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Food expiry dates

Randall Flagg said:
The general rule on normal milk is 3 days once opened. (7 days on something like Cravendale). I've found that after about 5/6 days it starts going funky. I can't imagine 2 weeks let alone 6. 😆
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I had milk where you can clearly taste it turning on its best by date.

6 weeks old milk and I’d be vomming just taking the top off.

I bet it was like sludge😷😷🤮🤮
 
Depends what sort of milk it is. Full cream goes off miles quicker than skimmed. I put UHT skimmed in my brews and I’ve had a carton last over four weeks.
 
No Danger said:
Funny how tastes can change as you get older. When I was a little lad I used to have hot full cream milk on weetabix or shreddies.
If I did that now I would be heaving.
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You’re right...

Loved having a glass of cold milk up until the last few years, can’t stand it now apart from on cereal and in brews.
 
Managed to get two big bags of shopping from M and S in Omagh last Sunday for twenty quid.

Most of it was heavily reduced due to the sell by date.

The loaf was 11p and lasted for another four days before the odd bit of mould was visible.

The chicken shawarma (three quid down from ten) was delicious.

Had an 80p burrata for lunch with some rotting tomatoes the next day. Dressed it with a bit of fresh basil and a lemon flavoured olive oil and it was truly restaurant worthy.
 
Randall Flagg said:
The general rule on normal milk is 3 days once opened. (7 days on something like Cravendale). I've found that after about 5/6 days it starts going funky. I can't imagine 2 weeks let alone 6. 😆
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I sniff it. Of course, the odd time it seems fine then tiny white bits appear floating in my brew, chuck and bin it.

Mine btw is a screw cap lid, not the ones where you open the corner.
 
justinr73 said:
Managed to get two big bags of shopping from M and S in Omagh last Sunday for twenty quid.

Most of it was heavily reduced due to the sell by date.

The loaf was 11p and lasted for another four days before the odd bit of mould was visible.

The chicken shawarma (three quid down from ten) was delicious.

Had an 80p burrata for lunch with some rotting tomatoes the next day. Dressed it with a bit of fresh basil and a lemon flavoured olive oil and it was truly restaurant worthy.
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Woops aisles are the best, time it right and you can get bread for 10p at Asda and salads for 3-5p. There's an art to it though, otherwise you end up with nothing.
 
Just eaten a pack of Hula Hoops that were 5 weeks past their BBD - nothing wrong with them at all (apart from the price, they were $3.20 so GBP1.73, standard 34g bag).
 
Got back to my flat in Brent today, after 6/7 weeks not being there. The smell hit me when I opened the door. I had cleaned out the fridge and thought all was well when I left, but forgot the vegetable storage rack.

I don't know what the expiry date was, but they had turned into a foul smelling mush, a brown liquid covering the floor, awful nearly threw up. I never knew rotten vegetables could smell so bad. Needed a large malt to recover.
 
outreacher said:
Got back to my flat in Brent today, after 6/7 weeks not being there. The smell hit me when I opened the door. I had cleaned out the fridge and thought all was well when I left, but forgot the vegetable storage rack.

I don't know what the expiry date was, but they had turned into a foul smelling mush, a brown liquid covering the floor, awful nearly threw up. I never knew rotten vegetables could smell so bad. Needed a large malt to recover.
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Sounds like a pretty decent ragu, that. Add some garlic and pour over spaghetti.
 
outreacher said:
Got back to my flat in Brent today, after 6/7 weeks not being there. The smell hit me when I opened the door. I had cleaned out the fridge and thought all was well when I left, but forgot the vegetable storage rack.

I don't know what the expiry date was, but they had turned into a foul smelling mush, a brown liquid covering the floor, awful nearly threw up. I never knew rotten vegetables could smell so bad. Needed a large malt to recover.
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It's got nothing on JDs milk
 
Just a note of caution from someone who has been both a long standing retailer and a retail and licensed trade stock auditor.

Its fine and reasonably safe for quite some while to eat foods/products after a Best Before date as these have preservatives to lengthen the life span of the product.

These foods/products are literally what they say, just at there best before a particular date, after which they will then gradually deteriorate.
Typically things like Crisps, Sweets, Chocolates, Beers, Ciders, Biscuits, Crackers & most tinned foods are best before.

NEVER eat/consume foods after a USE BY date, these foods are usually things like Meat, Fresh or Dairy products and put you at serious risk of Salmonella,
E- Coli, and other nasty food poisoning conditions!
 
deepdaledreamer said:
Just a note of caution from someone who has been both a long standing retailer and a retail and licensed trade stock auditor.

Its fine and reasonably safe for quite some while to eat foods/products after a Best Before date as these have preservatives to lengthen the life span of the product.

These foods/products are literally what they say, just at there best before a particular date, after which they will then gradually deteriorate.
Typically things like Crisps, Sweets, Chocolates, Beers, Ciders, Biscuits, Crackers & most tinned foods are best before.

NEVER eat/consume foods after a USE BY date, these foods are usually things like Meat, Fresh or Dairy products and put you at serious risk of Salmonella,
E- Coli, and other nasty food poisoning conditions!
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I'm sure you're right in principle and fully agree with differentiating with BB dates compared to Use-by dates. But (IMO) there is also an element of arse-covering too. Milk has Use-by dates, but IMO can be judged very well of smell, and especially with semi or skimmed mill can last a lot longer. Same with yoghurt and a few other items.
Another key thing for me is how long the shelf-life is originally. If it's prawns, with a very short use-by date, I tend to stick to it, with perhaps 1 day's leeway if the appear/smell fine. If it's smoked makerel, that has maybe 10-14 days' shelf-life, then I will happily allow 2 or 3 days leeway. It's worked for all my life so far, but maybe I've just been playing a form of Russian roulette - and been lucky so far !
 
Regardless said:
I'm sure you're right in principle and fully agree with differentiating with BB dates compared to Use-by dates. But (IMO) there is also an element of arse-covering too. Milk has Use-by dates, but IMO can be judged very well of smell, and especially with semi or skimmed mill can last a lot longer. Same with yoghurt and a few other items.
Another key thing for me is how long the shelf-life is originally. If it's prawns, with a very short use-by date, I tend to stick to it, with perhaps 1 day's leeway if the appear/smell fine. If it's smoked makerel, that has maybe 10-14 days' shelf-life, then I will happily allow 2 or 3 days leeway. It's worked for all my life so far, but maybe I've just been playing a form of Russian roulette - and been lucky so far !
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The main thing is to take a common sense approach and one or 2 things may be ok for a day or two after use by but you are taking an unnecessary risk.
Personally i wouldn't take or recommend anybody playing Russian roulette with prawns, shell fish or meat.
 
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