What is the oldest date you can find

I don't know how old my bottle of gravy browning is BUT I can tell you that it travelled with me from England to Italy about 1963, then to what was Rhodesia for a spell, back to Italy, on to Portugal, then to S.A.,back to Italy, and then on to various parts of the UK! And,yes, it's still with me in middle England
Me=Gotta my Gravy Browning,will travel

I’ve used out of date yeast before and the bread hasn’t risen. Not an issue normally but I wouldn’t want to waste flour on it atm.

To anyone with unwanted ancient whisky:

Try this:

www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/top-10-ways-cook-whisky

...And I emptied my chest freezer last autumn and found two legs of lamb that had been in there since 2013, thawed and slow roasted them together, sliced and froze again. All eaten now, and lovely too.

Oldest item with a date is 1/4 bottle of yellow food colouring, 2001. Quite a lot older than that but undated is a pack of gelatine, probably from mid 1990s.

I've recently used bread flour BBE April 2017 and instant yeast BBE July 2018, and the bread was absolutely fine. I do always put new bags of flour in the freezer when I get them home, for at least 24 hours but sometimes forget them for months!

DH made some bread a few weeks ago with rye flour and treacle (black treacle for those of you south of the border!). The treacle had a sell-by-date in 1998, but we are still here, and the bread was very nice.

I can also claim a box of Lux flakes which must be at least 30 years old as once I discovered Stergene for washing jumpers I gave up on trying to dissolve Lux. Suppose it might come in handy if we run out of soap.

Have a packet of Miss Muffet junket tablets with a sticker of 1/6d in my cupboard. Won’t use them but somehow can’t throw them away

I agree with you Witzend... your husband is right 52Bright so enjoy his cooking and be thankful he wants to do it.

If the tin is perfectly sound, and the beans look and smell all right once it’s opened, personally I wouldn’t worry, 52Bright.

It’s only rusty or damaged tins I’d chuck, but then I’m a bit of a Using-Up devotee.

Vanilla tea from Ile Maurice indian ocean 2008

500 g of island Muritian Vanilla Tea i brought back from the island in 2008.its its vacuumed sealed so should be ok

A bottle of very cheap cooking brandy we brought with us when we moved here from London. That was in 1985.

I have loads of out of date things in my cupboards. Dates don't frighten me, I use my common sense just as I did in the days before they put dates on things. Now I'm stuck indoors, I am hoping to work my way through a lot of these items before I need to ask someone to shop on my behalf!

A decoration flower from a birthday cake 41 years

I love this thread but I'm amazed we haven't all died of botulism or ptomaine poisoning

When they write the book about Corona, there should be a chapter about the way we all found our ancient foodstuffs.
It will be as interesting as finding edible honey in the pyramids and tombs.

Shizam ...I like gin ...I could do a swop with you for a truly delicious meal

Bottle of gin from my deceased father’s house, 27 years ago. I don’t like gin. Now discovered it’s not useful even as hand sanitizer. ?

Have had a clear out of my tins cupboard today. Found a tin of kidney beans with a best before date of 2005!!! Now I am quite sensible about using things up ...especially during these difficult times ...but even I draw the line at a tin 15 years old. Not so dh who has decided he will undertake dinner tomorrow night. Has just taken a pack of mince out of the freezer. Apparently I am now looking forward to the delights of his concoction with the mince 'bulked out' with the kidney beans No!! I say ...please just bulk out with carrots and onions. That will be lovely. Apparently I am irresponsible. Those carrots are good for another week and those kidney beans will do us both good Help!!!

We bought a commemorative bottle of Hardy's Ale to celebrate our son's birth - in February 1989. He's 31 and it's still in the back of the cupboard unopened.

We have just had a new kitchen fitted (finished last week) so I was ruthless when throwing out the contents of our cupboards , so no food item is out of date. I do , however , have a bottle of Pernod bought as a present for my silver wedding anniversary which is now 23 years old . As I no longer drink it may well be there for another 23 years

Trendy
As long as spirit alcohol remains unopened it should be fine. Once opened it loses its strength so those two half opened bottles owned by Calendargirl won't be worth drinking now.

Oh, and bottles of paracetamol from 10 years before when you could buy huge brown glass bottles of them, if anyone remembers that.

When MIL had died and we cleared out her larder she had bottles of white wine that had turned to vinegar!

Calendargirl how can you have half bottles of whisky and brandy started 30 years ago?!

a Bottle of champagne - a gift from Colleagues for my 50th Birthday (I'm 72)! I had a weekend away immediately prior and came home (on Sunday - with my Birthday being the next day) to find that I had been burgled! Didn't feel much like celebrating for a while after that - and still haven't opened it!