Expired food

[bobandbill]

What's your attitude towards food storage, expiry dates, and the like? Everything in the fridge asap? What about that tub of butter? Ever suffered food poisoning or think it's a myth for you?

Inspired by a... lively discussion on the discord.

 

[Jazzy]

OH BOY YALL MADE A THREAD HERE WE GO

okay SO first let me start by saying you should not eat food left out overnight. *ahem mgriffy *ahem
food poisoning IS a thing and you can get it unless its raw cookie dough in that case go ahead your basically immune.

expiry dates are most of the time pretty close. some things you can get away with a few days after, like occasionally milk and juice but not everything. just make sure it hasn't expired. food storage is important so like do that
food can stay out for a little bit, i think they say like two hours. so thats fine, but after that back to the fridge. hopefully this changes someones mind like a cow friend i have

 

[Sydian]

if it's like A Day after the date and it doesn't smell or look funky i say it's okay but no longer than that. however during a pandemic, i've been less lax about it bc i don't want to potentially make myself ill or more susceptible to becoming ill cause this just ain't the time. i don't like to waste food anyway, so i try to get everything used up no later than its last day.

 

[Caite-chan]

Unless its moldy or stale as stale can be I'll eat or drink it. I managed to find a jar of homemade jam that was almost as old as me...lol.

 

[Figure]

As for food being left out, industry standard is 4 hours or 6 if the food is frozen when pulled.That is why a lot of restaurants will do a staff meal post service to finish off any food that can't be used for the next service. As for expiration dates, dates have to be put on food per FDA regulations. Preserved foods can be eaten well past an expiration date and a lot of those dates you see are sell by dates for vendors and you can pretty easily tell if food is safe to be consumed if it is something you have bought. How you keep your food is important as well obviously and less exposure to oxygen and higher tempertures will keep food safe longer.

 

[gimmepie]

I had food poisoning bad enough to send me to the emergency room and prevent me from eating for like a week when I was eleven. I'm not doing that again so I'm very careful about things like expiry dates and keeping food refrigerated.

 

[Roni]

Oof, you just reminded me of something I hate about my aunt. She takes bulk buying to the absolute extreme, and will suddenly come home one day with what to me looks like 2 months worth of groceries. Over the course of the week she'll then cook them in huge batches, expecting everyone to just magically be able to devour everything every night, then complain why we have so much leftovers. Rinse and repeat. She's pretty rich though, so I can see how she doesn't care about waste or whatever.

If I were to run things around here, we would meal plan tf out of everything. From what food we eat on what day, to the rations per serving. I'll even account days where we just deliver fast food. It sound tiring to alot of people, but I honestly think I could pull something like that off. I just hate hate hate seeing precious food go to waste.

 

[Dusk]

Everything perishable goes in the fridge/freezer asap and don't leave things out for very long. I generally don't eat after expiration date particularly for dairy/meat. I have gotten food poisoning several times in my life and it is seemingly the only way I can get sick but it's always from eating restaurant food from poor food safety and/or a sick worker.

 

[Corrin]

I store my food as indicated and throw it out when expired. Things like canned goods and hard pasta I may keep up to a week more but that's it.

Meanwhile most of my family would happily eat mouldy bread.

 

[Figure]

Oof, you just reminded me of something I hate about my aunt. She takes bulk buying to the absolute extreme, and will suddenly come home one day with what to me looks like 2 months worth of groceries. Over the course of the week she'll then cook them in huge batches, expecting everyone to just magically be able to devour everything every night, then complain why we have so much leftovers. Rinse and repeat. She's pretty rich though, so I can see how she doesn't care about waste or whatever.

If I were to run things around here, we would meal plan tf out of everything. From what food we eat on what day, to the rations per serving. I'll even account days where we just deliver fast food. It sound tiring to alot of people, but I honestly think I could pull something like that off. I just hate hate hate seeing precious food go to waste.

My food scale is my most used "appliance", not sure if you could call it an appliance but screw it. People don't understand how good for you meal planning and measuring your portions is. It is so easy to over eat and once you are used to eating actual serving sizes, your body will adapt.