Ask Lemmy

I'm thinking about this and not sure but have made fruit syrups for cocktails, recipes said they last a week in the fridge, but still tasted great after a year. I always just use those until they are gone, but all I had were lost in the hurricane as we had no refrigeration for a week.

I just used up a bag of dried dates that were a couple years past the date on the bag. They weren't noticeably different from when new. (They went into something baked so also seemed less of a big deal.)

In 2011 I was in an unfamiliar kitchen and had some porridge in the morning. I put some ground cinnamon on it that was in the cupboard and noticed that it was particularly good cinnamon, much more flavoursome than I was used to. I looked at the bottle again and it was the same brand I always use myself at home so I didn't see why it should be so much better but I noticed that the although pretty similar the labelling seemed subtly different than I was used to. I looked at the expiry, it expired in 1986 and the label was different because they'd updated the design since. I don't know why the 25 hear old cinnamon seemed to taste so extra good, I would have thought that if it wasn't somehow rotten and sloiled it'd at least have lost basically all its potency but somehow it was super nice. I even had extra after this discovery.

Buttermilk always seems to have like a one week expiration, but always seems to be fine up to maybe 2 months surprisingly

I have some spices that are probably pushing 15 years that are just fine.

I've eaten pasta from a sealed, unopened bag that was 4 years past the date. The only difference I noticed was a few pieces breaking apart after cooking and it maybe cooked a tad faster.

i ate a pound of pistachios that were 30 years old, and couldnt stop eating them, so delicious.

I think a lot of people are confusing the “best by” or “sell by” etc. dates on foods (in the USA anyway) with an “expiration” date. The only foods in the US that actually have expiration dates are infant formula. NO foods expire exactly on some arbitrary date stamped on the packaging. The dates are listed to give consumers an idea of when they should think about consuming the product, many with a large amount of useable time after the date printed.
Don’t believe me? Here is the USDA’s FSIS explanation of their own regulations.

There's some mayonnaise in the fridge a couple years old I'll use on sandwiches. After family holiday get togethers there's always leftover ham or turkey, that's about the only time I'll use mayonnaise. Every year I'll pull it out, look at the expiration date and make a choice. Go get a new jar that will only get a third used or live life on the edge and slather on the old stuff. I call it refrigerator roulette

Vinegar based hot sauces are basically immortal; I've had Tabasco that was like 10 years old before

Actual food? Probably yogurt at like one or two months. It had been sealed up until then.

I've had table syrup that was at least 4 years past the expiration (it actually still had the aunt Jemima on the bottle is how old it was).

A few days ago I finished some baking powder and my partner brought a big bottle home and I was like "oh it's okay that stuff doesn't expire!" Then I looked at the previous container I had and found out it had, in fact, expired in 2017. Don't think it affected my baking though.

I mostly just eat stuff without looking at the dates unless it smells bad or is moldy.

I don't press my luck with expired foods. It's on me if I don't eat something and I've had so long of a time to eat that food by. Like canned foods that go all the way out an entire year or even two. I just don't want to ever experience botulism or food poisoning of any kind.

In Europe we use expiration and best before dates.

With exp. dates, don't push it: they mean after that date, the food could spoil and there's biological risk on eating it. One day? Ok. 3 days... only if you have to and after looking closely for signs of spoiling. Cook it thoroughly.

With BBF dates, there is no risk unless evident contamination, meaning that after that date, the food will be edible but might have a different taste. Obviously, look for mold if the product was open, bwt it's generally safe to eat even after years. Except fresh uncooked food, almost everything else falls in this category here.

Edit: typo

This depends on the type of food.

Fresh meat? Don’t push it.

Tofu? What, is the bean curd going to curdle?

I understand in some cases it may be wasteful, but I'm super strict about expiration dates. Food poisoning is truly awful, and I don't fuck around. All that barfing, shidding, and farding.

Pasta, 12 years. Yoghurt, 1 month.