Expiration Dates

I've talked about this before. In our grandparents' time, nothing had expiration dates on it and grandma would look at the cans for dents or rust spots along seams. If she saw something dented or rusty, she threw the can away. "Expiration dates" and "Best By Dates" mean absolutely nothing! That's the reason it's perfectly safe to buy foods at the Salvage Food stores and similar places... Just watch for dented cans and for rusted seams. Dried foods have no REAL expiration dates you need to worry about. As long as the packages have never gotten damp or show signs of mold, they're perfectly safe and could last forever. (Pasta, dried fruits and veggies, dried milk, etc.) Companies put those dates on products so unwise consumers assume the food has gone bad and throw them away and then go buy more to replace the perfectly good food they just trashed.

I did not know that the food dating system is not required by our government.

Well, you can hang it up on the government standardizing something that’s good for Americans’ health for the time being….

I often use food after the expiration dates.

Food industry here constantly try to change the rules so less Sell by date and more Best before date. They want more Sell by dates as they know punters and shops have to throw it out and so buy more of the same.

i agree with you. bought yogurt on sale cause the expiration date was the next day but i ate it after 3 more days.

It should be, sure, but isn't for a reason. Simply because it can't be. We have vague guidelines on how we store and package food. How we process it, and not all foods are processed the same way or at the same time across the country. Thus why manafactures choose the experation date based on the product, and what they did (or didn't) do to it. I can't read those little stamped dates, and I've had milk spoil on me before said suggested date . Because another thing the manafacturer has little to no control over, is how the product is stored and handled after it leaves their hands. They are making a guess based on what is in their control.

I always just go by my nose and eyes

My parents would be so surprised to see that when I buy things like cottage cheese the expiration date is for the next month. They would say that is not real cottage cheese it cannot be fresh, They would expect it to last the most two weeks.

I often ignore expiration dates if the food seems perfectly good.