Since I bought the air fryer I've been eating so many chips even I think it's not good for me so on my trip into Mildura yesterday I bought the ingredients for a chicken stirfry but didn't buy any sauces as I knew I had plenty. Today I chopped the chook and veg up in preparation and thought I'd better see what sauces I have - I have plenty of bottles of soy, plumb, oyster, sweet chilli etc but I also found this packet of prepared sauce which I shall be using tonight. This is pushing four years out of date but my best so far is a bread mix at five years past sell-by date and I wonder what is the most out of date food you have eaten and lived to tell the tale?
I'm guided but not driven by use by/best before dates. For me it depends how it's packaged, where it's stored and whether the seal is broken. As a rule I avoid older sauces and wet ingredients once opened. It's probably my storage but older dry ingredients esp containing flours or nuts are always seem sub-par but I like variety so always have more types of food than I can eat within recommended time frames. I'm sure we'll both be posting in the future.
Since I bought the air fryer I've been eating so many chips even I think it's not good for me so on my trip into Mildura yesterday I bought the ingredients for a chicken stirfry but didn't buy any sauces as I knew I had plenty. Today I chopped the chook and veg up in preparation and thought I'd better see what sauces I have - I have plenty of bottles of soy, plumb, oyster, sweet chilli etc but I also found this packet of prepared sauce which I shall be using tonight. This is pushing four years out of date but my best so far is a bread mix at five years past sell-by date and I wonder what is the most out of date food you have eaten and lived to tell the tale?
I notice the ingredients call for 'Snow peas" hope they were cheaper in Mildura than Wentworth where you said they were $45 kg.
If you are not here tomorrow we can blame the 50% of the ingredients that aren't Australian
From interest I looked for snow peas in Woolworth in Mildura but they did not have any. Instead I bought round beans, mushrooms, carrot and red pepper which have all gone into tonight's (and tomorrow's) stir fry. I added the long date sauce and a bit of extra black bean sauce and it all smells and tastes pretty good however the proof will come in an hour or so - this may be my last post!? :)
The pelicans and swans are doing their thing on the river 10m distant and the sky has only high, thin cloud - life is pretty good.
Edit: And a most beautiful full moon - who could want for more....
-- Edited by Mike Harding on Wednesday 13th of July 2022 06:15:31 PM
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"I beseech you in the bowels of Christ think it possible you may be mistaken"
Oliver Cromwell, 3rd August 1650 - in a letter to the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland
Useby dates are always very conservative. But 4 years might be pushing it.
P.S. I just purchased 10kg of dehydrated malt 3 months past its "best before date" for home brew. 1/4 normal price. No hesitation in using it. I will just keep it refrigerated to extend its life.
-- Edited by oldbloke on Wednesday 13th of July 2022 06:08:14 PM
I dont usually care about the use by date of spices and other dried items but its different for meat and milk. I am very sensitive to amines in foods so if meat or milk is even approaching the use by date it begins to smell awful to me and I cannot eat it. Amines continue to be generated in food even if it is refrigerated. I am particularly wary of vacuum packed meat which seems to be given a later use by date.
I once had occasion to call a helpline for a spice product (I couldn't find the use-by date). I was told that expired spices weren't dangerous, merely ineffective. These were dry spices, though.
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"No friend ever served me, and no enemy ever wronged me, whom I have not repaid in full."
Coca Cola say bottled water is the hardest of their products to bottle, because of the colour of the bottle, sunlight and mould, that's why is has a shorter use by date than coke itself.
Best before does not mean it has gone off in any way. We have eated a Lions Christmas fruit cake 25 years past best before.. for a manufacturer to extend the best efore date is finacially impractical.
Use by up to a week is ok if it smells and tastes ok , best before is ok if it looks ok
As a chef:
Use by: Be careful it may have an adverse reaction. Mung beans don't go near them. Unflavoured full cream milk can last
up tp two weeks if looked after. Simple test - if it smells or taste (do not swallow) off, forget it.
Best before: Usually ok, just lost its potency in the case of spices. In Australia ALL food items must be date codes
regardless. It's a thing. I have had dried pasta that was 3 years out of code.
I am reliably informed that tin food can last up to 7 years.
