My ex boss used to microwave fish that was at least a week out of date, and anything really, she was never ill. If it looks and smells ok it probably is. Spinach is my main gripe, it's not even wilting a week after the use by rubbish. Supermarkets just covering their arses as well as making more money.
From a health and safety point of view you can get some nasty bugs from out of date stuff but that’s generally meat and diary, where they have a ‘use BY’ date. Dried things, which tend to have a ‘best before’ date is more a case of impaired flavours or texture.
I never eat meat past use by date, milk/dairy can be used if smells/looks ok and other things I make an executive decision.
It really depends, some things like cola are not even good up to their date, I can really taste if any type of soda is getting close to date, the taste changes immensely. Other things will "last" forever but they become pointless, like spices or fish sauce, they won't kill you no matter how old they are, but they are pointless to add to your food. And before someone says ooh but I use 10 year old pepper. sure now buy some new stuff and try that, you'll need a 10th of the amount.
Jars of things will last until the seal goes. with acid in the jar that will be sooner than if the filling isn't acidic. But again while they may well be safe, pickled things go soft after a couple of years. and heavily sugared things like jam may crystalise. Tins are much the same, so long as they have not rusted through they will be edible, but how nice depends on what they are.
Often a date will just be how long the item was tested for, it may well still be perfectly fine the month or even year after.
Pickles with 'keep refrigerated after opening and consume within x weeks'. I though the main purpose of pickling was to preserve. Our neighbour used to give us jars of pickled onions and we kept them for months, even after opening them.
We get given jars of pickles by neighbours. Sometimes I keep them for over two years before throwing them out. The same goes for home made fruit infused alcoholic drinks, though if I am feeling very mean spirited I give them to a tombola stall.
Having been hospitalised once by food poisoning I am very diligent about best before and use by dates, and I am very aware of the distinction between the two. By good larder management we rarely discard much out of date stuff but if it happens that I throw out 40p’s worth of mixed herbs or whatever, and that was money originally spent over two years ago, I don’t lose any sleep over it.
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If it looks and smells ok it probably is.
Spinach is my main gripe, it's not even wilting a week after the use by rubbish. Supermarkets just covering their arses as well as making more money.
Having been hospitalised once by food poisoning I am very diligent about best before and use by dates, and I am very aware of the distinction between the two. By good larder management we rarely discard much out of date stuff but if it happens that I throw out 40p’s worth of mixed herbs or whatever, and that was money originally spent over two years ago, I don’t lose any sleep over it.