All those “sell by” and “consume by” and “use by” dates on stuff at the store? Generally speaking, not all that useful from a safety perspective — they’re more for the taste experience.
In fact, both the FDA and the USDA have a pretty laissez-faire attitude when it comes to food shelf-life labeling. That’s not because they are not concerned for people’s health. Mark Harrison, professor of food science at the University of Georgia, points out that most of these dates are not an indicator of safety, rather of quality. “Some foods spoil if not refrigerated quickly enough—but they won’t kill you,” says Harrison.
One interesting bit — “sell by” dates on meats don’t really apply when it comes to storing them at home.
Few folks, for instance, know when they buy meat, that even if the sell-by date is five days away, the refrigerator at home usually isn’t cool enough to keep the meat fresh for more than two days. Usually raw meat is kept around 30 degrees Fahrenheit, while the home refrigerator’s temperature is set around 40 degrees to keep other things in the fridge (like vegetables) from freezing. So, food safety experts suggest that whether it’s ground meat, or a pound of steak, or chicken, consumers either eat or freeze
it within two days of buying.
(via GeekPress)
I always get nervous if we don’t freeze or eat our meat within a day. I’m paranoid that way, lol!
Interesting. This summer, I’m pretty well convinced that some “expired” Red Beans and Rice from Zatarain’s gave me a case of food poisoning that lasted for about three days. This is the stuff you microwave for 60-seconds in the package, and I forgot to check the date on the package. It was a couple of months overdue. It tasted fine, but the next three days were pretty miserable.
My thinking is that a day or two beyond the date on the package is probably not a problem for any product. For the other products, it probably depends on the product. Soft Drinks aren’t going to go bad, but other things very well might.