Anyone else uses the good old sniff test instead of looking that the manufacturer's use-by dates?
I've had milk past 5 days and still smelling and tasting normal. Question is are these use-by dates accurate or just some marketing ploy?
What have you eaten that has way passed it's due date?
It would be UHT milk…
Having said that, drinking past Use By UHT milk probably isn't the smartest thing you've done all week. Clostridium Botulinum (the cause of Botulism poisoning) spores survive UHT treatment and Milk is a wonderful growth medium for bacterial spores!
Read up on what occurs during Botulism poisoning and have a think about whether it's worth risking it next time!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botulism
It's actually a best before date, which i found interesting. As others have said, it's up to personal judgement…this thing smelt and tasted fine so i decided it was ok. I don't make a habit of it though, just ran out of time for a real breakfast this morning!
A lot of bacteria that is bad for you doesn't smell bad though. For example - salmonella.
or Botulinum…
We need a ozb deal on medical bills
Do you think we could work together to find a coupon/discount code so we won't have to pay the extra $7 fee to go to the gp?
Yeah, it's called an 'election.'
Up and Go has a shelf life of around 8 months.
On the other side some stock rooms have limited air conditioning and get hot in summer.
I found in the tropics that UHT milk kept in the warm conditions was often RS when opened close to but after UB date. If kept in fridge was ok, and also stayed "fresh" (ie not curdled) for a week or so after opened.
Still alive and kicking…
I've got Vegemite that's several years past its use by date but then some would say Vegemite is permanently off. :)
Those use by dates are conservative recommendations. Also to limit liability. So use your own judgement.
It's also important to note the difference between Best Before (which is probably what's on Vegemite) and Use By (which is on Milk and other perishables).
Best Before = recommendation to ensure the product tastes the "same" as fresh (items can be legally sold after Best Before has passed provided it is highlighted that the date has passed)
Use By = recommendation to ensure that the product is safe to consume. (It's illegal to sell items past their Use By date)
Use By is a conservative figure cause the manufacturer has to have a high level of confidence that a product will be safe for that long.
If someone was to get food poisoning as a result of an over-ambitious Use By date, the food manufacturer would be liable and be quite likely to go out of business (not many companies are large enough to survive a Food Poisoning case - especially if deaths occur)
As such, it's not so much of a case of "greed to make you buy the product more often", more a legal necessity in the litigious society we live in!
The Vegemite jar does say Use By. I think it was manufactured before they made the distinction from Best By; it's that old. So I you don't see any posts from me for a while, check the news for a Vegemite fatality. :)
Use By/Best Before isn't a new thing.. I'd hazard a guess that it's been around for more than 20 years.
Certainly at least 15 years back when I started working in the Food Industry.
Maybe his vegemite is 30 years old? :P
I thought it was legal to sell use by / best before date ones after their stated dates, but it was illegal to sell items past their expiry date?
I thought expiry date = use by? In which case they're not supposed to sell products past their Use By date.
I've seen expiry and use by, so I thought they were classified differently, if anyone knows a definite answer to this, please enlighten me :)
Any company smart enough to operate in food industry is smart enough to buy public liability insurance. If the case is bad enough, they get rid of the brand and start new. Capitalism baby, long live the rich.
I threw out Vegemite yesterday because I opened it and it had mould in it
Hey maybe you should get the mould analysed. It might have a cure for cancer if it's that hardy. :)
I threw out mould yesterday because I opened it and it had Vegemite in it
That'd probably be from a crumb of toast rather than the actual Vegemite!
nope I cant stand cross contamination, so I scrape out enough or use a fresh knife if I need more. I just opened it and hadn't used it yet and it was still well within use by. I didn't even know vegemite could grow mould.
What are you DOING!? Just scrape it off - good as new!
The amount of salt in it means it will never go off
There was some at mums that was 10 years old, ate it without thinking twice
Vintage Vegemite is really good - when you stick a spoonful in your mouth it doesn'r immediately melt down, but lasts for ages
I had a pack of Nissin Ramen noodles that I found "hidden" at the back of the pantry in 2012…Cooked it and it tasted awful…LOL…checked the expiry..and it was dated 2004…Oops! So much for stock rotation…
I also found a 2L Pepsi Max that had clearly been sitting in the pantry for a few years…That tasted like cough medicine and no bubbles…
Luckily…these items were not at my house….but the family house.
And yeah, I have expired things all the time…I am not dead yet…I think the best way to check if food is edible or not is to use your nose/eyes/taste buds - these are our evolutionary gifts as a species!!!!
The artificial sweetener in diet soft drinks, Aspartame, breaks down in heat and on exposure to light, so not surprising that after many years there wasn't much left.
That horrible stuff is one of the things they blame for Gulf War Syndrome. Anyone that drinks that stuff is taking part in a human experiment. ;-p
Complete bullshit.
The only "bad" thing about Aspartame is that when you digest it it releases Methanol (and 2 Amino Acids that your body uses to make proteins).
People find this out and go bonkers cause Methanol is a poison, but they fail to note that drinking a can of Diet Coke will generate less Methanol in digesting the Aspartame than you'd consume eating an Apple fresh off the tree!
The only "bad" thing about Aspartame is that when you digest it it releases Methanol (and 2 Amino Acids that your body uses to make proteins).
Whatever helps you sleep at night bro. Aspartame is far from safe for human consumption.
Sheesh, grow a sense of humour. Didn't see the ;-p tongue poked out!? On another laughable note, imagine justifying drinking garbage like diet coke by comparing it to an APPLE!? LOL!
So you've provided one Unpublished (and therefore not crosschecked) Literature Review that almost undoubtedly cherrypicks data to demonstrate that consuming Aspartame is dangerous.. Completely ignoring that the lethal dose is outrageously high.
Aspartame is a simple molecule..
Basic Biochemistry tells you all you need to know about how it is processed in the body. It'd take a layperson of average intelligence about 60 minutes to learn sufficient Biochem to comprehend.
Look it up and think about it logically yourself instead of trusting what you read on the internet from some fruitloop who is taking data out of context.
Yes, you will experience negative health effects from subsisting solely on Aspartame, just as you would if you subsisted solely on Oats, but the occasional 50mg dose of Aspartame in the diet is going to be perfectly fine.
I assume you're taking the piss with the out of context Apple= Diet Coke reference.
Different sources of products need to be considered as well. I stopped buying mainstream milk as i was sick of having half a carton go off well before the use by date. I have now gone to a local dairy milk which is sold through a local deli and IGA and after more than a year i have not had any go off, in fact i can often use it for several days beyond the use buy (is around the same allowance as the major ones)which is handy when i don't use as much as I expected to.
Very strange. I often push the milk date to a couple of days after use by if it smells ok. Can't think of an occasion when it has go off prior to the date.
Are you refridgerating correctly?
I've had this experience with mainstream milk at times too…not regularly mind, but often enough to notice the phenomenon like Rel63.
As a result, I haven't shelved the old schnozzle test for milk yet… :)
Yes, all milk I buy is stored the same. Only difference is the brand. I have bought aldi milk, only a few times and not had any problems. Maybe the way it is handled before I buy it could be the issue. This only started a year or so ago, after a few months of losing a lot of milk I decided to stop buying major brand milk.
It may well have with something to do with how it was refrigerated at the store.
I used to work as a drone at a certain large well known supermarket, and due to the fairly terrible management and apathetic staff, it wasn't unusual for pallets of recently delivered milk to sit for hours in the un-air conditioned rear dock before someone noticed and stuck them in the fridge.
I can't imagine that's particularly good for shelf life.
pauls full cream milk is best for this. i have upto a month not go off after use by date.
Didn't they change the labelling recently on many products to reflect "Best Before" rather than "Use By" to alleviate this confusion?
Harden up girls. Anything that smells off, is probably off. If it comes in a can, or is loaded with sugar, it will probably still be around to feed the cockroaches after armageddon. Milk & meat are problematical, but I have never heard of anyone dying of eating off food except at a suss restaurant. The rest of us just get a good cleanout for free. Otherwise the Use by, and Best Befores are a mostly a marketing tool by the manufacturers to get the suckers to throw out perfectly good food. where is your tomato sauce right now, and how old is it? Chocolate goes hard, goes white, goes powdery, but never goes off.
Chocolate goes hard, goes white, goes powdery, but never goes off.
So does dog shit, do you eat that too?
i actually laughed out loud bahahahah
your a funny bug stewballs. thanks for the laugh
They only reason canned food doesn't have an expiry date on it, is because it's law they don't have to if it will last two years.
Cream is one of the products that I have used up to 8-10 weeks after the use-by date with no problems. It's always been unopened previously. I whip the top off, look, smell then taste. If alls well I go ahead and use it with no problems. They must really want to cover there arse when it comes to cream. I just can't understand how it does last so long.
Yoghurt, always
Yes. Another good example. Sour cream as well. You need to have good taste buds for that one. Lol
lol meanwhile, some poor bastard out there: "mmm, this sour cream is even more sour now. Gets better with age!"
Don't buy those Ferrero Rocher chocolates (particularly the white ones), if they're a month or two near their use by date. They're always stale.
I have seen some asian shops selling goods which have gone past their "best before" dates, according to them the product will not have the optimum taste but is fine for consumption, we tried a packet of soup which seemed fine however I am still nervous about it, wasn't even sure if its legal for such products to be sold.
Having said that, have found that milk and yoghurt generally don't lose their taste after a few days past use by date.
Best before is fine to be sold as long as the packaging is intact and the product isn't spoilt, off or mouldy.
Oh my god are you kidding? Their product never gone past best before or use by! A friend of mine used to work at the headquarter, they erase and stamp a new date on or put a sticker to say that date is manufacturing date, expiry after 2 years. Wheres your ACCC now?
It is illegal to change the dates on products…
I've had frozen meat pies that were more than 5 years past their date and they were still very good. They weren't mass produced ones but one from a smaller bakery who supplied fund raising drives. I contacted the baker and he was a little surprised to get such delayed positive feedback, but did say that he used quality ingredients.
I have worked in the food industry before.
Use by dates = better not eat after the day.
Best Before = You can eat it, but most likely won't be as nice as it was before the date.
Usually products get sent off for testing to determine the optimum duration, e.g. 3 days, 5 days etc.
It is calculated by the lab when the bacteria in it exceeds a certain percentage set by health organisations to be unsafe.
For example, milk may still smell good after the use by date, however if you have a compromised immune system from a sickness or something, you may become even more sick after drinking it.
It also takes into consideration storage conditions, some fridges are colder than others, and some people take longer to bring milk home.
Its not a sales ploy to get you to buy more, its to protect the company, and to protect you. People seem to always think somebody is trying to rip them off.
Think of it this way:
If they say it lasts for 10 days: You buy it and it lasts for 5 days, you will go to complain.
If they say it lasts for 5 days: you buy it and it still tastes good for upto 10 days, you will go to complain.
If they say it lasts for 5 days and you think it still smells good and goes to eat it after 5 days, you get sick, the company does not have any liability.
So either way you will complain…. therefore the date actually doesn't really matter if you think your "sniff" test is correct.
Quick question if you're in the industry Iplau, as I was querying above, is use by date = expiry date? Or are they different? I've heard that you can still leagally sell things past their use by date, but not the expiry date?
Already answered by me further up..
Short answer is you're right.
alrighty, thanks :)
Expiry date = use by date.
Under law you are allowed to sell something which says Best Before and is still edible e.g. won't kill you or poison you.
Where as it is illegal to sell something which is past its expiry date or use by date.
I guess Best Before is really only a "recommendation" therefore it doesn't specifically tell you "DO NOT EAT" where as when something is marked "Use By" or "Expiry date" then it clearly and legally means "DO NOT EAT".
Wrong. Twice! As lplau rightly also points out above.
I never eat Cadbury anymore.
I remember leaving a Cadbury bunny for 1 year, decided to go eat it, when i opened it, there was freakin maggots and caterpillars in there.
cringe …yuck
Nobody likes the soft centres… ;)
Foil wrapped is not sealed from the world… bugs will find a crack and work their way in to lay eggs on food.
A small difference shouldn't make much of a difference. Something with a use-by is otherwise good at one minute and rotten the next.
I'm currently drinking milo with a best before date of October 2012.
Usually, my stomach starts complaining, but I think it's because of the milk, not the milo.
Lol, You should see the stuff we get in MRE's in defence. Everything is 2-3 years past the best before date :-)
4 year old scotch finger biscuits taste like powdered wood haha.
I used to like the old rat packs, those things were good for years. I never liked the MRE's at all…even when they were 'fresh'! ;)
Things like real yogurt have best before rather than use by dates. I would be careful about using ingredients such as meat past the use by date, but many other things are fair game. There should be a significant safety margin involved and eating something with a week long 'use by' date a day after expiry shouldn't make you ill.
How bout alcohol? I've got an unused bottle of Baileys irish cream with a best taste before date of october 2011. Do u fellow peeps reckon its still good?
I vote yes, it should be fine to drink. Baileys seems to keep forever out of the fridge. I know I've had some out of a bottle kept in a cupboard for 2+ years and was fine. Still tasted good lol.
I can't think of a single spirit or liqueur that goes 'off'. Actually, no, there was a bottle of advokaat I found on the shelf at the Dan Murphy's I worked at during uni… that was all curdled and nasty looking.
Probably would've still been okay with a good shake. lol
Yup, provided the lid is properly sealed to keep the alcohol in.. otherwise, what's the point?
I reckon it will taste like crap, the milky stuff in it can go off
Hard call since its never been opened.
take a sip and let us know
I'm the poster child for ignoring dates, but have seen off Baileys. It separates and the milk curdles into chunks.
It was visibly bad. If it looks ok and passes the sniff test, I'd go for it.
Good point, although I have seen a mudshake bad and it looked and smelled (mostly) fine. Since I don't drink them its hard for me to tell but it didn't smell right but didn't smell off
I think its worth storing in the fridge after opening. I found a bottle (don't think it had been opened actually), opened it, ants had gotten into the lid somehow and it was all chunky and disgusting… YUCK!
OK everybody, i gave it a good shake and cracked it opened!
It looks like its still in uniform mixture. No sign of milk curdling.
It still has the coffee smell, and it didnt taste off.
Will post back for any adverse effects. hahaha
On closer inspection the bottle was actually best before 2010, not 2011!
It has always been stored below room temperature. But now, I'm going to keep it in the fridge like purringgirl suggested.
Anyone want some baileys? :)
As far as I was told, the best before / expirey date has a rule of not more than 2 years after the manufacturing date regardless of if the actual product can last for 10 years or more. Which is why i never really put any worth into the best before dates. I look at the product, smell, taste etc and also common sense. I have eaten products years past their best before date (depending on the product). Generally the taste or quality may not be 100% in the sense that it might not be as crunchy or soft or the taste may not be as strong…but besides that.
The 2yr rule is they producer must include a best before date if the product deteriorates within 2 years. So a lot of canned food, for example, does not have a best before (and those that do are being a ultra cautious, I reckon).
Items that become dangerous when past their date, e.g. meat, are labelled use-by instead.
You can eat food past its best-by date with almost zero risk of illness, unless it looks bad/tastes bad.
Food past the use-by date could make you sick.
In my experience, the use-by dates tend to be conservative, and the best before dates are almost meaningless.
The honey i bought early this year has a best before date 2015…
Which is nonsense, as honey has been found in Egyptian tombs! Admittedly, it will crystalise if you leave it too long!
Honey has a very high concentration of sugar, in the form of glucose, and anything high in sugar tends to be a harsh environment for bacteria. But after some time, the glucose undergoes crystalisation. You can melt the crystalized honey by dunking the bottle into hot water until it reaches 50c. Crystalized honey is still edible.
Provided that the honey is clean and free of other stuff (i.e. you haven't gone and contaminated the honey by dipping your grubby, saliva coated teaspoon into the honey jar) the honey should last forever.
Not nonsense if you understand what Best Before means..
You said yourself that it will deteriorate over time, that's what Best Before is there for.
Depends on your age. If you were brought up years ago under the philosophy that "if you don't eat your own weight in dirt by the time you are 2, you won't grow up healthy" then ignore Use By dates. They are there to protect the manufacturers against legal claims. If you were brought up in a near sterile environment……
You don't see Use By dates on fruit and veg; you've got to use your own judgement.
Does old cream turn into sour cream?
Can sour cream go sour?
Serious questions!!
I so wonder this… I've never seen mould grow on it. It always has that annoying pool of water I have to tip out.. ive used Sour Cream that was expired before and lived to tell the tale…
I had to check the 'fridge and check out the beer.
Coopers Best Extra Stout, Pale Ale and Vintage Ale have "Best After" dates on them.
The Stout was from a slab I had forgotten about, has a "Best After" date of March 2010; I just tasted it (in the interests of science), and it's a bloody ripper :-)
I tried eating the top tier of our wedding cake recently. It's a fruit cake, which reputedly lasts for a long time, and it was in my mother-in-law's freezer for a few years before being given to us. It was bit dry, but other than that, still edible - despite being 14 years old!
why pop the cherry now? Shoulda recycle it at your child's wedding - ozbargain style.
you are lucky you didn't shit your pants afterwards
that'll sure be memorable
The title has incorrect grammar.
o o, grammar patrol is here guys…
It's a common mistake, using that when its is the right word. :(
I have a pack of tim-tams that i found in the back of the cupboard. Opened them last night. Expired December last year. have started going a little white and the biscuit isn't too crispy but ill still be finishing them tonight. Actually might finish them off now
yeah ate a lot of expired stuff before, but not for the kids, just worried they couldn't tell whether it's good or bad.
I had a choc up and go drink this morning that was used by January…still tasted fine, so clearly not a lot of fresh milk in it :/