I hate waste but....

I endorse this plea - threre are just the two of us and OH eats like a gnat. I cannot get through these great big jars of things and finish up chucking stuff out eventually as you have had to do.

Well if something has got a preservative like vinegar in it I ignore those labels completely. Particularly if the jar has been in the fridge. But, really, consume Branston within 6 weeks once opened. Bog off, I say, its a pickle!
Kalamata olives once opened keep below 5 deg and consume within 14 days?
As long as no mould or fermentation in evidence I would not chuck.
Same with jams - they have a lot of sugar in them, which like vinegar and salt, inhibits bacterial growth.
I only take the dates seriously if it is something like hummus that does not contain preservative. I do tend to keep things in the fridge once opened though.
I have dijon mustard in the fridge for years at a time.
I think there is a huge safety margin in these recommendations when the food is preserved.
(You should though be more cautious if you have someone in the house who is on chemo or has a seriously weak immune system.)

I feel the same about things like horseradish or tartar sauce which we use only every now and again, mostly because I can't remember how long they might have been open BEFORE we last used them. Don't know why I bother to put them in the fridge really, they should go straight in the bin!

With things like pickles etc that we eat often, I take no notice of sell by, use by and only keep for so long dates. Balsamic pickled onions only last a day or two anyway - well there aren't THAT many in a jar

JessM I'm with you on the vinegar content but I have just this week put some sauces into small yohurt pots for freezing as they would have to be thrown out otherwise and my concience would not let me,once defrosted they will be used within a week.
Mr G. is very fussy about cooked meats etc and will only use the day after opening at the latest whilst I would use the nose test up to three days later but thats his choice I've never had an upset tummy from anything left after use by date though. Common sense tells you when something is not quite right.

yes like the nice pin mould on the bacon I threw out yesterday. DH was going to use it up last weekend...

I think we all agree on meats, humus, etc and stuff like that where there's a real danger of contamination. Between the dogs and the chickens very little gets wasted in our house.

But it's the sauces and pickles that are the real waste. I've thrown out 12 jars and bottles, ranging from Sweet Chilli Sauce to Curry Pastes to Wholegrain Mustard with Whisky. I've no idea how long some of them have been lurking in the fridge as I've never dated when they were opened.

At least my fridge looks spotless and there's plenty of room now

I think when you open these things you have a rough idea of whether you will use them in time or not so just freeze the rest in ice cube containers for next use. I have heard this recommended for left over wine to use later in sauces but don't understand the term 'left over wine'

Left over wine? Must have been a misprint movedalot?

I'm learning a lot about catering just now and we can buy lots of little jars of sauces and the like. But I don't suppose you fancy ordering 144 at a time do you?

I used to have this problem. I found that certain garden centres or shopping villages or dellies often sell 4 packs of mini sauces, pickles, mustards, jams, etc. you may have to take pot luck on the other three but why not?

I regularly cut mould off cheese and scrape it off jam!! I've even cut the crust off bread if it's starting to turn to use for toast.

When either of my daughters come to visit me, they check my fridge and start going through the sauces and pickles in there. There is nothing wrong with them, but they look at the dates on the jars and tell me I have to throw them out. They look at the date on the butter and if it's slightly out of date they say 'out damn'd butter!' I just use it!! I have been known to eat yoghurt that is a week or more out of date. Perfectly OK. Never caused me any problems.

I'm the same, janthea. Pickles only have those use by dates because they have to put one, by law. Pickles keep for years, even after being opened. You don't have to keep them in the fridge either. They were invented before refridgeration as a preservation method.

Mind you, I expect home-made ones last better than bought ones.

bags That's what I keep telling them - about the pickles. But these darned dates are a nuisance.

They aren't a nuisance in our house. We just ignore them. We reckon we can tell whether food is fit to eat or not. What on earth are our senses for? Look, sniff, taste.

BTW, the stats about food wastage are being challenged here

Like others I ignore dates and use my common sense. Dijon mustard is fine for months, jams and pickles last well in the fridge, if there's a sizeable piece of cheese behind the mouldy bit, it gets used. My children seem to think the dates are non-negotiable. They didn't learn that from me.

I don't keep jam, marmalade or ketchup in the fridge and nobody's become ill! You do have to scoop a bit of mould off the top of the jam if it's not been used for a while, but that's all..

I make my own tomato chutney and marmalade and jam!! The chutney tastes much better if left for at least 3 months before eating! There are only 2 of us apart from when family or friends stay and I make preserves in large quantities as it is more economical: It all stays perfectly ok down in the garage where it is cool!

bags I ignore them. It's my daughters that don't and when they visit they start going through my cupboards and fridge.

I think the nose test is best unless like with PD it goes imperceptibly. I've just used up a bottle of solid milk and the remains mincemeat into a yummy scone cake. Sour milk makes the best scones and Im having to keep out of its way. Wait rose does a fresh tartare sauce in a small pot that does for one meal and as good as homemade. I've just opened rhubarb and ginger jam made in2009 and it's lovely. I keep an uncooked chutney in the fridge which is great for cheering up boring old mince.

have noticed fruits like bananas and vegetables like carrots and parsnips are now sporting sell by dates. Ignore those as I have never become ill from eating an overripe banana - but suppose it is the law. Also I have noticed best befores on dog biscuits/mixer etc - as if a dog even tastes what it is eating and anyway they prefer off food judging by what they pick up outside!
as a vegetarian I do not need to worry about meat products
and I never put a date on any homemade pickle/jam/wine - just vaguely remember when I made it judging by whether it was a good harvest that year or not.

Generally I use my nose and eyes and take a small taste. I also cook things throughly. I might perhaps be a bit cautious about some slices of ham a day or two past their use by date and not serve them cold with salad but I will use it well cooked in a carbonara, for example, providing the ham still looks and smells OK.

I am offering hostages to fortune but no-one has yet got food poisoning from my cooking. DH had food poisoning recently after we went out for a meal and he chose the tuna that came 'seared', the current weasel word for parcooked.

I think a lot of food poisoning can be blamed on the current fashion for serving almost every meat, and now some fish, only parcooked. If meat, and in fact almost any food is thoroughly cooked before being consumed food poisoning cases would fall dramtically.

Why is sushi considered safe to eat? I've never wanted to try it myself, but now I think about it, why is it OK to eat certain fish raw?

Janthea If my dd or ds started going through my cupboards and chucking stuff out, I'd be showing them the door!
Cheek!

Yes I have been subjected to the food date storm trooper approach from offspring. I think they enjoy throwing their weight about and taking the moral high ground occasionally don't they. Bless them. But when you see them in action, throwing away perfectly good brown sauce etc you can believe those waste estimates.
Whereas if you read the label the contents are mainly preservative - vinegar, sugar and spices - all antibacterial. I'm sure something like that would last about a decade without turning toxic.
It is bound to be wasteful and expensive to use tiny pots of things. Loads more plastic for one thing.
Of course you only get dates on veg if you buy them in plastic bags. As if you cannot tell when a vegetable starts to go "off"
stansgran are you sure about the milk? The milk I get does not go off in a nice way. I think pasteurised milk does not go sour in the nice, yoghurt, lactic acidy way that raw milk would.
Now raw milk - that's a dangerous "natural" thing.

Our children like to think we need looking after.

How do they think we reached this ripe old age, and raised them successfully too, without having the instructions printed on each potato in the sack?