What is the oldest date you can find

Bovril 2004!

This is being awful but my oldest daughter used to have tins of food years out of date until my youngest daughter went to her house and threw everything out my oldest daughter just said why have you done that I won't say what her sister replied but I did learn 1 thing I found out why she never wanted me to go in her kitchen

It'll be fine Trendy !?

Two bottles of whisky that we were given 10 years ago, we hate whisky. Is it still drinkable. I’m sure we can find someone who would appreciate it

I'm scared to look!

AAAaagh! As a family custom: We used to take a packet of dried veg (!) with us every time we moved. It was pre-date stamps and marked something like 1/3d. I lost it last time in 1999.

Forgot to say that I don't intend to throw any of them away ... in fact I just used some of the nutmeg in the bread pudding I made this morning (delish!). Best Before dates are just that, it's Use By dates you have to respect.

A tin of strawberries in grape juice - end Jun 2005.
Packet of polenta - 29 June 2000.
(It gets worse)
Nutmeg - end Mar 1993.

Yes 3nanny6,i thought so too,& hoped the sugar content kept them safe to eat??your sons comment made me laugh

I think you probably win Calendargirl i do also have a Hestons hidden orange pud,Chewbacca! not as old as yours(couple of xmases ago) so am wondering if its still safe to eat maybe??( im surprised its still there as i love xmas pudding!)i also had a few packets of various stuff from 2016&2017-which i binned& some fish sauce ( bottled,for chinese cooking) from about 2012(poured away& recycled) but not too much out of date in there,as i did sort awhile ago.) The sauce got missed last time

I have several Christmas puddings I buy them and then do not use them at Christmas. I thought they improved with age.
when I said that to my son he said "What like you do you mean" He can be a cheeky so and so.

I have a bottle of whiskey, given to me as a leaving present when I left my job in the Midlands and moved to Cornwall in 1989. I moved back to the Midlands last year, and brought it back with me. (I hate whiskey and friends always just wanted wine). I'm not sure it would be fit to drink if I did open it!

I laughed at this post but can't contribute any 'out of dates' as DH has taken to checking everything with a vengeance, even the freezer. I once ate a whole small Christmas pud and tin of custard which i managed to stop reaching the bin. I remind him regularly of that to prove the point. I did miss my frozen homegrown rhubarb tho. Thankfully the crumble topping had survived.

I have an unopened box of sugar cubes with BBF date of 2013, but it goes on to say on the box that “sugar is a natural preservative and if stored in a cool dry place will keep indefinitely.” Sooooo......... it’s gone on the “when we get desperate” shelf!
We have a demijohn of homemade elderberry wine in the garage which came with us to this house in 2011. It had been in the garage at the last house for six years and we never got round to bottling it. We can’t bring ourselves to try it, but somehow I am loathe to tip it down the drain!

I had just heated macaroni cheese for lunch. I used the pot of black pepper and then I saw this site, looked at the date and its use by date was 1999. Ah well, if the virus does not get me my out of date stuff will. Perhaps I should check the rest?

My best friend moved about 6 years ago. The house she lived in was in very poor repair and some cupboards had not been used for a long time. However when packing to move she found a tin of mandarin oranges with a price ticket of 1 shilling 6and a half pence!! Needless to say it didnt accompany her on the move! I have to confess to a jar of cayenne pepper dated July 1994. It is only used in my Christmas pud recipe....but I will replace it when I can out to the shops again!

Having had a major clearout for a new kitchen and again for moving house in the last few years, the only out of date item I am aware of keeping is a pack of saffron. I thought it is too expensive to throw out and will only lose some flavour with age.

We'll they are not food but are in the kitchen cupboard. One is a box of hand washing powder bought when I used to handwash my baby wollens ( youngest is now 32!). Second is some scourer cleaner that my dad brought home from a cash and carry bulk buy in 1979 . He gave me 12 of them when I married 38 years ago
..... and I still have one left! Admittedly I have used many other products in that time too, I'm not that bad at cleaning ha, ha.

rowanflower - I now keep my flour in the fridge after that happened to me.

I recently threw out some tins of chopped tomatoes - I had promised them to a friend who couldn't get any as the supermarket had sold out - but to me shame they were 3 years out of date. I don't even know why I had them in my cupboard as I never use chopped tomatoes!

Dried mixed herbs, Oct 2006 - tasted fine in dumplings when no potatoes were available!
Which is more than can be said for the self-raising flour, still in date, but CRAWLING, which had to go in the bin!

Baking Powder 2012,had been using it and stuff was fine,but after seeing the date I used it to clean the drain in the kitchen sink. When I poured the boiling water on it,it fizzed a lot so it was probably still OK.

I don't know how long tinned food will keep for. It depends on whether the pantry/cellar is cool, dry, damp etc.

As a child I was taught never to open a tin that was out of shape. If we had opened a buckled tin, never, ever to taste the contents, but to throw them in the bin, as they could cause food poisoning.

I would hesitate to use out of date meat or fish, but I don't know whether vegetables are safer or not.

I went through the pantry a couple of months ago. Found a tin of meat from 2013, which I shoved straight into the bin.

Don't think there is anything older than home-made red currant juice from 2018 there now.

Bought a 1Kg pack of Paprika years ago, which I still use.
Just checked the date, Best Before 2/8/2007
I feel it has matured like a great wine!

Wonderful thread! Thank you. It made me laugh out loud, haven’t done much of that recently. I’m now off to check out my own cupboards, probably have nothing left after I throw out all the out of date food.