[Mezla PigDog]

As I sit here eating smoked mackeral pate that I made 5 days ago, I wonder if I am unusually cavalier in my approach to old food. Do you religiously stick to use-by dates or do you apply the sniff test?

I'm a sniffer. If it smells alright and looks alright then it's good. If it smells alright and looks dodgy in places then I scoop/slice the dodgy parts, re-sniff and then it's good. Remarkably the only time I recall suffering from food poisoning was due to smoked salmon sandwiches where the salmon was a day out of date and I accidentally left in my bag all morning by a radiator. Still tasted good!

[Studlock]

It depends. Can I afford to throw the food out? Can I afford to get sick? The eternal balance must be held!

[pathos]

Sniffer! Something has to be REALLY off to make me sick as well...

[champ]

Sniff test too! Smells alright, looks alright... nom nom nom!

[Slow Ben]

I really, really wish I could be a sniffer. But once I see the expiration date is passed, I can't eat it. It's like it's in my head that it'll make me sick. I'm a wuss.

[Vengeance]

I was a sniffer until I got salmonella and ended up not being able to hold water down for 4 days and losing 12 pounds over the course of a week. Now not so much. I would rather throw good food away then go through that again.

[Tapper]

Fish: ehm, you don't keep fish around, you eat it when fresh.
Meat: On the sell-by date is out.
Dairy: goes out.
Bread: goes out.
Veggies and fruits: depends how they look, feel and smell - but we buy a lot of the stuff the day we cook it, at most 4 days in advance.
Canned food: out.
Frozen food: out.
Leftovers: out if not eaten the day after.

The one time I break any of these rules, is with pie. The GF is an excellent baker and she doesn't do bitesized, so there's almost always half a pie sitting on the kitchen counter. So far, the oldest one got (a rubarb/strawberry crumble) was 6 days, spending only the last 24 hours of its existence in the fridge.

[Gust Hubb]

Definitely not a sniffer (though I do have an excellent nose. Was able to detect infection in my Mom's chest tube a good day before the doctors caught on).

If it is expired, it goes, much to my wife's anguish. I don't mess around with germs or risk biting down into something with compromised flavor.

[HiddenOne]

expired food presents a challenge to those of us suffering from varying degrees of OCD and its many incarnations

I can't stand to waste money by throwing out edibles, and I can't stand to consume potential illness-causing food.

If I were more motivated and had time, I could manage & rotate the contents of the pantry/fridge to ensure maximization of the efficient consumption of groceries. However, since I'm gone most of the time, and my wife is more relaxed about such matters, the garbage man gets a decent haul each week, much to the dismay of my wallet.

Also, I am a sniffer if in doubt, sometimes the label can be misleading in cases of poor refrigeration, or some jerk leaves it in the store aisle to get warm then a store employee puts in back in the cooler for the next poor fool to buy. It's a wonder we don't all die from food poisoning on a regular basis.

[D'rek]

I have a terrible sense of smell and a terrible memory for these things, so for me it is usually something like...

*takes milk out of fridge*
Hmm, it's Thursday and I bought this last Tuesday so it is still good
*pour glass*
*drink*
*spit it out all over floor*
Oh wait, it wasn't last Tuesday it was three Tuesdays ago...

[Gust Hubb]

HiddenOne, on 13 June 2013 - 02:28 PM, said:

expired food presents a challenge to those of us suffering from varying degrees of OCD and its many incarnations

I can't stand to waste money by throwing out edibles, and I can't stand to consume potential illness-causing food.

If I were more motivated and had time, I could manage & rotate the contents of the pantry/fridge to ensure maximization of the efficient consumption of groceries. However, since I'm gone most of the time, and my wife is more relaxed about such matters, the garbage man gets a decent haul each week, much to the dismay of my wallet.

Also, I am a sniffer if in doubt, sometimes the label can be misleading in cases of poor refrigeration, or some jerk leaves it in the store aisle to get warm then a store employee puts in back in the cooler for the next poor fool to buy. It's a wonder we don't all die from food poisoning on a regular basis.

If you like, I can describe in detail what each of the food poisoning bug strains do in detail Mostly it's diarrhea and GI upset with some other more severe things mixed in (like botulinism with flaccid paralysis, etc)

[HiddenOne]

you act as if I didn't already possess this knowledge, Hubb

just because you are a professional necromancer doesn't automatically make you the smartest person in the world

[James Hutton]

I only throw out food that's past the "expiration date", as in the actual term. All "best before", "use by" etc. etc. can be ignored because it doesn't have anything to do with safety, but quality -- if your mustard passed the "best before" date, it doesn't mean it turned bad, it means the producer cannot vouch for it being the exact same taste as the day it was packed in the factory. And as I eat very little food that has an "expiration date" printed on it (I eat vegan), I in general look at and smell food before I throw it away in my compostbin.

This post has been edited by James Hutton: 13 June 2013 - 07:01 PM

[Mezla PigDog]

Tapper, on 13 June 2013 - 01:18 PM, said:

Fish: ehm, you don't keep fish around, you eat it when fresh.
Meat: On the sell-by date is out.
Dairy: goes out.
Bread: goes out.
Veggies and fruits: depends how they look, feel and smell - but we buy a lot of the stuff the day we cook it, at most 4 days in advance.
Canned food: out.
Frozen food: out.
Leftovers: out if not eaten the day after.

The one time I break any of these rules, is with pie. The GF is an excellent baker and she doesn't do bitesized, so there's almost always half a pie sitting on the kitchen counter. So far, the oldest one got (a rubarb/strawberry crumble) was 6 days, spending only the last 24 hours of its existence in the fridge.

Bah, yoghurt doesn't even warrant a sniff until it's a week out of date; it's basically bacterial culture anyway. Bread and cheese just cut the mouldy bit off. Oherwise I look at it from the perspective that the food manufacturer will leave a lot of slack in the use-by-date to avoid being sued if someone gets food poisoning. That gives you at least 2 days after the date. I don't mess with raw chicken or fish but everything else is fair game. I do at least have some microbiology skills so can add a little bit of know how to my gastrointestinal roulette

You obsessives will be pleased to know that my insides are still on the inside after my smoked mackeral pate 6 or 7 hours ago. Another 5 hours and I reckon I'm in the clear.

[vendevere]

James Hutton, on 13 June 2013 - 07:00 PM, said:

I only throw out food that's past the "expiration date", as in the actual term. All "best before", "use by" etc. etc. can be ignored because it doesn't have anything to do with safety, but quality -- if your mustard passed the "best before" date, it doesn't mean it turned bad, it means the producer cannot vouch for it being the exact same taste as the day it was packed in the factory. And as I eat very little food that has an "expiration date" printed on it (I eat vegan), I in general look at and smell food before I throw it away.

If you have a cat, there's one way to check if the food is safe. Offer some of it to your cat. If she eats it, it's good. If it's bad, she'll probably refuse it. If she refuses it, toss it out. My Dad didn't do that once, and he really ended up regretting it...

[Coco with marshmallows]

the cat attacked him out of spite?

[vendevere]

Cocoreturns, on 13 June 2013 - 07:06 PM, said:

the cat attacked him out of spite?

No. he ate the food anyway, even though the cat wouldn't eat it. He spent the next few days worshiping at the porcelain altar...

[Gust Hubb]

HiddenOne, on 13 June 2013 - 06:00 PM, said:

you act as if I didn't already possess this knowledge, Hubb

just because you are a professional necromancer doesn't automatically make you the smartest person in the world

Nope, just being me is all the credentials I need for that title

[worry]

I only eat candy.

[Traveller]

Mezla PigDog, on 13 June 2013 - 07:02 PM, said:

Bah, yoghurt doesn't even warrant a sniff until it's a week out of date; it's basically bacterial culture anyway. Bread and cheese just cut the mouldy bit off. Oherwise I look at it from the perspective that the food manufacturer will leave a lot of slack in the use-by-date to avoid being sued if someone gets food poisoning. That gives you at least 2 days after the date. I don't mess with raw chicken or fish but everything else is fair game. I do at least have some microbiology skills so can add a little bit of know how to my gastrointestinal roulette

You obsessives will be pleased to know that my insides are still on the inside after my smoked mackeral pate 6 or 7 hours ago. Another 5 hours and I reckon I'm in the clear.

I also go on the assumption that theres a bit of slack in the system. I'm not going to throw out edible food because a label tells me to! I go on what it looks and smells like - sometimes stuff goes off early anyway; I don't eat it just because the label says it should still be good!

Only got caught out once or twice, although I think that was food/leftovers that went back in the fridge when it shouldn't have.

Drives my wife a bit nuts as she likes to chuck it on exp date. What about eggs though, they last ages past their date if you keep them in the fridge.