How Long Do You Use Foods Past Expriration Dates? ~ Today Show Video
(Thanks for the video and picture, Today Show!)
I’m a firm believer that food (even medication) can be consumed after expiration. I think we all have our own limits and I’m not here to tell you how long for each product. But, I would suggest that you consider thinking before tossing. Is three month old cereal really going to kill you? Try it! If you don’t like the taste, toss it.
The Today Show had a video segment about expiration dates, that I thought you might be interested in seeing. They said that there’s no evidence that health has ever been endangered by consuming expired products. I have to assume (and they mention at the end) that meat and dairy are excluded and decent judgement is used. (Thanks, for sending it, Susan!)
My biggest surprise is that peanut butter is good 3-5 years beyond expiration (unopened)! I can’t say I’ve ever tried that, but if one gets pushed to the back and I don’t discover it, I’ll give it a shot! I’ll ask my husband to let you all know, if I die from peanut butter consumption. Stick around for a few years. :)
I will say that it used to shock me that my father-in-law would eat eggs way beyond their expiration. I’m not sure if a couple months scared him or not. Many years ago, in a desperate moment, I used eggs that were about two weeks beyond the stamped date. . . and I lived to tell about it. My bravery came from the fact that he was an old man in good health. As far as I know, he still uses them, and he’s still ticking . . . into his 90’s! I will go up to a month on eggs (without doing the floating test) and we haven’t died or gotten sick yet — that I’m aware of. Well, I’m pretty sure about the dying part! :)
I think a huge key to saving money is stocking up during sales, but not so much that you’re wasting it. If you’re tossing food, your hard work and money is gone forever. But, if you aren’t so much of a stickler for expiration dates, you can save more, since you aren’t afraid to buy “one more” box of cereal because you’re afraid it will expire before you can get to it. Again, I don’t suggest buying so much that you are never “caught up” and always consuming food that is expired or continually pushing the older food to the back, until you really do have to toss it. You have to settle on what you family can use, but if you don’t hit it right on, you have a little more wiggle room than you might think.
What do you know that we should? I’d love for you to inspire us and give us hope on things like eggs or whatever!
I told you about the eggs I’ll use, but here’s what I have to watch . . .
I have found that one of the things I can’t go much beyond expiration on are Premium saltine crackers. I don’t know why this is, but they just don’t taste very good to me, much later.
Please, leave a comment. Maybe it will make some of the timid out there, a little more brave. Or, the expired egg using people (like me!) a little more cautious. :)
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Of course I do! It’s a government thing. All food processors are required to put expiration dates on food containers. Some produce also has them. My best friend growing up had 6 children in the family. They got industrial sized cans of peanut butter it lasted them forever. There was never a problem with it. Eggs are good for me up to a month beyond the date. Condiments, who ever use to toss out ketchup, mustard and the like. Common sense is the rule.
I agree — common sense! You can usually tell and it won’t kill you if you take a taste of something terrible. I’m convinced they put earlier expiration dates on them because they don’t want you complaining in three years if your corn looks a little off color — or whatever! They cover themselves, while causing people (and stores!) to be afraid to sell it and need more!
Cheese, yogurt, milk and sour cream, I go by appearance of mold and smell. Eggs past the expiration date, i drop (gently) into a large bowl of water, if it floats to the top, you shouldn’t use it. That’s what I always go by.
Some boxed goods get stale, or smell bad too long after the date but otherwise I use and canned goods I don’t ever consider perishable if unopened
We don’t use a lot of sour cream (mostly beef stroganoff). So, I asked a friend once, how long she kept hers for. Her answer was, “Well, it’s already sour, right?” :) That’s my husband’s point about “old” food since there are things like cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream, sauerkraut, etc. He has a point. Glad you use what you have and it works out!
I would agree with everyone. I keep things way after the expiration date…some times because I didn’t check and other times intentionally. We were on WIC for a while and got a TON of milk–like 10 gallons a month–totally too much for us. I took a little out of each gallon and froze them. Totally perfect after 6 months. I would have to tell any houseguests to disregard the sell by date though. Freezing milk is also a great way to save on ice when you camp. Milk takes longer to thaw out and is a great alternative. I used to do the food for big groups going down to Mexico to build houses. We would camp and have to bring all our own food. I would freeze many gallons of milk and then use them as the ice in the coolers. Many of them would still be frozen after 5 days in the cooler sitting in a hot trailer. I would have to take them out the night before and leave them on the picnic tables to thaw enough to actually use the next morning.
I would agree about the crackers though. Trying to make s’mores with old graham crackers–yuk! We tried that once and were very disappointed. Is anything worse than anticipating s’mores and then not being able to eat them? …well, maybe a few things are worse (lol), but it was a big letdown for all the parties involved!
Can’t wait to see some other people’s responses and what can actually be saved.
I need to start doing this. None of us drink milk and we rarely us a gallon before it expires. I love when half gallons go on sale, but it’s rare. Since I don’t like milk in the first place (only in recipes), I’ve been afraid to freeze it. But, it’s not like I really taste it anyway. I think you’ve inspired me! :) Good idea about block ice, too! Thanks!
Ate a can of campbell’s chicken noodle soup from 09 last week.
Also took tylenol cold & flu meds from 07–back to 100% now.
gotta read between the lines when it comes to exp. dates on certain things. Totally agree w/the cracker thing.
My kids were on a Campbell’s chicken noodle soup kick and then just left it there. I told them the other day that they need to eat it up. We have about 6 cans that are probably right at, or just beyond expiration. Glad to know we can go longer on those, most likely! The cracker thing is odd to me, but I just don’t buy many since we don’t use them fast enough. Thanks for sharing your experience. Glad you’re feeling better and the meds worked!
We don’t pay much attention to pull dates on some things either. Canned vegs and soups are still o.k. after X date. But we do write the X date on the front of the can and rotate religiously.
Flour we put in the freezer for a while, then take out and put on the shelf. Never have any problems with critters then. We buy eggs on sale and frequently have them several months with no bad results. We did find an old beef roast in the freezer recently. My wife wanted to throw it out, but I made it into BBQ in the crock pot and it turned out great.
But I have to disagree about peanunt butter. I just opened a jar that expired in July and it definitely had a rancid smell, and off taste. I like that boxed Pistachio pudding, which has nuts in it and that is another item that we watch the expire date after making one once that had expired. Not good. Canned nuts too we like to use up before the pull date, even then they can get a funny taste if not used up pretty quickly after opening. We keep our baking walnuts, pecans etc in the freezer and take out just enough for the recipe and they are o.k.
Nuts are a good one to watch! I forgot about those. You’re right, wonder how PB lasts when peanuts don’t. I guess they put something else in there, that I probably don’t want to know about. But, then again, your bad experience makes me wary. I have no plans on using PB 5 years beyond the dates, but know this does make me a little more bold to stock up when the price is amazing. We don’t use tons, but I do use it in a couple favorite recipes. Thanks for all the wisdom and experience you just shared!
Love this article Juli! I am also a firm believer in not paying too much attention to expiration dates…. most of them are “best by” dates and I haven’t found much that tastes different when eaten within 6 months of that date.
I have eaten eggs that were 1 month over and live to tell about it. I probably wouldn’t ever use them for things like Aioli or Tiramisu (were the eggs are eaten raw), but to use them in dishes or boiled, scrambled, fried… no problem.
My belief stems from a couple of things
a) When I grew up in Germany there were no expiration dates on anything and canned goods were considered almost life-long staples with a MINIMUM storage of 10+ years. (Of course they were still rotated around, so the newest ones would be in the back :) (These days I think the absolute maximum on a can of beans is 2 years).
b) I frequently purchase a lot of block cheese when its on sale and usually will not go through it within the expiration date. As long as the seal on the cheese is airtight it doesn’t spoil. If I see that the seal is loosening I open it, shred it and freeze it. We have eaten (block) cheese up to around 8 months past the expiration date. Sliced cheese will not last that long however.
c) Unopened dairy like yogurt, sour cream, whip cream is still good for a while past expiration date too, though I would say by only 1 month or so. If it doesn’t change appearance or taste/smells differently, it should be usable.
d) I found out by mistake about the shelf-life of Philadelphia cream cheese. I do rotate and put oldest in front normally, but I must have not looked close enough one time and one came forward that was just a little over a YEAR ago. I was curious and opened it up, bracing myself for a colorful surprise of greens/browns/blues….. but it was just perfect. Didn’t smell weird, didn’t taste weird. I baked it into a pumpkin bread recipe (which was yummy too) and we are still alive.
These examples are just extremes, I would not advise buying so much cream cheese to last a year.
These days everything seems to have an expiration date that a few decades ago were supposed to last “forever”. Flour and sugar have expiration dates…. if stored airtight there is nothing that can spoil at all.
Where I am most cautious is fish and canned tomatoes (botulism)…. those I throw out if past expiration and looking a bit suspicious (like if the tomato can lid is just a little too “springy”).
And some stuff, while not spoiled, just doesn’t taste good 6-8 months past expiration date (for me, mainly potato chips, some crackers and some chocolate)
Looking forward hearing from other readers :)
Thank you for so many specific examples! I loved reading them all. Yes, tomatoes seem to darken and scare me, too — even ketchup. I just don’t go long on those, from past experience.
More people are commenting over on Facebook, but I’m glad you did it here so that it won’t get pushed down and lost forever. :) Head over there, if you want to see more.
https://www.facebook.com/BargainBeliever
From experience, when my cream cheese goes bad, it turns pink. This sometimes happens when sour cream turns bad also. My biggest annoyance, tho, is the appearance of little critters in my dry goods. I have tried to eradicate them and use airtight containers, but it’s not always 100 percent. Second would be rancid crackers. bleck.
i store a lot of my dry goods that i seldom use in my big freezer ie rye flour…or the 20lbs of white rice that i foolishly bought from costco one time lol keeps the critters away…in fact, if you freeze your flour, cereal etc for a couple of days and then return them to your cupboard you won’t see any critters…because the freezing kills those pesky microscopic eggs lol
If I have room in my freezer, that’s where my extra flour goes, too. I don’t know why, but I’ve never thought about it for anything else. Duh! Thanks for the tip!
The flour bugs don’t like the smell of bay leaves. After I take my stuff out of the freezer it goes in the cupboard that has bay leaves in it. The bay leaves work for about a year, so I throw in a few more about every 10 months or so. My kids laugh when the leaves fall out of the cupboard when I pull out a box.
Agreed! :)
I admit it…. i don’t pay any attention to expiration dates…my daughter thinks it’s ‘gross’ but that’s the way i grew up…if it looks or tastes bad or old then i toss it. I buy in bulk and stock up on sales so i have to rotate my dry goods. One key to keeping frozen food is your freezer has to work well. I had the same thing with the premium saltines…i bought the big box at Costco and halfway through (i didn’t keep them in a cool cupboard but rather in the hot storeroom) they were rancid…surprised me because i didn’t think they had much oil/fat in them
Weird about those Premium crackers! I was just thinking I should call them. I looked at our box and it’s Nov something — not even expired yet and we threw an open pack out recently. I’ll have to check an unopened one. It was surprising to me, too. I though that would be the kind of thing that would last much longer than the expiration. I don’t buy them often, so it’s not even like I have boxes stocked up, one extra, at most — usually just one little lone box. :) Someday your daughter will probably be just like you and be thankful — when it’s her time and money about to be trashed. :)