• GuyFawkesV@lemmy.world
    3 days

    Eyeball it. Smell it. Shake it. Pour it (if applicable).

    Pass = consume

    Fail = discard

    I used to weep for humanity, but see every day how we deserve what we’ve wrought.

    • blackbrook@mander.xyz
      3 days

      When in doubt, throw it out, but if a thing looks and smells and tastes fine it probably is.

      But this assumes some experience. Like I know from experience that if dairy tastes fine to me, it really is fine. I will taste off flavors in milk long before it bad enough to make me sick. And sometimes dairy can last way beyond its use-by date. How cold your fridge is has a huge effect, but there is also much luck-of-the-dice around microbes getting in.

      But something like, say, potato salad which might have flavors that vary and could cover up something going off… I will throw that out if it gets old or I’ve lost track of how old it is.

  • TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    3 days

    If you’re in the US, use your best judgement. Those labels are largely marketing or wildly conservative so you throw out perfectly good food and buy new stuff.

    • FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.websiteEnglish
      3 days

      I think it’s the same everywhere in the developed world. There are things that will just keep virtually forever, like honey or tea bags, but they come with an expiry date of some sort. Because at some point, allegedly, ol’ moneybags himself lobbied for legislation like that to make people buy more stuff.

      I’m in Japan and if I didn’t blatantly disregard the dates and guidance they print on bread I’d never finish a pack.

    • TheTechnician27@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3 days

      As noted in the OP, “use by” and “best before” (etc.) dates are vastly different from each other. “Best before” is very often ad hoc like “a year from the date of manufacture”, but if you’re past a “use by” date on your perishable food, you should approach it skeptically.

      Climate Town has a good video on it and why this system exists as it does.

    • deranger@sh.itjust.works
      3 days

      Those labels aren’t for you, they’re for the store, so they don’t have potentially unsafe food on the shelf.

  • darklamer@feddit.org
    3 days

    Salt has an essentially infinite “best before”, so if you ever encounter a packet of salt with a “best before” less than hundreds of years into the future, you can know that it’s a lie.

    • CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works
      3 days

      Every product is required to have a “best by” label on it so even if it’s something that lasts forever, they’ll still slap a date on it to comply with regulations.

      • darklamer@feddit.org
        3 days

        Sure, but it amuses me when that date isn’t thousands of years into the future.

        • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
          3 days

          For a lot of those sorts of products, the expiration date is for the container. The salt will be fine for thousands of years, but the plastic might start leeching into it much sooner. That’s why bottled water has a Use By date.

  • rossman@lemmy.zip
    3 days

    Grew up frugal. Generally do sour test and mold check.

    If really on the edge, boil or pressure cook for meats.

    Veges last forever so long the part isn’t white fuzzy black or growing something.

  • sudoer777@lemmy.mlEnglish
    3 days

    If it’s past its “Used By” date, then it’s already been used and you should throw it away