Is there anything more dire than an expiration date? A big fat deadline stamped across stuff screaming EAT BY! USE BY! SELL BY! THIS ITEM WILL SELF-DESTRUCT BY!
Just kidding on that last one. Wouldn’t it be cool though? There you are, minding your own business in the dairy section, when BAM! Exploding milk cartons all around. Sure, it’d be messy, but it would eliminate that whole “take a risk or sniff” experiment. Not so much fun in your own fridge so we’ll scrap that idea.
I wish I could figure out once and for all what to do with these dates. Are they suggestions? Hard core cutoffs? Something in the middle? And does it vary depending on the item? Stale cereal I can live with, but spoiled milk or rancid meat is a hard no. It’s hard to take expiration dates seriously on things like cotton candy or Spaghetti-Os. Shoot, those things have so many chemicals they’d probably be fine to eat in fifty years. Seems like a waste of ink even to date them, but maybe it has more to do with how long before the packaging starts leeching chemicals into the food. And great, now I’ve got something else to ponder about food safety issues.
Linda hosts Stream of Consciousness Saturday. This week’s prompt is “xp.” Use it as a word, or find a word with “xp”in it. As always, use any way you’d like. Enjoy!
Now I’m going to have a completely different outlook to shopping now. It’s suddenly about avoiding the exploding produce. Must admit I don’t take any risks with expiry day and son YET I will happily apply the 5 second rule when he drops food onto the floor. So perfectly safe food needs to be binned yet food which has hit the dirty ground is ok to go…..
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Oh no, you are 100% correct on this, dirt germs are ENTIRELY different from food’s-gone-bad-and-you’ll-end-up-puking germs. Solid parenting there, man.
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The idea of expiration dated food exploded cracked me up…
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It’s the visual, right? 😂
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The FDA has a site with all the food info you inquire about here. I’m not gonna look for it, because I have too many other things to do, but like, it’s there, I promise. If the eggs don’t float, they’re okay. That’s the one I use, lol!
Best by… best by… well I think it was best by the day it was made, so who are we kiddin?
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Best by the day it was made is no joke. I’m buying a lot less boxed food cuz I get it, closest to the farm is best, but sometimes you just gotta work with what’s around the house. I’m off to check out the FDA.
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Oh I know! It’s harder! Takes more time and planning — and I am not going to come home and make fresh pasta 😉
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So true. I’m falling down on the planning part right now, and without proper planning we don’t end up with good ingredients in the kitchen. Plus I’m too stubborn to make a last minute store run at 4:00 so I can cook. 🙄
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DO NOT GO TO THE STORE AT 4. You treat yourself right, now, ya hear? 😛
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I hope expectation dates are optional in the case of a zombie apocalypse. We’ll hopefully be alive to see what 5-years-past-the-exp-date green beans taste like… Or maybe eating them would make us wish we were already zombified,lol.
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I’d imagine a zombie apocalypse would alter everyone’s definition of dangerous and anything that happens from eating a 5 year old can of green beans wouldn’t even come close to qualifying. 😆
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Can we stamp one of these on politicians? Best used by would work, not looking to cause any harm.
I think I’d be more concerned about ingredients like eggs than things you directly consume, like Doritos (which last forever).
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BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
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From what I’ve read, those so-called “expiration” dates are rather arbitrary and are more suggestions than hard and fast you’ll die if you eat this after this date things. I tend to assume things will be good beyond the date printed – smell, taste, look. A lot of times they may lose some quality, but are still okay to eat.
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One hopes, right? I can put a lot of confidence in my voice when the kids ask — oh sure, it’s fine!! — but sometimes I do wonder if I’m dooming them to a stomach ache.
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Yeah, that was going to be my comment. I’ve done some reading on this, and the expiration dates even vary from state to state. Here’s a PBS article, which probably has more information than you care to know. 🙂 https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/food-expiration-dates/
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I had not ever thought about the container leaching into the food. Now I also have something new to worry about.
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Well, we like to share the wealth around here! Bwahahaha!
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I just wrote my sister about this yesterday as I was thinking of making that fantasy fudge….a jar of marshmallow cream had no expiration date and I thought, probably good forever, like twinkies!
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Oh yes, marshmallow cream, that gooey mystery substance that makes all things yummy. 😆
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It would be an interesting scenario.
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Indeed it would…
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😂
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