Is She Trying To Top Me Over??????

[Bikergirl]

I used to live in a religious community in Spain that survived on donations, often of food. There, the law says that if someone has thrown something in the bin, it is no longer their legal responsibility. So many of the companies who regularly gave us produce they couldn't sell (eg on or past the sell by date) had a special bin, or a clean area next to the bins where they could "throw things away" so that we could pick them up. For dairy and fruit they would wait until we arrived, and then "throw it out" so it wasn't out of the cold chain for more than a couple of minutes.

As SE said, look, smell, taste. If it's the wrong colour or texture, smells wrong or tastes wrong, don't eat/ drink it. BUT don't just go by the date: yoghurt, for example, has to be safe to eat for 3 months past the best before date, as long as the cold chain has been maintained (ie it's not been left out in the warm). With meat, "use by" has at most a day's leeway. With dairy I ignore all the dates, and go by taste.

I would taste some of them, and instruct your kids to do the same- just cos it's in the fridge don't just drink it. If it tastes funny or isn't fizzy, get another bottle and throw that one.

[kintangoman]

se, now you put it that way, it makes sense
May be I should take the chickens along with me next time. That way they know for sure the veg is for the chickens, not for me?

[wine~o]

I used to live in a religious community in Spain that survived on donations, often of food. There, the law says that if someone has thrown something in the bin, it is no longer their legal responsibility. So many of the companies who regularly gave us produce they couldn't sell (eg on or past the sell by date) had a special bin, or a clean area next to the bins where they could "throw things away" so that we could pick them up. For dairy and fruit they would wait until we arrived, and then "throw it out" so it wasn't out of the cold chain for more than a couple of minutes.

As SE said, look, smell, taste. If it's the wrong colour or texture, smells wrong or tastes wrong, don't eat/ drink it. BUT don't just go by the date: yoghurt, for example, has to be safe to eat for 3 months past the best before date, as long as the cold chain has been maintained (ie it's not been left out in the warm). With meat, "use by" has at most a day's leeway. With dairy I ignore all the dates, and go by taste.

I would taste some of them, and instruct your kids to do the same- just cos it's in the fridge don't just drink it. If it tastes funny or isn't fizzy, get another bottle and throw that one.

Dangerous advice in there Biker girl....some pathogens don't smell (Botulism as an example)


A "best before" date is exactly that.....at it's best before...(Though I can't see how a product that has been on a supermarket shelf for 6 months/1 year suddenly changes at midnight on the day that it reaches the best before....)

A "use by" date is absolute ...............unless you freeze or otherwise preserve it before the expiry date....

[Laird]

Look at the brand - Who made it?
If the product was manufactured by a major company then you can be certain that all the quality assurance controls were applied to the process. You can then comfortably drink past the 'best before' date. It is unlikely that anything bacteriologically undesirable will happen in carbonated drinks during storage.
If on the other hand, the product brand is basically a back street operation, then there is a risk that inferior quality concentrates, flavours, colours etc were used. Also, the source of the water may have been dodgy. In big brand processing plants a lot of quality assurance is applied to the water supply which is the main ingredient in the product. If the water used has not been monitored and treated then potentially there is a high risk of bacteriological contamination and perhaps even the possible presence of toxins.