There’s a big difference between “Best By” and an expiration date. And, lets be real, those expiration dates are usually kinda bogus too. Here’s the simple truth: most canned food will be edible long past the dates on the can. Yes, there maybe some nutritional loss. Yes, there may be some loss of taste/texture. But will it be unhealthy or dangerous? Usually no.
I routinely eat stuff that is a year or two past the date on the can. (Non-canned food is a different matter. And, in this case, ‘canned’ means food in cans and jars.) I’ve had only a few bad experiences. Usually a can starts bulging and, as you know, thats theuniversal sign for ‘dont eat this or else’.
The ‘Best By’ hasnothing to do with food safety or an expiration date. I’d go so far as to say its just a convenient Jedi mind trick to make people throw away food that is past the date. Gyno-Americans are notorious for this. I have had arguments about using a can of corn that was two months past expiration, and I’ve had people absolutely aghast that I would eat meat out of my deep freeze that was more than six months old.
Hey, when youre hungry and broke you will discover rather quickly that those dates on the can are like Walk/DontWalk signs….you can obey them, but if you have half a brain you can ignore them and figure it out for yourself with good results most of the time.
Is there anything that I do get rigid about in regards to dates? Milk. Thats about it. And the people who actually observe the BestBy dates on bottled water are seriously in need of testosterone. it’s hydrogen and oxygen, fer Crom’s sake.
But…no one ever went broke underestimating the gullibility of the buying public.
What usually expires on the “expiration date” is the manufacturer’s liability. If you eat it after that date and get sick, the manufacturer will claim it’s your fault for eating then – even if it has nothing to do with why you actually got sick.
I have cooked frozen turkey that was in the bottom of the deep freeze for over two years. It was fine.
How right you are. Look at Biden. This idiot exceeded his sell by date 20 years ago. And there he is. Screwing up everything he touches.
“And the people who actually observe the BestBy dates on bottled water are seriously in need of testosterone. it’s hydrogen and oxygen, fer Crom’s sake.”
The same problem exists with Mediots who think normal saline expires in a sealed bag. 20 years after the expiration date, there are still only two things in the bag: water, and sodium chloride at a ratio of 0.9%.
The people who fall for that nonsense should concentrate less on “best by” dates, and pay more attention to not snacking on lead paint chips.
I’ve had bottled water that tasted like plastic, so there might be a best by date for that. Or maybe the bottles were stored in a hot room. But, on the other hand, it is still drinkable, just doesn’t taste great.
About three years ago I had a phone call from next door neighbour asking if a tin of soup with only two weeks to go before the Best Before date would be safe. It was not evn at that date and it was not a used by just a best by.
I don’t care about dates on milk, either. I trust my nose more.
I found/ate a T-bone dated 2017 in the deep freeze a couple weeks ago. It was delicious. A lot of Aldi’s meat is already vac packed so no further processing necessary before freezing.
I’ve gone heavy on the freeze dried. 25 year shelf life and about 100% chance of not going to be around by then.
“….Hey, when youre hungry and broke you will discover rather quickly that those dates on the can are like Walk/DontWalk signs….you can obey them, but if you have half a brain you can ignore them and figure it out for yourself with good results most of the time…..”
As far as similes go, that’s gold.
I often eat expired foods myself. Cellophane wrapped bread type items may taste a bit stale, but edible – yes. Canned foods – very few issues, and those were possibly due to off-brand name. Mylar food envelopes – I’ve eaten year old expired Spam given away and the sandwich made tasted not off at all. I like those tuna envelopes, an easy convenient way to pack protein in the wild.
Milk – date means less than the smell to me. I had a co-worker who would throw out milk solely due to date code. Didn’t even bother opening and smelling it.
First world problems?
Maybe…but so what if it is?
I have found that canned fruit does tend to degrade in taste and texture quite rapidly after the “best by” date. Also canned tomato products also tend to go bad/spoiled fairly quickly after the date. Otherwise, If the can is fine, and the appearance and odor is normal, It’s likely still good.
High acid stuff tends to do that
We’ve eaten name brand canned soups that were 5 years past the best by date and it was fine. 6 years tasted a bit off but we didn’t get sick form it. Didn’t eat the rest of the 6 year case though.
30 Years ago I checked with USDA and they said that unless there was obvious signs of compromise, canned food was good for 10 years past the date on the can. Probably not their current position.
I keep telling my wife over and over again to stop with the date crap. There is no way, at least in my mind, that a manufacturer can accurately determine a expiration or use by date unless they install some sort of technology into the product/container to make that determination. So what if the exp date on a can of Spam says it two years past its funeral, it you get a hiss, try it out and see. Hell the dude on Ytube that taste tests some really old field rats almost always come across edible canned rats that are decades and decades old. To me, it is a .gov mandate designed to get the general public to buy more with the added benefit that we will stop thinking for ourselves.