this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2024
44 points (97.8% liked)

Ask Lemmy

27254 readers
1419 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] subignition@fedia.io 19 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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

[–] Mango@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Isn't it ten years old by default?

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Does it lose any of its hotness?

[–] subignition@fedia.io 10 points 1 month ago

It separated out to half clear vinegar and half... Red

You had to shake it back together but if anything it was even hotter than usual. It was wild

[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

I think heat typically intensifies over time: anecdotally, leftover hot food is always hotter a couple of days after it was freshly made

[–] grasshopper_mouse@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago

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

[–] ASDraptor@lemmy.autism.place 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

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

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 5 points 1 month ago

Very good explanation! The wording varies, in Czech and German it's like "consume by" and "can be stored at minimum until".

A store in my country once had an apology sign on display saying something along the lines of:

Some products in [this section] on sale [this year] were labeled with a "Sell By" date. According to [this EU directive], such a date is identical to the "Best Before" date. This has been fixed and we apologize for any confusion."

I have no idea how the "mistake" happened (normally, no food items share packaging between Europe and other continents) but I'm glad they got it sorted. The "Sell By" bullshit causes industrial-scale food waste by US supermarkets. Here, items about to pass BB are marked down by about 30% instead, and mom-and-pop stores usually have a discount shelf dedicated to past-BB items at 50% or higher discounts.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Num10ck@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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

[–] shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's older than I am. That's nuts.

[–] Trigger2_2000@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago

I see what you did there 😉

[–] blackbrook@mander.xyz 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Unless stored in some unusual way, the nut oils would almost certainly have been rancid. Not very healthy for you, but wouldn't give you food poisoning. Salt can hide the taste of rancid oils.

[–] Num10ck@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

yea i believe you. these were in a jar without a lid and were dusty. Gen-X kids are hardcore, especially when hungry and broke.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] garbagebagel@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Hikermick@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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

[–] blackbrook@mander.xyz 3 points 1 month ago

Some brands of mayo actually say on the jar that you don't need to refrigerate them. In the fridge, I'd probably keep that 2 or 3 times longer then the jar claims it should last.

[–] shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago

That moment when mayonnaise is an instrument.

[–] jeffw@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This depends on the type of food.

Fresh meat? Don’t push it.

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

[–] Annoyed_Crabby@monyet.cc 13 points 1 month ago

Tofu will go bad, it will turn sour and slimy. Or at least the soft tofu will. Pretty sure all tofu will be eventually.

[–] jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

[–] shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Was it a certain brand? If nothing bad happened due to eating cinnamon older than I am, that's amazing.

Maybe I should do this for my 25th birthday next month, celebrate with 25-year-old cinnamon that may have been born when I was.

[–] jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeh it was Masterfoods ground cinnamon if I recall. It really defies intuition because things like nice aromatic spices should get progressively weaker flavoured over time. I feel compelled to say this may have been a freak occurrence and it's probably unwise to seek out 25 year old spice.

[–] Xenny@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It is very possible it was made with a different cinnamon.

There is cassia and ceylon cinnamons that have different flavor profiles.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Corno@lemm.ee 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

[–] shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Imagine a bag of minute pasta saying "warning, after expiration, pasta may cook in 59 seconds".

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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.

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

It is wasteful, the expiration date is very conservative. You can push it 20% or more for sealed, correctly stored items. Just check for signs of rot or mold. Food waste is a serious problem in first and second world countries.

[–] wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The risk is worth it, I will probably never get food poisoning (as long as I'm careful when foraging) and I'm healthy overall so my body would take it well. I can't imagine store-bought food pushed to less than +50% of its shelf life with no signs of decay will do permanent harm. I guess a week off work can be a problem if you're in America? I feed old food to chickens instead if it goes stale or unappetizing so I never really waste any anyway.

[–] wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 1 month ago

I'm not discouraging you or any one else to be more flexible about them, I'm just saying I have my limitations on the matter.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Daviedavo@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

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.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] blackbrook@mander.xyz 5 points 1 month ago

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.)

[–] RBWells@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

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.

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 4 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Pasta, 12 years. Yoghurt, 1 month.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

The 1kg Vegemite jar that was hand down to my by my father, and I hope to someday pass it down to my children when they are worthy

[–] random@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 month ago

been drinking liquor, that "expired" in 1937

[–] Femcowboy@lemm.ee 4 points 1 month ago

I found oatmeal from 2001 in the pantry a few months ago and it was still good so I ate it.

[–] NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (4 children)

About 15 years. I can't remember exactly... something from the "small things corner" of our fridge :)

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] Crackhappy@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Rice, 10 years. Beef, hmmmmmmm 2 months? Mushrooms at least a year. Got to let them be fun guys.

[–] shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee 6 points 1 month ago

The kind of mushrooms from the grocery store or the kind of mushrooms likely secretly sold under the grocery store?

[–] Nytixus@kbin.melroy.org 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Nekomancer@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›