Monday Moaning

Use by… Best before… Display until… Expiry date…

Does all this get confusing?

All products have to have dates, it’s the law.

Ridiculous; salt has an expiry date, salt? It doesn’t need one. Salt will be salt long after you’ve shuffled off this mortal coil. Salt can’t expire!

Past its 'Best by' date

Some products need some form of guide because many people today just don’t know about food like their mothers and grandmothers did.

Dairy products for example, but if your bread looks like this, then you know that it’s best before date, in this case, is well past.

But is it really necessary to throw away anything the minute its date says its no good any more?

Check this story out:

German pensioner eats 64-year-old US lard

Hans Feldmeier tasted the lard along with scientists in a lab

A German pensioner who received a tin of American lard 64 years ago in an aid package has only just tasted it, after discovering that it is still edible.

“I just didn’t want to throw it away,” said Hans Feldmeier, 87.

Food safety experts in Rostock, his home town on Germany’s Baltic coast, said the pig fat was still safe to eat.

Mr Feldmeier was a student in 1948 when the US was running a huge aid programme to rebuild war-ravaged Germany. He kept the tin of lard for emergencies.

A retired pharmacist, he decided to get the lard tested because of the debate about expiry dates and food safety.

A food expert, Frerk Feldhusen, said the lard was rather gritty and tasteless and hard to dissolve, though quite edible. Mr Feldmeier provided some black bread to go with it.

The red, white and blue tin of Swift’s Bland Lard bore no expiry date.

Mr Feldhusen said the test result might make some consumers think twice before discarding food immediately after the expiry date.

Source: BBC News

Most can goods can be used after their expiry dates.

You don’t need to throw them out on the date.

The companies love it.

You throw out good food and then you have to buy more.

Use your commonsense.

That lard lasted 64 years. I bet if that was manufactured today, it would have a six month, maybe a years validity.

If you open a can of anything after the recommended date, stick your finger in, touch it to your tongue, if it tastes acid or sharp, don’t use it.

If there is no taint, I’d go for it being okay. I’ve lived by this rule all my life, I’m a chef; so far, so good, I’m still here sixty years on and I haven’t managed to poison anyone yet.