A fellow blogger posted this and I thought it was a good one to reply to. Here is the challenge question page: Fandango’s Provocative Question
How much attention do you pay to the dates stamped on food packaging? Do you find the various labels confusing? Will you toss out any food that has passed whatever date shows up? Or will you go ahead and consume it if it still looks and smells okay?
I often have this discussion with my husband. He’s a firm “read the date and toss” kind of person. Me? Not so much. I’m cheap. No, frugal. For foods, if it looks okay and smells okay, go for it. I’ve eaten yogurt weeks after the printed date. Same with Half & Half.
Even medication. I spent some time volunteering for Doctors Without Borders. A major duty was packing bags with medications for the next trip. If it had been expired for more than a year, it got tossed. Otherwise, it was a go. For me, I’ve used aspirin, Benadryl, Sudafed, and Tylenol that were years past the dates and they still were effective.
I think all the dates on things are misleading and don’t even all mean the same thing. Use by, best by, use before, and even sell by. It’s all so arbitrary.
What are your thoughts on these dates? Do you follow them?
Good response Donna. I used a cough mixture which was months after its best before date and it worked ok.
They just want us to buy more stuff!
Thanks for the reblog.
Was glad to find your site again…I did some flash fiction with you a few years back. I’ll be watching for other quickies I can blog.
I’m somewhat frugal too, so it all gets the look, sniff and/or taste test.
If it passes it gets consumed.
When I was a housekeeper/nanny years ago, I had a boss who got pantry moths in all her dried goods, she made me ‘bake’ everything, still in the packages, in the oven for a few hours to kill them.
I was then expected to make meals with them. I would make pasta and have to scoop out all the dead moths and cocoons as it was boiling. 🤮
Yuck! We got pantry moths from bird seed we kept in our second pantry in the utility room. Took forever to get completely rid of them. All the bird seed is now out on our covered deck. I can’t imagine eating the dead insects. Blech!