Will you eat expired packaged food?
By Denise
@petatonicsca (7070)
Japan
January 23, 2016 10:35pm CST
I ask because I am doing my twice-a-year eating up of expirin emergency food. I have some canned beans (they were good last night), some curry in retort packages (MRE), some dried nuts and fruits. I finally got a system going last year so nothing is older than six months and I only buy things I would eat anyway.
Some of my friends are horrified that I eat anything expired! Others would eat food out of cans or packages that expired much longer ago than I am willing to eat. I am referring here to cans, bottles, boil-a-bags and dried food, not things like milk.
Do you eat expired packaged food from your pantry or not, and why?
23 people like this
25 responses
@topffer (42156)
• France
24 Jan 16
It depends if the expiry date is a "best before" or a "use by date". In the first case you do not risk anything to eat it, even years later, only the taste of the food can change. In the second case you are playing with your health and are risking a food poisoning.
4 people like this
@topffer (42156)
• France
24 Jan 16
@petatonicsca Then you do not take any risk by eating this food. Actually, in France, the parliament is voting a law to force the manufacturers to remove any mention of "best before" on food. The goal is to fight against food waste by supermarkets and people.
3 people like this
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
24 Jan 16
Yes, if it's fresh food it's often "use by" and I don't eat that, unless it's vegetables or fruit that I can cook.
3 people like this
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
24 Jan 16
@topffer Last year Japan made it legal to mark down vegetables and fruits rather than discarding them, for similar reasons. Now I can often find good fresh vegetables to use for cooking much cheaper than they used to be.
3 people like this
@Mike197602 (15513)
• United Kingdom
24 Jan 16
I eat loads of expired stuff
There is a big difference between best before and use by dates.
Best before I'll eat all day long as long as it doesn't seem off.
Use by stuff I'll be more careful of and may not eat it if it's gone much past the date.
There is a big difference between best before and use by dates.
Best before I'll eat all day long as long as it doesn't seem off.
Use by stuff I'll be more careful of and may not eat it if it's gone much past the date.4 people like this
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@much2say (56522)
• Los Angeles, California
24 Jan 16
If it is packaged and has a shelf life, I can dare to eat it past the expiration date - depending on what it is and how it seems. As a friend said, it's not that it gets unedible on that particular day - but it's just a guideline. It's funny because his mother-in-law (who lives with them) throws out everything according to that expiration date and it drives my friend nuts how much food she wastes in that house.
3 people like this
@kevin1877uk (36988)
•
24 Jan 16
It all depends how long it's out of date and what it really is.
2 people like this
@Ladypeace (2028)
• Singapore
24 Jan 16
Seldom do I get a chance to do so but I have eaten expired food before. I know it can be risky but I have once eaten yogurt that has been a week over. It was clean, uncontaminated and did not smell off, so I thought to myself, "why not?" :)
2 people like this
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
24 Jan 16
Yogurt is one way to preserve milk so I eat that unless it looks moldy.
2 people like this
@charli205 (110)
• Birmingham, Alabama
24 Jan 16
yogurt is usually still ok a month past the date or more as long as its not moldy or smell funnier than it already does lol
1 person likes this
@infatuatedbby (94914)
• United States
24 Jan 16
Usually I don't but it depends on the item!
1 person likes this
@valmnz (17097)
• New Zealand
24 Jan 16
We have a shop here called Reduced 2 Clear. It stocks food items just past their expiry date that haven't sold on the shelves or from the warehouse. I save a lot of money shopping there. And yes, I do eat items from my pantry up to about a year. The use by date is simply a recommended one.
2 people like this
@garymarsh6 (23412)
• United Kingdom
24 Jan 16
I hate to waste food. Some foods are still ok a while after the expiry date. The key thing is not to buy too much in the first place. Some foods will never go off even though they have expiry dates on them such as Sugar!! Any cans that have blown are not fit or worth trying but some canned food will last for years!
1 person likes this
@T_gray (7774)
• Salina, Kansas
24 Jan 16
If it is close to the date I will, but usually when it comes time to clean out the pantry I have my best friend right there with me and I give it all to her because she will eat anything. I have a hard time with it sometimes, so I just give it to her and I feel better about not having to throw it away. 
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
24 Jan 16
I noticed that too. Best by....is ok with me, but I won't buy past date things.
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
24 Jan 16
@paigea only if I was going to use it that day.
1 person likes this
@paigea (36315)
• Canada
24 Jan 16
@PainsOnSlate I might if it's seriously marked down and I am going to use it right away
2 people like this
@Morethanamom (1948)
• Canada
24 Jan 16
It all depends on how expired they are and what type of food it is. Baby formula is tossed when it is passed the expiration date, but soups and such, you open them up and if it smells and looks okay, go for it.
1 person likes this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
27 Jan 16
This would depend on which type of food and the length of expiry. In the case of a tin of beans, in reality it should never go off as long as the tin is hermetically sealed. Cheese is another good example, there is no way the cheese can ever become unfit to eat.
Products such as cream or milk can soon become unfit to eat, although most items are dated early to avoid them becoming unfit and are usually fine a day or two after the expiry date.
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
28 Jan 16
@petatonicsca As long as the tin is not damaged o punctured, a tin should last longer than an average person's lifetime. The problem arose when the counties began introducing sell by dates as a legal requirement. Now all tins of food have expiry dates, which are nonsense.
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
28 Jan 16
I have just finished off the first of several tins of beans. It even tasted just as good as it should. Next tin of beans for next week is kidney beans. I have no idea why I bought it, since I don't like kidney beans by themselves very much.
1 person likes this
@ElusiveButterfly (45940)
• United States
24 Jan 16
I just had a conversation with one of my clients regarding expired foods. When a product reaches its use by date, it usually a date the producer of the product found it to be a little less of flavor and texture. It is still edible. Some products that contain milk, eggs, or fats and can become inedible.
I eat most of the canned products I have in my pantry even if it is outdated. However, I do toss it out if it is over a year old.
@softbabe44 (5816)
• Vancouver, Washington
24 Jan 16
Sometimes we do but they don't taste good but anymore I think you have to throw them out it's not worth having bacteria freezer burned food so I stopped doing that.
@OneOfMany (12150)
• United States
24 Jan 16
Out of personal experience, stay away from pancake or biscuit mix past its date. It can grow a mold that can't be seen but most of humanity is allergic to. When I was 24 my throat started to close off and through quick thinking I saved myself (an extremely painful method, but it stopped the reaction). But now I throw that stuff away if it's past the date. I don't want to experience that again. However, other stuff I definitely am okay with eating. The cookies I'm baking right now were a 'best by 12/18/15' date, and I think nothing of it. It's just the dry ingredients. I put the egg and butter in separately.
@asfarasiknow (3340)
• Bournemouth, England
24 Jan 16
It depends whether I have to be anywhere the next day! Seriously, as with others here, I distinguish between 'Use by' and 'best before' - and even then I am pretty careful. Some British papers have done features recently where daredevil journalists have risked eating ready meals that are days past their dates by nuking them in a microwave for several minutes longer than recommended. Rather them than me but they claimed to have had no ill-effects. Some of these expiry dates are suspiciously cautious, such as the items on sale a couple of days before Christmas that all had '26 Dec' as their expiry!
