Sell Buy dates

Sniff and decide is my mantra and I have never been wrong BUT 3 days is the outer limit. And never pre frozen

In the good old days, pre use by dates, my father was very ill after he'd eaten some sausages that he'd cooked for his supper. He had lost his sense of taste and smell some years before and they seemed fine to him, but when my mother took the rest of them out of the fridge they were quite obviously off.

We were on hols in Italy with sil and bil, and went for a walk near Lake Bolsena. Some students were revising on the picnic tables near the Lake and heard us speak English. One got up and asked politely- could you help me with my revision for my business exam. What does 'past sell by date' mean? We laughed and said 'things we are past the date by which they are at their best quality- we laughed, and said 'just like us, really'. We all had a good giggle and they gave us a glass of excellent Italian wine.

Our kids are horirfied that we totally ignore sell by dates- and just use common sense and our nose. What a waste those sbd are!

Have I said this before? Some years ago my mum brought back some frozen smoked salmon from my sister's in Nova Scotia. In her hand luggage not in the hold, so although it was wrapped in an insulating bag, you will know where this is going.
I put it in the freezer (!) and had some after she left spending just the one night with us on her way home and was very seriously ill indeed ! DH was away on audit and I had just 2DDs at the time, but I really thought I was going to die, the D&V were just awful and I spent 12 hours on the lavatory floor. Never take chances with food which has been frozen and thawed out and refrozen

I hve just been looking for a recipe to use up a bag of rocket which will be wilting by tomorrow, and found a great blog domestic goddessing on a shoestring

Her theme is cooking well using food which is approaching its end date - mostly bought very cheaply from the "reduced" shelves in her local supermarkets.Unfortunately she seems to have stopped blogging in the middle of last year, but previous entries are still there, with recipes. It all sounds delicious - and cheap!

She (and her husband) must spend a lot of time combing the supermarkets, but good for her - too much perfectly good food is thrown out.

I was in Sainsburys once and one of the assistants was sorting tomatoes, that had become overripe, out of the boxes. They weren't mouldy or anything, just starting to get a bit soft. I asked him if he would sell me some as they are very good at that stage for making soups and sauces - I usually rummage through the boxes looking for them. He said he wasn't allowed to sell them to me, they had to be thrown away. What an absolute waste.

Tons of food are thrown away in this country every day because of health and safely and sell by dates. It is a colossal waste as there is nothing wrong with most of it. I am not suggesting we should all eat mouldy food, but that a bit of plain old common sense should be applied, especially for items such as tinned products or preserves like jams, pickles etc.
we managed before sell by dates were introduced, didn't we? There are people who go through supermarket bins at night and rescue perfectly okay food that has been discarded. The supermarkets could just as easily give it all away. There are people who would be glad of it.
Years ago our fruit and veg shop would sell bananas for 10p a pound if the skins were going black and i used them to make a banana loaf, they were perfect for that. Never did us any harm!

It is a worry that food might be unnecessarily destroyed just because of use by dates.

My DD has just thrown out lots of food after leaving the freezer door open a bit. Personally I would have cooked them thoroughly and then re-frozen them.

I am pretty strict about Use By dates though as I have IBS and if it gets gingered up by a bug it results in weeks of misery before it settles. Best Before labels I tend to ignore and use my own judgement.

When I have a supermarket delivery, I write a list as I put them away and fix to fridge door - I write down the Use By dates and put them in order so I know which to use first.

I think it is OK to eat, crun, if I have noticed it and I have the time then I take it back to the supermarket and get a fresh lot, but if not we eat it and it seems to have been OK.

I made a pot of stew with it, and I don't seem to have come to any harm after a couple of portions. It smelt alright, and it's not the first time I've eaten brown beef.

crun very strange not come across that before

I have started a new thread dedicated to smoking, I have detailed my method there.

www.gransnet.com/forums/grandads_shed/1213494-Smoking

glamma it was red where it was visible, and brown where the slices were laying against each other out of sight. It seems the wrong way round for oxidisation.

If it was vacuum packed crun the seal may have been broken at some time allowing air to discolour the meat,it should be OK to eat but we do tend to shy away from off coloured foods don't we as we tend to eat with our eyes.

I never throw food away, I couldn't afford to, but I don't buy what I can't eat either, so 'use by' dates aren't a problem.

Does anyone know why fresh beef sometimes goes brown? I had some last week that looked more like it was already cooked, even though it was still within it's use by date.

When my dad was Sargent in Charge of The Ration Stores when he was in the TA he used to bring home cheeses/corned beef/tins of steak/ whole chickens in jelly from the stores when they closed down the stores in the early 60's, they had been packed and buried away during the 2nd World War,according to my mum we lived like kings for quite some time with no after effects.

For those interested in home smoking, I will put together some guidelines and links to useful web sites -- will take me a while.

I was in a well known "up market" supermarket just before Xmas and a chap was emptying a shelf of about 10 fresh ducks I asked if he was going to reduce them he said no madam these were out of date yesterday and slipped through the net for reducing and will be binned. Seemed such a waste I would have willingly signed a disclaimer and had one but knew there was no point in asking.

pompa I'd love a bit more information of home smoking.

granjo, some bacteria can take a few days to give you symptoms just because you didn't feel ill straight away doesn't mean it was safe. I think eight months is a little worrying for fish.

have to say I ignore any date on vegetables - who cannot tell whether the veg/fruit are fit to eat or not
I am a bit more wary about fish (smell test) but as I don't eat other meat I don't have a view on whether it is fit to eat or not.
my ultimate bugbear is the fact the 'pet food' has BBE dates - as if animals (dogs) are not inclined to eat anything that is still edible (or not)

Well I'm still here folks-no ill effects.
Yes it was vacuum packed but just kept in the chilled compartment of fridge-not frozen,It seemed in perfect condition.After all smoking was one of the main methods of preserving food years ago.
It makes you wonder just how much food goes to waste because of these best before dates.

GreyDuster. We do not like the taste of fresh trout. I hot smoke all those I catch, and salmon when it is on offer at Tesco.

I fillet/pin bone them, then freeze until I have a dozen or so for smoking.

Don't buy a special smoker, they are expensive and not necessary. Any kettle type BBQ will do the job fine. I can smoke about 6 fish at a time in mine. I then re-freeze them.

If you want more info on how I brine/smoke them, get in touch.

DM used to say 'What the eye doesn't see the heart doesn't grieve over' as she picked up a bit of food she had dropped on the floor and put it back in the serving dish!
ie 'don't tell your brothers or they will never touch it'

I suspect the flavour and texture of canned or frozen food is more likely to go off before the product is harmful.