So last night I had a hankerin' for oatmeal around 10 p.m. and wandered down to the kitchen. I found 2 boxes of Quaker Instant packets in those "fruit and cream" varieties and wondered how they got there, but I digress. I selected a packet of Bananas and Cream and followed the microwaving directions for my gourmet treat. It wasn't too bad, but as I sat on my kitchen stool eating and reading the box (a habit leftover from childhood where I always read the cereal box at the breakfast table) I noticed that the oats had a "sell by" date from 2018. Oops. So I guess it's time for a pantry purge. How much expired food do you suppose you have? Have you cleaned out the pantry (or fridge) lately? Oh, and I finished the oatmeal; it didn't taste weird (other than the banana flavor) and there weren't any bugs in it, plus I'm still alive today to tell about it.
I had a box of oatmeal that long ago expired. It was awful. Flour can get a funny taste also, if way over expiration. A loaf of bread two weeks ago was covered with mold right from the store. I forgot to check the date. Haven't seen moldy bread since I was a kid. Expired things I've eaten recently that were fine: Baked a cake in May, 2020, with eggs that had an expiration date of November, 2019. They were fine. Just very thick. I remember asking my mother once how you could tell if an egg had gone bad, and she said you could smell it. I've never had an egg go bad. Just dried up. Crisco and dried powdered milk both expiration dates 2015. Canned corn, bullion cubes and (table/powdered/brown) sugar, all 2015. The reason most of these have 2015 is I found them in my mother's pantry. She died in 2015. The recent lockdowns have made me dislike grocery shopping intensely.
Often look at food, both in frig and pantry, for expired dates. Years ago, I might have eaten some expired stuff, when I had a much higher "iron stomach", but today............no way!
I notice that some commercial breads will mold, but others seem to last for weeks without molding. I hope all those preservatives are working on me, too. I'm certain that my spice rack has some pre-historic stuff but I hate to toss them out and start over. I think most canned goods will last for years, and as long as the can hasn't swelled up they are still good to go. I agree about eggs; I throw away the carton and put them in my egg thing in the fridge. I have no idea how old they are but they get the sniff test.
I don't have a pantry in my apartment just a fridge but I do keep saltines and peanut butter on a shelf over the kitchen sink.
I’m a little more than leery when it comes to throwing things out just because it’s expired a few days or in some cases, up to a year or more. Cans of soup and stuff have an expiration date on them and if they are not bent or puffed out, I have no problems at all heating it up and having it for whatever. I’m sure there are still some unopened cans of Y2K stuff laying around in someone’s attic or basement just waiting for the next major disaster to strike. K-rations were last used up until the start of the Vietnam War and there’s still some of the kits in storage and reportedly, still good. As for me, I’d still go for a case of C-rations that were used during the Vietnam War. Well, throw away the cans of scrambled eggs. Not that they’re bad for a person but they taste like the inside of an overly used tennis shoe smells. By the way, a carton of C-rats have toilet paper in the little pouch which might come in handy should everyone head for the tidy-wipe paper shelves again. Now, how about that expired water on the shelf? What do I do with that? Drink it. It hasn’t lost one bit of Hydrogen nor Oxygen so I think it’s still good. Let’s see, when I was a drinking man, did I ever look at a can of beer to see if it was expired? Nope, can’t say that I had. And that good Ballantine 100 year old scotch......no expiration date that I can recall which goes to show that once everything else is expired on this earth and people refuse to eat it, scotch will save us all.
He probably has some left over Chocolate Easter Eggs to give out tonight when the folks going through their second childhood come knocking on his door for trick or treats. Ya gotta watch Lon......he’s a sly one.
We had quite a bit, and some of it very out of date, but we went through it a week or so ago, adding much of it to the compost pile.
I've had condiments expire on me like ketchup since they don't get used much and only in small quantities.
You can keep canned and bottled foods almost indefinitely. The doomsday folks have bunkers full of food to last for decades so they aren't worried too much. Of course I really don't keep those military style mre's around which I am told never expire, but I guess a few kept on hand are terrific in a pinch. I much prefer fresh stuff and so do purge the cabinets and fridge frequently. I use spices and condiments up faster than I can count. Don't use flour or bread crumbs. I do use barley often as I like it more than I'll ever like rice which I hate.
Mine was cleaned out a couple months ago. now got to clean out freezer.we’ve had a power outage. My power-went off at 2:48 Tuesday a.m. Came back on just after lunch today. A hundred bucks or so worth of groceries to be thrown out of the freezer. My oxygen supply went with the power. A nightmare.