Interesting article on 'sell by' and 'use by' dates...

[BaiHu]

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/want-to-save-at-the-supermarket-compost-2013-06-18?mod=wsj_share_tweet

[ToddG]

We really need a "BaiHu's I Read It First!" section...

[BaiHu]

We really need a "BaiHu's I Read It First!" section...

Feel free to make me a little column called "BaiHu's Box". This is my 8-4 job, to know the news, then it's KickAss time 'til 9 :p

[Tamara]

Wait, everybody didn't know that about the dates?:confused:

[BN]

All that article says is that a lot of food if wasted.

What do the dates on food really mean???

[BaiHu]

All that article says is that a lot of food if wasted.

What do the dates on food really mean???

Lick it and/or chew it and/or swallow/spit depending on the taste?

I know, I know, PHRASING!!!!!

But I couldn't resist ;)

[Byron]

We really need a "BaiHu's I Read It First!" section...
Huh? I thought that was already the P-F byline.

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;) ;) ;)

[NickA]

Feel free to make me a little column called "BaiHu's Box". This is my 8-4 job, to know the news, then it's KickAss time 'til 9 :p

And it's subforum-
Truly
Lengthy
Discussion
Roster

Or TLDR. Moderated by BaiHu and David Armstrong.
(I kid, I kid, I kid) :D

[BaiHu]

Bazinga! Lol! Every "I kid" has about 50% truth in it - lol!

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

[Tamara]

All that article says is that a lot of food if wasted.

What do the dates on food really mean???

"Sell by" dates are for the grocer and tend to be much more conservative than "use by" dates for the consumer. An example would be eggs; if you get cage free eggs from some of the more granola-y companies the sell-by and use-by dates will be as much as a couple weeks apart. I am given to believe this is because the store doesn't necessarily keep them in an enclosed refrigerator like it's assumed the consumer will.

"Best By" means exactly what it says.

Despite what my roommate thinks, food doesn't instantly turn into poisonous goo on any of these dates. I grew up with a penny-pinching mom and with three kids, I don't think I ever drank milk that wasn't on, or a day or two past, its date. (Assuming it's been kept properly refrigerated, pasteurized milk is usually fine for as much as a week past the "sell by" date.)

[JMS]

Despite what my roommate thinks, food doesn't instantly turn into poisonous goo on any of these dates.

Good lord, same here...

Yesterday, Jethro got upset that the black pepper in the tin was past it's Sell By date.

"So you're telling me...that the stuff used to preserve meat prior to refrigeration becoming commonplace...must be USED PRIOR TO BEING SOLD? Wooooooowwwwww."

[Chuck Haggard]

Both of my parents grew up hard, and in households that didn't have electricity or refrigeration.

In the '70s living with my grandparents in Germany I'll note they still heated and cooked on wood stoves, and had a fridge that was the size of one of the office fridges many people have, stored some foods in a root cellar, etc. If some of this stuff was going to kill you then I would have been a goner.

You want to know if the milk is good? How about smell it to be sure?

[Tamara]

Both of my parents grew up hard, and in households that didn't have electricity or refrigeration.

In the '70s living with my grandparents in Germany I'll note they still heated and cooked on wood stoves, and had a fridge that was the size of one of the office fridges many people have, stored some foods in a root cellar, etc. If some of this stuff was going to kill you then I would have been a goner.

Last year I was down visiting a friend who has moved back in with his elderly parents. We went to the WallyWorld with his mom and bought a bunch of groceries and when we got back to the house, he and I went off to go watch a ball game in the back room.

I went out to the kitchen later to fetch a beer and came back "Dude, you might want to go tell your mom we forgot to put the eggs away. They've been sitting out since we got back from the store a couple hours ago."

He went off to his folks bedroom and came back "Mom says she was seventeen years old before she ever saw an egg get put in an icebox and we should just unclench." :o

[texasaggie2005]

"Mom says she was seventeen years old before she ever saw an egg get put in an icebox and we should just unclench." :o

In the words of my great-grandfather, explaining his lack of refrigerator; "I now pay to refrigerate the house. I refuse to pay to refrigerate a small box in a refrigerated house." And I never saw food get thrown out, or go bad. Living in South Texas during the Great Depression will make deep imprints on a man.

[NickA]

My in-laws are the same way, having grown up in rural Mexico.
Several years ago my MIL's mom came up to stay with them; she was about 98 at the time. She wanted to cook dinner before they got home. Couldn't figure out the stove, and the microwave was like black magic to her. So when they got home they found her outside, happily cooking up beans and rice over a fire in the yard :D

[Chuck Haggard]

Last year I was down visiting a friend who has moved back in with his elderly parents. We went to the WallyWorld with his mom and bought a bunch of groceries and when we got back to the house, he and I went off to go watch a ball game in the back room.

I went out to the kitchen later to fetch a beer and came back "Dude, you might want to go tell your mom we forgot to put the eggs away. They've been sitting out since we got back from the store a couple hours ago."

He went off to his folks bedroom and came back "Mom says she was seventeen years old before she ever saw an egg get put in an icebox and we should just unclench." :o

Yeah, kinda like that.

My mom was born in a house that was built in 1398. Her family may have been used to doing things a certain way for awhile.


Eggs? Those come from chickens. Want some? Go collect them from the hen house........

[ToddG]

I know nothing about food safety and cannot argue with anyone about what does or doesn't constitute adequate precautions.

However, bragging about how people used to do things back in the age when life expectancy was a third less than it is today and people didn't understand that washing your hands kept you from getting sick isn't exactly convincing me that their health codes are worth following. :cool:

[Tamara]

However, bragging about how people used to do things back in the age when life expectancy was a third less than it is today and people didn't understand that washing your hands kept you from getting sick isn't exactly convincing me that their health codes are worth following. :cool:

Dude, we put the eggs in the fridge. :D

[Chuck Haggard]

I know nothing about food safety and cannot argue with anyone about what does or doesn't constitute adequate precautions.

However, bragging about how people used to do things back in the age when life expectancy was a third less than it is today and people didn't understand that washing your hands kept you from getting sick isn't exactly convincing me that their health codes are worth following. :cool:

My great aunt lived to be 107, and went about her daily activities until she just didn't wake up one day. My grand parents passed away at 87 and 92, which some of the family thought was shame that they died so young.

[David Armstrong]

The type of food also has some impact. Canned foods, for example, are usually perfectly edible for years after their expiration date. The nutrient level goes down a lot but as far as safety it isn't much of a problem.

[TGS]

I wouldn't say "a lot", but yeah the date on the can is mostly meaningless.

Canned food is edible indefinitely....as long as the packaging is sealed, the food won't spoil. In the 1970's, canned food was raised off a Civil War shipwreck and eaten just fine. Lot's of people think this is due to preservatives, which is erroneous...it's simply because all the bacteria is killed and the packaging vacuum sealed preventing entry of more. The preservatives in food are simply there to stabilize the taste, texture and color.....not keep it from spoiling.

Which, tangential to that: contrary to popular belief, Twinkies do not have an indefinite shelf life. They're loaded with preservatives, yes, which as explained has little to do with keeping the food from spoiling. It's still made with flour, sugar, canola oil, and shortening like any other confection. Ya ever see those lifeboat rations that make you think they're produced on a 3D printer from inedible ingredients never meant for ingestion....Datrex bars? Datrex. Just the name inspires images of mysterious chemical compounds, possibly even containing teflon to lubricate itself as it passes through your GI tract. Nope. They're shortcake cookies, plain and simple, and possess zero preservatives.

But, all this is lost on a society that virtually believes meat comes from a grocery store.

[Chuck Haggard]

Interesting stuff on this same topic;

I went to the steamboat Arabia museum at the River Market in KCMO awhile back.

http://1856.com/

Really cool museum to visit with the world's largest collection of American pre-Civil War artifacts. Of note is that during the dig to recover the boat and contents they found canned food and champagne. Being canned/bottled and sealed away from the air by the mud at the bottom of the Muddy MO, the stuff they opened was obviously rather old but still good, the champagne was still bubbly and drinkable.

[Kyle Reese]

Both of my parents grew up hard, and in households that didn't have electricity or refrigeration.

In the '70s living with my grandparents in Germany I'll note they still heated and cooked on wood stoves, and had a fridge that was the size of one of the office fridges many people have, stored some foods in a root cellar, etc. If some of this stuff was going to kill you then I would have been a goner.

You want to know if the milk is good? How about smell it to be sure?

Reminds me of being a kid in Germany. My grandmother would send me into the cellar to grab a few potatoes for dinner, and they'd be in a huge pile on the ground, in the vicinity of the coal, sprudel and cases of Bischoff beer.

[Drang]

...Ya ever see those lifeboat rations that make you think they're produced on a 3D printer from inedible ingredients never meant for ingestion....Datrex bars? Datrex. Just the name inspires images of mysterious chemical compounds, possibly even containing teflon to lubricate itself as it passes through your GI tract. Nope. They're shortcake cookies, plain and simple, and possess zero preservatives.
It says here:

Ingredients: Wheat flour, vegetable shortening, cane sugar, water, coconut, and salt.
Also, FWIW:

Manufacture Date: 01-12-AD
Expiration Date: 01-17

[Chuck Haggard]

Reminds me of being a kid in Germany. My grandmother would send me into the cellar to grab a few potatoes for dinner, and they'd be in a huge pile on the ground, in the vicinity of the coal, sprudel and cases of Bischoff beer.

Same-same, except there was fire wood, beets, onions, apples, bottles of home made apple wine and cases of Würzburger Bürgerbräu

[Kyle Reese]

Same-same, except there was fire wood, beets, onions, apples, bottles of home made apple wine and cases of Würzburger Bürgerbräu

Burgerbrau? High end stuff. :cool:

[Chuck Haggard]

They actually had a beer guy, did deliveries like the milk man type thing in the US back in the olden days. You leave the pop top bottles in the case on the stoop, like magic you have beer the next morning.

But then they also still had a milk man in that village.

[Joe in PNG]

Since I've arrived in New Guinea, I've learned to not look at the dates on any food product. Pretty much EVERYTHING is well past the dates on the labels. I find it best to cleanse any potential food borne illness with lots of siracha and frequent gin & tonics.

Gin & tonic is medicinial, right?

[LHS]

Which, tangential to that: contrary to popular belief, Twinkies do not have an indefinite shelf life. They're loaded with preservatives, yes, which as explained has little to do with keeping the food from spoiling. It's still made with flour, sugar, canola oil, and shortening like any other confection. Ya ever see those lifeboat rations that make you think they're produced on a 3D printer from inedible ingredients never meant for ingestion....Datrex bars? Datrex. Just the name inspires images of mysterious chemical compounds, possibly even containing teflon to lubricate itself as it passes through your GI tract. Nope. They're shortcake cookies, plain and simple, and possess zero preservatives.


We recently dug up a 10-year-old 'time capsule' at my office. In it was a Twinkie. I would not eat that Twinkie for all the tea in China.

[TGS]

Gin & tonic is medicinial, right?

You sound like a modern Hemmingway with your drinking and travels.

Rock on.

[Failure2Stop]

Since I've arrived in New Guinea, I've learned to not look at the dates on any food product. Pretty much EVERYTHING is well past the dates on the labels. I find it best to cleanse any potential food borne illness with lots of siracha and frequent gin & tonics.

Gin & tonic is medicinial, right?

It's my approach to Mexican food:
lots of tequila.

Typos brought to you via Tapatalk and autocorrect.

[Erik]

Gin & tonic is medicinial, right?

Anti-psychotic and anti-malarial both. I think of the sell-by date as the buy-by date in the store and the smell-by date at home (and sometimes the scrape-the-mold-off-by date).