Study finds food expiration labels are misleading

[Tia Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tia]

Study finds food expiration labels are misleading

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...98H15F20130918

On the TV this morning they said eggs are good up to 5 weeks past the date and the only things you really have to pay attention to dates are the infant formula and give dairy the smell and taste test.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Many labels are "best by" and may be good for quite some time after that date.

[Glitter Brunello Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Glitter Brunello]

That's my general practice unless something is really old. Yogurt also lasts well past the date, btw.

[mdurette Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mdurette]

I am definitely one of those that doesn't give ANYTHING a shot if it is past the sell by, use by, etc date. It just goes in the trash. I'm absolutely sure I have wasted hundreds if not thousands of dollars over the years. Will this change my habits....probably not. Even though it should.

As for the taste test with dairy.....well I'm getting dry heaves even thinking about it!!!!

[happymum Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close happymum]

Darn, the link didn't work for me, but judging from the comments, I am definitely in the "guideline-only" category. I have used even dairy quite a while past the BB date with no problem. I have also had milk well within its date go "off".

[Kay H Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Kay H]

Since there were't expiration dates on food while I was growing up, I seldom check expiration dates now. I use my eyes and nose as my detector. Haven't had food poisoning yet.

[Tia Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tia]

Darn, the link didn't work for me, ...

They must of moved/changed it but here is another found via Google
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/0...re-misleading/

[Hobbitess Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hobbitess]

We don't sweat sell by or use by dates on food much, since I was raised without them I suppose. We use more classic techniques to check whether food is good. Also depends on what we're using them for. I prefer my fried eggs to be fresh, because I like a runny yolk and the fresher eggs the yolk is higher and firmer and so when the white is cooked a fair percentage of it is still liquid. OTOH, we hard boil "past use by date" eggs all the time, because older eggs peel more easily -- you can tell how old/good they are by their buoyancy, and while I don't know if we've ever gone five weeks past due date, we've hit a month a time or two and the eggs were fine. OTOH, we've gotten milk I thought "a bit off" and promptly assigned to pudding or custard that was still well within its use-by date. Everyone else thought it was fine but for drinking I want my milk to be super fresh. Which is why I do not taste dairy products to see if they're off. Yuck! Appearance and scent should give that away long before it's really nasty.

I pay more attention to them use-by dates it comes to medicine, although some think those are as pointless as the food ones. They've done studies showing that lot of meds stored in ideal conditions just lose a bit of potency past the use-by date. However what concerns me is that some meds become more potent, and they haven't by any means studied all of them. We don't store ours under ideal conditions (we don't run the AC unless it's eighty or higher, so they get too hot, and there's plenty of humidity around here), plus we have a lot of OTC painkillers, which for some reason decompose faster than many other drugs, so unless it's something I know keeps well beyond the date I'll toss it unless I can find something saying that it's likely to be good.

[jerrry94087 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jerrry94087]

One good thing to know about the expiration dates is that stores usually train staff to place sooner to expire items closer to the buyers on the shelves, so that they would be more likely to be picked up first.
It is a good idea to compare the expiration dates on the items and pick the fresher ones from the far away or below locations.
Of course if every single buyer would follow this rule, then stores would have to completely hide the fresher items from the view. But most people just don't care.