Bought pastry

No use it. The dates are ok

If it's past its 'Best before date', it will be fine. If it's past its 'Use by' date, then there is more of a risk and I would not use it.

Food can look, smell and taste just fine but still contain enough food poisoning bacteria to make you very sick. “If it smells OK, it is OK” is not a good strategy if the food is past its 'Use by' date.

I love ready made pastry....I dont look at dates...I use my sense of smell....my eyes.... my touch...my sense of taste....and finally my common sense. Whatever did the generations before do without ‘ sell by dates and use by dates’

I have very strict rules for using out of date food. If it doesn't smell off, isn't a funny colour, hasn't got mould and doesn't taste fizzy then it's fine by me.

Only ever had food poisoning twice - in restaurants.

Like you Annifrance, I have only ever had food poisoning after eating in restaurants, unfortunately, more than twice.

I would. If my adult children knew how many much-past date goods they ate when young, they’d faint! No one came to any harm. Just have to use common sense, smell, look of it etc.

Some of the people I visited when employed as an environmental health officer shared the above views. Part of my job was to track down the source of food poisoning. I wish I'd been paid for every time I was told that a food couldn't have made someone ill because it smelled and looked fine. The microbiologists had a different way of checking!