The often silliness of use by dates

Good for you Bags, I would have done the same!
I don't pay much attention to them either.

I don't bother with dates if it smells good I use it.

I guess a yeast use by date is a "it may not work after that" as it is a living organism.
I generally agree with glamma. If you have something like pickle, and it is in a fridge, it will probably keep for several decades!
However, according to the health education info on the screen in drs waiting room, over 60s are, like pregnant women, more vulnerable to listeria. So for things like dips or soft cheeses perhaps we should be a little more cautious.

I did think about the living organism thingy but since it is dried active yeast and in a sealed packet, I thought it was likely to be OK. When I opened the sachet it looked exactly the same as brand new dried active yeast looks. So I did an experiment. Result: two lovely loaves.

It is amazing how single celled organisms like that can survive drying out and then leap into life. I used the kind out of a tin the other day, where you have to mix with sugar and warm water before adding to flour. Just amazing to see how quickly those cells burst into life and start kicking out carbon dioxide in significant quantities - humbling and bubbling away within about a minute.

My daughter gave her MIL a pack of butter to use up yesterday because it said 'best before' 15 June on it, so she wasn't going to use it! 'I know' said MIL, 'i've said several times it's ok to use after these dates, but she's not having it.' My daughter, and so many more of her generation, seems to think produce is programmed to turn toxic on the date on the packet!

I admit to using several things beyond their sell-by-date. Except for meat and fish - I think that's dicing with trouble. My daughter always tidies up my larder - tins with tins, bottles with bottles etc - she often says 'did you know this is way of date?'. I often think that manufacturers are covering themselves in case someone is poisoned and they can say ah we did give you sell by date.

Of course there is a difference between 'use by' and 'best before', which is on most store cupboard ingredients. I also used some years-old yeast the other day, and the results were fine - delicious Chelsea buns. In my 'fridge I have a vacuum pack of gammon steaks dated 'use by June 14th'. I certainly shall not be throwing them away, after all - bacon is cured. I have an 8 pack of yoghurts dated today but I shall rely on my senses to tell me whether to eat them over the next few days.

I have some of that yeast in my fridge - a couple of years out of date. I don't use it very often as, living on my own, I don't need a lot of bread and if I make my own the temptation is to eat the lot!

That's what I do Shysal. I hate waste and will go through my fridge to use up things like bacon in soups, likewise all remaining vegetables go into 'fridge soup' or for stocks and sauces. The yoghurts will usually be fine for a few after their use by date. Why on earth things like honey, pickles and chutney have a use by or best before date I do not know. Common sense needs to prevail.

I always have a session of fridge archeology when I visit my daughter, but rarely get round to doing my own...

Mamie - love that phrase, 'fridge archaeology'. I think someone on here maybe last year used 'UFO' - 'unidentified fridge/freezer objects' of which I usually have an interesting and - ahem - aromatic assortment. When DS1 visits he has a good rootle through my cupboards for historic artefacts - well, he used to be a chef!

when - it's to make you buy some more......

I know! They must think we're daft! X

My gran dis not have a fridge just a marble shelf. She always made jars of jam and pickles etc.. they stayed in the pantry and were fine even months later!

Recently finished some chutney I'd made six years ago. Never refridgerated, even after opening. It was fine and so is everyone who ate it.

I think I have posted somewhere else that I never refrigerate tomato sauce. No one has ever become ill from eating it, and we don't get through that much - it still tastes OK months later!

no well chutney etc is preserved.
I refrigerate jam because I make it with less sugar that shop jam and under somewhat less sterile conditions too. It would go mouldy sooner if i didn't

My eldest trained as a manager with M&S after university and whenever she came to visit would trawl through the fridge and throw out everything past its sell-by (you can take the girl out of M&S but you can't take....etc) Her younger sister who was at Art College at the same time used to do likewise only instead of throwing out all the stuff that was past its sell-by, she took it back to London with her for her and her flatmates!

I agree that most things will be fine for varying lengths of time beyond their 'use by' dates, and generally it comes down to common sense (smell, appearance, etc) but once in a while you can get caught out.
About a year ago, I ate some hummous that I had already opened and eaten some of when it was still 'in date'. The second time, it was only one day over its sell by date. It looked fine and smelled fine, but I was violently ill.
After 3 days of vomiting and enduring excruciating stomach cramps, I called the NHS helpline (wasn't registered with a GP at the time)
I was told that hummous is particularly lethal, because it goes off quickly, and breeds both salmonella and listeria! I was told to expect to be ill for a week, and indeed I was!
Took me a long time to try hummous again!

I always keep yeast (I use the dried kind) in the freezer and it keeps "forever".
Jam seems to grow a mould very quickly these days so I do keep that in the fridge now

Ouch! Anna. I will be looking very carefully at labels on hummous from now on. Not that it lasts long in my household.

Yee-as I think any dips are once only affairs, unless you are sure that you have had exclusive using rights for yesterday's sandwich maybe.
Big no-no for me is people that dip, say, a carrot into some hummus, then bite it, then dip again. I would certainly throw that dip away afterwards. Salivary enzymes and mouth bacteria hasten the process of going off.

I so agree, JessM. See it all too often. Make the crudités shorter?