are commonly given to food banks for the poor except for ground meats. Also, food banks donate to pig farmers.
I m 70+ we kept and used canned goods until the can swe!led. No ONE I know ever got sick.
I used a can of Cheddar Cheese soup from 2013 and it was fine. Freezing is what is bad for canned goods.
The carbon foot print thing is a load of crap!!!
I have seen food pantries refuse canned food past their “best before” dates. A real shame.
I was in our local grocery one day. I was asked by a worker if I could use 10 half gallons of OJ which the sell by date was that day. I took all of them & shared with family. It was still good. I also years before moved into my step-aunts home & there were canned goods with no dates on them I would heat them up & if they were good my family ate them. You can tell if they weren't good.
Canned goods last for decades if kept cool and dry. If it’s not rusty, leaking or swelled, eat it.
Remember this for canned foods, If the canning process was done correctly the food has an infinite shelf life.
@@lancerevell5979 is pop top the same as ring pull cans?
@@katperson7332 yes
I want to believe you, but there's controversy. I need to learn to rotate. It's harder to eat up a big store of canned food when you live alone, and I can't offend people by giving "old" food.
For me, it depends what it is and if it's canned or what container. If it's open in Refrigerator & the Nose/Eyes will detect right away...
WHEN IN DOUBT...
THROW IT OUT!!!
I never throw away food. I buy enough to last me the week and use it up before buying more. Especially these days with money being tight and with living alone. Find it unbelievable that so many people throw food away all the time!
I know right! It is very sad and disturbing since it can go to the poor and needy people.
Might I suggest stocking long term food storage (i.e. dried goods)? If you only have one weeks' worth at a time should a SHTF event occur or a natural disaster, you're not going to be in a very good position.
LOL, so what will you do when SHTF and the store shelves are bare? And you buy food week to week and have no stock .
@@carfvallrightsreservedwith6649 Thank you. I can't imagine how many people are so unintelligent when it comes to being prepared for emergencies.
@@jimbeam2705 I have so many things I can’t eat that I have a lot of food on hand in case of an emergency. I can’t eat just anything so I could be in REAL trouble! People need to have several weeks worth at least in case of an emergency. They just don’t comprehend that if the trucks/trains stop running they are in BiG trouble!
That really ticked me off, seeing all that fresh fruit being disposed of when so many are going hungry. Who cares what it looks like, a bruise or blemish can be cut off and the rest of the fruit eaten. I would have loved some of those oranges and bananas.
I use the best by, sell by or use by as a method to rotate my food with using the ones that are close ot that date first, so that nothing gets shoved back and forgotten about.
Strange the Army gave us C rats while I was in the early '70s and the cans were marked 1942-44.
Yep, same WW2 food that my dad had eaten when he was in. I don't go by the use dates on can goods.
I've pushed beans , raviolis , spaghetti o's , spam , tuna , peanut butter , etc. that was stored at room temperature down low near the floor for 4 -5 years or more without any problems at all !! My test is this ..... if the cans are swelled , or pop back when you press in the ends , then toss them !!
You can use your old milk to make biscuits and cornbread instead of buttermilk. That saves a lot of money.
Over half of everything I eat is past the expiration date,been doing It for over 45 years, and three times a year the doctor gives me a clean bill of health.
Best by mean, it is more flavorful.
Use By means just that.
Sell by means the store must sell it by that date.
Also canned foods can usually go 6 months after the best buy date. I have noticed that some companies like Campbell's has a longer use by date than they did a few years ago.
Home canners know that food in a jar can last any where up to 2 3 years as long as the lid is sealed.
I worked for the largest food company in the USA. The expiration dates were determined by running real time taste tests. Once the foods developed an off flavor (which a normal person might not be able to detect) that amount of time determined the expiration date.
I used to work in the food trucking industry and I have witnessed truckload after truckload of perfectly good food being thrown out because of these fictitious dates sad to watch
I always throw anything that is close to the date thinking it actually rots after the past date.
Back in the 60s and 70s, at my grandmother's house during the holidays, the mothers would send us kids to the cellar to get "canned"(jars) vegetables. Many were probably at least a decade old, as I don't remember an actual garden being there since my grandfather died in the early 60s.
In my experience, canned foods last nearly forever. And yes, I use my smeller for dairy products if I have any left past 'use' date. I buy butter and cheese on sale and freeze it-except for soft cheese and cheddar, those I refrigerate, and they still keep for months.
Removing the date isn't the answer. Establishing a standrdized food safety "consume by" date is the answer. In the US, the FDA & USDA should be tasked with this. If we have money for bombs, we have money to address food waste and safety
That's literally what we already have...canned foods can last decades when stored right, and certain ones with fats can go bad in 2-3 years.
You can’t do that. Because the environment is different every time something is bought. How long was it in the car before the person gets home? What’s the temp in their fridge? Their car? How old was the food already when they bought it. There is no specific set time that something rots.
You trust the fda after the last two and a half years? Yikes!
@EchoJae I agree that this should be done, yes is supposed to be being overseen by the FDA & enforced, yet our consumer protection agencies have been failing the consumers miserably in many areas, this being one of them. I remember as a child, my mother & grandmother had their state representative’s phone number listed along with others, as though he was friend or family. Decided to learn the name of mine a couple years ago re something. End result? Got added to his weekly email letter that brags of his recent conquests bc he’s a lawyer who sues those who wrong the state. Idk who prospers, but finally used the Unsubscribe at the bottom of his list bc I found him & his letters very distasteful & without benefit to myself or other citizens of my state. We DO need consumer representation again, but I’m a senior citizen now so too old & tired to repair what we, including myself, have allowed to replace the government offices that used to work for the people. Hopefully a new generation will see & repair the damages. If you are, my sincere apologies for what we have permitted. It may have always been that way here, bc I moved from WV to NC in 1989 for work & became a workaholic. Admittedly, I disengaged from most things political, simply kept voting of course. I agree that removing the date isn’t the answer & should never be permitted.
Why don't add "consume within this many days after opening"
THANKS YOU GOODNESS 🌟❤️🖤💚🤎 FAMILY DAPHNE COTTON ALWAYS 💜
They risk lawsuits if they don’t follow the rules and throw it out. It’s sad, but also sad that people would sue
And what rule is that? Only baby food has rules, I believe.
@@Citizen-pg8eu according to employees at various stores they are told to throw away foods that are close to date or past dates. They say because of any risks of getting sick off spoilage. It’s dumb. Most of these foods can last way past the dates.
@@TRoxanne55 Thanks, I understand now.
Many times it in a dumpster and homeless people are eating it and they don't get sick. They are just sad there's no more.🙄
My friend found a can of corn behind a shelf in his mom's house when cleaning it out. Was dated 1972 so he of course had to try it. Needed salt..
🙂
I've ALWAYS thought that the "Sell by" date was a scam by the manufacturers to get people to waste good food and by more! I've always used the "smell test" for all foods - except the ones that are covered in mold!
I recently got food poisoning by using expired 2% milk which had expired, but didn’t have a smell. It expired August 30, I used on cereal Sept. 9th! I didn’t pay attention to the date until after the fact! I will forever go by the use by date in the future. I never want to be that sick again!
Sorry you had to go through! But these ppl sound crazy talking about eating expired food 🤮
I have been around since way before these labels showed up on U.S. foods and managed quite well. I use "my own common sense" to determine whether to throw things out. It's pretty obvious when something has truly gone bad.
I have always thought that manufacturers guess short of how long they believe it will really last. But I think it's been in the manufacturers best interest to make the "use by" dates as short as possible. Means they sell more food. What about medicines? You don't suppose these hard dry pills actually go bad? Do they even change potency? I think pharmaceutical companies just want to sell more drugs. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but you cannot trust anything these product giants have been telling us about their products. Are you aware of toxic metals in baby food? Yet they remain on the shelves.
Medicine is a real good example. Prescription drugs always have a 1-year-out use-by date when, especially for dry pills, it can last 15 YEARS before dipping below 90% potency. So, even then, still useable. Some meds can get toxic as they degrade so do your research and don’t just blindly throw them out
It depends on the products really. Nothing lasts forever and stuff does degrade over time to where the manufacturers can't guarantee quality/taste/effectiveness/what ever metrics for that particular product.
Like bleach, it will slowly break down over time and be less useful as a disinfectant. So the date on that product would basicly mean "we can't guarantee that this will clean and sanitize correctly after this point." That doesn't mean it won't, just that they can't say legally it will
My friend is a nurse practitioner who volunteers for Doctors Without Borders. She said they will gladly use any medication that is even six years past the expiry date.
Don't even get into the atrocities of Big Pharma. These people will all be executed!
I used to save all my kids left over liquid antibiotics for my animals, never lost one dog or cat. Back in the 70s, I read a report from the bear company and the said the only drug that would lose their potency was antibiotics by about 2 percent.
I cant afford to throw away food so ive always use my nose or taste it to determine if it not good to eat! Has always worked for me most canned foods can last well long after the use by date.
Same with medication.....We can't afford wasting anymore.
That’s not a good idea with milk. They should keep the dates on there. I drink 2-3 gallons in a typical week. They can last up to 7 days after the date posted. So if it says sell by 9/25/22, it’s good up to 10/01/22 then turns bad. I have bought milk with a date just a couple of days away and said to myself, (this is no problem for me, I will have it finished in 3 days.) Also they will waste their money not knowing the dates of the milk in each jug if they buy one close to expiration. So they made a bad choice for something that lasts under a month. Unlike we can buy some boxed items or cans with dates up to 2 years before they start expiring.
growing up there was no expiration date on milk, we used the smell test. works well it does
I opened a slightly expired can of pasta sauce recently and tasted it. It tasted like the tin can it was in. Yuck! I hate throwing food away, but if it is expired, I throw it away. I avoid doing this by rotating the items in my food pantry or refrigerator. The older items get moved to the front, and the new items go to the back. Now I rarely have expired food!
That's because you left it in the tin can.you never leave food in the can it comes in. Always pour it on another container like plastic or glass and you could have kept it for months. Tin cans can cause rust. I'm glad you threw it out.👍
I’ve eaten canned green beans that were 5 years past their best by dates, and there was nothing wrong with them, tasted perfectly normal. As long as the cans of food are not swelled or distorted, I’ll at least open, and taste them, and if they pass the taste and smell test I’ll eat them
@@lettiegrant9447 LOL, the most unintelligent comment so far.
I ate a can of chili from 2019 and it was still good the taste was like when I bought it in 2022.
I made chili's last week, 2 cans of beans dated 2013 and 2 cans tomatoes dated 2015. It w as delicious!
Same for bread. You can eat it as long as not moldy. It just taste drier because of moisture slowly evaporated after opening.
I just toast it if it's older.
I also work at a Supermarket that sells a lot of food and when it goes bad it is either scanned out to make sure that the store gets credit for it; I myself have seen food come and go and the people who work there are going to make sure that the food is fresh and clean and ready for you to consume; I work on the front end bagging groceries and lots of people surviving in today's world
A can of potted meat survived ww1 and was put in a museum in the 1960's. In the 2000's they opened the can to find it still contained its caloric and nutritional contents. It was over 100 years old when opened.
I read an article of the same thing being done with a 100 year old can of salmon. The salmon was fed to a cat who appeared perfectly fine afterwards.
Good to know.
We NEVER waste milk lol, we always run out. The stuff that we throw out is the well intentioned condiments, spices and random foods bought for a specific recipe, that either turns out not to be good or not to be commonly cooked
There should be a label showing when to THROW out a Politician for good..
When it comes to fresh meat foods you need an expire date for sure vs proceesed or canned meats since they have food preservitives.
The whole modern food system is a nightmare...they got us away from self sufficiency lifestyle, and now we are the food corporation's and government's sitting ducks.
It made me sick to my stomach when I worked at Hardee’s that when breakfast was over they would throw away the food that was left over. I was working there and saving for scar, and I was starving. I asked if I can have one of those sausage biscuits your throwing away, and the manager told me you have to pay for it. I didn’t have any money to get it, and they threw it away!
Can't believe they didn't even donate it
I've been knowing this truth about expiration dates for nearly 40 years because I have been a Consumer Reports subscriber in the US for 40 years. I never throw food out because of expiration dates. I also buy any consumer product according to the testing that Consumer Reports does so that I get the highest quality product for the most reasonable price for me. The best service they offer is their new car-buying service. I've only bought three cars in that amount of time at great savings and such high quality that I've kept them an average of 18 years each. Don't let corporations treat you like sheep; educate yourselves.
my daughter is one that will not drink milk past it's expiration date.
it's as if the milk is perfect one day, and poison the next.
Thank you for Clarification.👍⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐👍
Food expiration dates can often be compromised if the food was shipped in cardboard boxes. That's why it's best to buy your food directly from local merchants - rather than having your food delivered to your doorstep. You certainly don't want any spoiled food in your own pantry - and you certainly don't want to donate any spoiled food to charitable organizations. Shop local for not only you, but for our most vulnerable citizens who rely on us for decent food which will allow them to move forward with their lives.
Food manufacturers definitely know what they are doing and should pay large fines and eventually needs to go out of business!
Here's a thought: Make up your own mind about what the dates mean and whether you should buy something. YOU are responsible for YOUR choices.
@@Xerame506 I know, right? It's like retro. Or Old School. Ancient.
I opened a can of chili that was 2.5 years past the best by date. It was totally fine. Canned foods will last years past the date if they are stored properly.
I don't throw food away but I like looking at the Best Buy or use by date because when I take groceries home I put the old in the front and the new in the back
It never ceases to amaze me to hear people speak of wasting food or water, as if either were possible in reality.
So does that supermarket is England encourage customers to open everything in order to smell it? Unwrap blocks of cheese and take a whiff before purchasing? And if it smells bad to the customer, do they just put it back on the shelf? Do the open random containers of yogurt? Milk may be ok a few days after the stamped date, but is it fine after a few weeks? A month? I’m not buying a can of beans with an expiration date that reads 1/20/2018, and I don’t know anyone who would.
I'd like to know when food expires after I open the container bottled sauces marinades soups and whatnot I want to know what how long I can use them after I actually open them because you don't want to buy a bottle of $5 bottle of sauce and then not be able to use it in a month
The day they get rid of best by or use by dates is the day I ask a worker “explain how to read the code to me” or I’ll just look it up online and find out myself.
Yes, use the sniff test before u buy? Have u seen stuff people will do? U don’t think someone would spit in it and return it just cause they think it’s funny. What, use the sniff test after you buy it? That’s convent.
To me, this is just a way for companies to move waste lost money to profit. Why do things go bad? Cause the supply is greater than demand. Lower supply and problem solved. Companies don’t want to do that cause it’s less money for them. Yes I do use expiration dates - I look at them before I put the item in my cart. Why take it away? To lower food waist? How about lower production.
I’ve worked at Walmart for almost 2 years a few years ago. If food was close to expiration date, they would give it to a food bank.
Ive seen it to where a pallet of fridge stuff was left outside and the whole pallet had to be discarded. Yes that was a big mistake by them but it’s still food waste. It went bad.
My advice - lower food production or encourage food places to use food banks.
Not once in this video did they talk about food banks and how some food places actually uses them. It is a thing and better than just throwing it out like the video says happens.
it's nothing more than a money making exercise.I've never paid any attention to it from the start. So many people get really pissed off with me about that.
must show production dates! So people can determine when product came to shelf originally!
I’ve been a garbage man since 1989 and the food that is thrown away is disgusting and disgraceful
I believe the food industry does it for profit but majority of humans are sheep and will always do what they are told even when we can and should do things better
I got Covid in November 2020 and lost my sense of smell. I have regained some of my smell but honestly I can’t smell stinky things like rotten milk, food, someone passing gas, fecal smells. That may seem like it’s a good thing but it truly is not. I have started putting dates on all food that goes into fridge and I have to ask family members if it is starting to smell. I need those dates on store bought food but I wish they would be more clear about what date it is actually no longer able to be consumed.
I've always wondered about this?!
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