"best before date"

how long until a nuclear winter blows over though?

I think back then it was only a matter of weeks. When were Hiroshima and Nagasaki re-settled? I always wondered about the toilet facilities down there, did they use buckets? Or were they built with pumps to bring it back to sewer level?

dumbwaiter

Last Saturday I tweeted about whether or not I should eat some cheesecake that was a day past it's "use by" date (note: not "best before"). Twitter unanimously told me to eat it, so I did. It was delicious.

I always ignore best before dates. They're loose guidelines at best.

When I moved to the US I thought, what with everyone suing everyone all the time, that they would have tons of use-by dates on everything. They don't! And when they do they're really lax! I had some fresh pasta that had a far-off use-by date and it started growing mould weeks before it. I was a little unsettled but we do kind of go crazy with use-by dates in the UK.

I've never not seen a use-by date in the US. It could be that you weren't looking hard enough though. They're frequently a barely legible computerized smear in some unobtrusive place on the packaging. Are UK dates very prominent?

i refuse to eat food past its use-by date and adhere strictly to them at all times

i refuse to eat food past its use-by date and adhere strictly to them at all times

Seriously? That wastes food, dude. If it smells, looks, and tastes fine, then it is fine. Dates are by and large about turnover of stock and ergo profits.

big evil corporations know that one of the best ways to make a profit is by trying to ensure that nobody gets sick consuming your product

I consider the use-by date the date of the product's maturity. before that it's to be considered unripe

er, i'll take my coffee black in that case

i don't really care what you all ~know~ best-before dates are ~really~ about, i am not putting past-it food into my mouth

a raw foodist, I see

Surely you realize the absurdity of the idea of food just instantly going bad at some exact minute instead of a gradual process and companies being able to know exactly when that minute will be weeks/months/years into the future

Also companies have to give themselves a gap btwn best-by dates and the date that the food actually goes bad to cover their asses

There's a huge difference between 'Best Before' and 'Use By'. The latter refers to things which are highly perishable and could be a health risk if eaten after that point (although I often use my common sense if something is past this). Best Before just means something may taste a little stale for example.

Chewshabadoo OTM. I pretty much never eat anything past a use-by date, but best before is just a guideline.

I've never not seen a use-by date in the US. It could be that you weren't looking hard enough though. They're frequently a barely legible computerized smear in some unobtrusive place on the packaging. Are UK dates very prominent?

Yes, this is what Americans kept telling me and I was looking out for them, thank you. We have them on *everything* in the UK. Maybe it was just shopping at Whole Foods, idk.

Most of the dates in the US are sell-by dates on fresher items, and on canned goods it typically says "best by" not "use by".

Surely you realize the absurdity of the idea of food just instantly going bad at some exact minute instead of a gradual process and companies being able to know exactly when that minute will be weeks/months/years into the future

― bell biv devo (Stevie D(eux)), Saturday, September 29, 2012 8:50 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

of course people know it doesn't turn into a pumpkin at midnight on the date stamped on the side, you don't have to think that to use that date as some kind of guideline as far as when you don't feel like taking your chances

Guideline is the keyword. It's sorta zany to say "I will not think twice abt eating this the day before the date and I will not think twice about throwing it away 24h later"

I mean obv milk and steak are one thing but like some chips or cereal or something are going to be completely fine.

yeah things that merely get a little hardened and stale are flat are more a matter of how much you care about those things.

tbh i had a really terrible ordeal with giving my infant son some similac mix that had been sitting in the cupboard too long so these days i'm a little like man it's not like there are NEVER consequences to these things.

I grew up eating expired food and idk if it was actually safe or if 19 years of exposure just game me the kind of garbage can stomach of iron usually found in dogs.

I mean obv milk and steak are one thing

but milk and meat are two of the easiest things to tell when they've gone bad.
when I was a kid I would never consume anything past the lil date on the label. then I realized microbes do not wear watches or check calendars.

i don't trust myself to be able to tell when food is unsafe, basically

I still have the mackerel fillets in spicy tomato sauce with a best before date of December 2003, by the way.

I do that sometimes, especially with fish. Like frozen dinners they don't sell anymore, they're like a collector's item!

I was just thinking I think I've seen more consequential past it's besthoods than the label date with people still thinking things are ok since it is within date. Like yoghurt pots with foil top bulging out or the like, but still on shelf cos within date.

I'm pretty sure I've seen this but not 100%

Will be eating a prawn sandwich today with a use-by date of yesterday. Wish me luck.

http://festivaloffootball.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/roy-keane.jpg

It's actually a wrap tbh

literally a wrap

Working my way through 5-year-old jam.

Phish?

Phish was on hiatus 5 years ago.

sorry. you made a great joke and I came back at you with bullshit jamrock pedantry.

loool it's okay it made me laugh

I was going to make a recipe involving a small amount of root ginger but none of the local shops had any.

I have a jar of ginger in vinegary water in the fridge but it is way older than the "12 weeks after opening" the label says to consume by, like maybe a year at least (yeah, I am not good at turning things out). If I use a teaspoon of it will bad things happen?

you'll be fine. vinegar is some strong shit.

that's good, thanks! it's only a little and I'm not going anywhere tomorrow so fingers crossed.

also threw out some dried herbs/spices lately which were past their "best before" and felt bad about it because it doesn't seem like dried herbs/spices go off, but I needed to clear cupboard space somehow

herbs & spices won't spoil, they will just lose their potency

yeah, long out of date herbs mostly just don't taste of anything

Clearing out a kitchen cupboard leaves me with 3 christmas puddings and 2 christmas cakes with best before dates of either 2009 or 2011. Anything to be done with these? I feel sure they'd be edible, but as evidenced by my having them all that long, I'm not the person to eat them, even if they weren't hideously out of date. Will birds eat them safely?

I also still have the mackerel fillets in spicy tomato sauce with a best before date of December 2003, I hear it was a good vintage.

Will birds eat them safely?

birds pay no attention to "best before" dates. they habitually evaluate potential food using their senses, including smell. if it is unsafe, they'll ignore it.

I guess. I wasn't sure if all the sugar or other ingredients might be bad for them.

Googling suggest it's perfectly fine - birds are going to love me! http://www.rspb.org.uk/our-work/rspb-news/news/387421-get-stuffed-how-to-feed-your-garden-birds-this-christmas

I just had some roast broccoli that is 2 weeks out of date. It was very green and firm and tasted and smelled good. In fact it was much better than some of that ropey produce Abel & Cole used to send at a not very reasonable price. I was reading graphic descriptions of hunger and struggling to subsist on rotten potatoes in the Klemperer dairies earlier and feel like sell by dates are pure decadence.

expired or no, barely discernible as broccoli is terrible anyway

:D

finally outdid myself lol (1995)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eic-oUmXgAEV7yA?format=jpg&name=900x900

as, discovered in a weird little cupboard in the block cellar being cleared out

"the long 90s"