Why I eat 'expired' food

Dates on food have basically nothing to do with safety….so how DO you know if something is OK to eat?

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘁𝘆-𝗴𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘁𝘆:

𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱 (𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲) 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀:

𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗲𝗿-𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗰:
-Dr. Jack Avens, Professor Emeritus, Department of Food Science & Human Nutrition at Colorado State University

MinuteFood is created by Kate Yoshida, Arcadi Garcia & Bill Mead, and produced by Neptune Studios LLC.

[MinuteFood]

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[prokopdvere]

As some people pointed out, in the EU there are pretty much only the "best by" and "use by" labels, but iirc there is also efforts to revise that further since many people still toss food that's only passed the "best by" date (ie. it's probably still ok to eat).

[d_dave]

As a person who grew up working class in Europe, and then adapted to US culture I really appreciate this video. So much food gets wasted it's ridiculous. If it looks and tastes fine, I see no reason not to eat it.

[AgentM]

Hey,
You should do a video on dangerous food combinations (or myths) or reheating foods. I think that would be interesting too to know the chemistry of.

[bjornmu]

In Norway all food has to be labelled either "best før" (best before) or "siste forbruksdag" (last day of usage), nothing else is allowed. The "last day" variant is only for fresh meat products and a few other categories. I think maybe this is the case in the EU too? Both also mean "not legal to sell after". I often drink milk a day or two after the best before, even if it has been opened for several days.

[Human]

My mum always says, "When the food is in freezer, it is nearly never spoiled."
And my freezer at home is always full of expired food. I think I have eaten expired food for 20 years already and I am still really healthy and fine.

[tremkl]

Milk is definitely a diverse one. I’ve bought milk on or close to it’s expiration date, and it’s still been good for a week or two. I’ve bought milk that’s incredibly fresh that’s way before it’s date, and it’ll go bad before it’s date even arrives. Really, most of its clock doesn’t start until you open it.

[KristenRowenPliske]

I throw out food when it’s
visibly gross/spoiled/rotten or smells bad. My kids will warn me about an expiration date & I have to tell them it’s still good to eat. We go through milk so quickly that I don’t have to worry about it even reaching the expiration date.

[FunctionGermany]

though the best advice is probably to only buy what you actually use and to make sure to consume groceries before they expire. that way you ideally have no waste and don't need to scratch your head if you should still eat something or not :)
that said, i regularly eat or drink expired stuff because it was forgotten, and i've never had any problems with it (because of course i throw away moldy foods)

[Ninjaeule]

I once had to puke after eating a second batch of chili con carne that was left in the sun while we went swimming in the local lake. It still tasted the same as before (granted I wasn't sober) so I didn't expect that. So yeah don't do that.
Our supermarket sells things for half price when they are close to their best buy date, never gotten sick from eating those.

[THEcowboy]

In my household when we have milk that's past due to the date labeled we make pancakes! Good way of reusing it if no one want's to drink it due to it's being 'old'

[FairMiles]

YES! Thanks, Kate. As usual, regulatory stuff in USA is crazier than almost anywhere else (see comments), which tend to go to just two important dates: "best by" (useful for selling/buying decisions) and "expired by" (safety standards). Individual decisions on consumption should not be determined by any of those (though closer to the latter), particularly for foods that were specifically designed for preservation (e.g., yoghurt).

[ZetaPyro]

In Montana, they require the sell-by dates of milk to be 12 days after pasteurization instead of the industry standard 21-24 days. The intent of the law is to be able to say that they have the freshest milk in the country, but the reality is that so much more milk just ends up getting thrown out when it's still perfectly good.

[tobinsyoutubechannel]

As someone who was unfamiliar with food safety and always erred on the side of "safety" by throwing away food that had passed the date, this has totally changed my perspective. Thanks for the video and for making a positive change in not just me but I'm sure many others!

[bluesillybeard]

I often find it easier to just sample the item itself than find the date, mostly because it's a pain to figure out where it's printed lol

[hectorh.micheos.]

This is one of those things that should be in the adult life manual, my SO threw so much food by without a second thought.

[bluefox]

I fight about this with my mom. She tossed half my spices when she cleaned the cabinet because they were "expired" (still good, dry and not spoiled...). Same with grains.. or legumes... this time I saved them and will cook with them as they're still good.

[Octoschizare]

I live alone and that makes it hard to eat everything before "expiry/BB" dates, or to consume within a respectable passage of time after opening something or cooking something. I pretty much ignore the printed dates except to choose which of the expired foods should be eaten with priority. If it looks fine and it smells fine, then taste a bit. If it taste normal, I eat it without any hesitation. I push the limits and eat some questionably old and very sub-optimal things, yet I never get sick from food.

[PockASqueeno]

I use a combination of apps to prevent food waste. One is called FoodKeeper. Whenever I get home from a grocery trip, I look up the item in the app, and it says exactly how, where, and how long it should be stored. Then I set an alarm to throw it out—or just refrigerate or freeze it—on that date.

I also have a cooking app called Mealime. You just choose the things you already have in your pantry, and then it shows you recipes that use those ingredients. The app knows that, for example, canned tomatoes typically come in 15 oz. cans, so it’ll pick two recipes for you with 7 oz. of tomatoes so that you don’t have to throw out half of the canned tomatoes.

Both of these apps have been life savers to me, and they’re free. They’re fun to use too, if you enjoy cooking like me.

[djones]

Thanks, I've tried to explain this to people for a long time.
They get very emotional about how food can't be eaten past the "expiry date". It's not even called that most of the time.
The milk will just start having a slightly off smell and taste after that date.. most of the time. If it's never opened and left in the fridge the entire time it can still taste good a week or 2 past the date.
If it's left on the counter all day it will go bad really quick.

When I was a student I often cut mold off the cheese block. Food mold is pretty harmless, especially if it's cut off.
Cold cuts can be gross and dangerous if it's more than a few days past the consume by date.