My doctor wonders why I'm not dead yet. 
Posted on 05/19/2014 5:21:57 PM PDT by Olog-hai
The European Union is poised to scrap compulsory “best before” labels on coffee, rice, dry pasta, hard cheeses, jams and pickles to help reduce the estimated 100 million tons of food wasted across Europe each year.
Officials of the European Commission will table proposals next month allowing national governments to extend the list of foods that do not require best-before dates, in a move which they believe will mean 15 million tons less food a year is discarded by households wrongly worried that it is no longer fit for consumption. […]
EU legislation on labeling currently requires all food to carry a best-before date, whether the products are potentially dangerous, such as raw meat or eggs, or have a long shelf life, like frozen, dried and tinned goods. …
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
They are worried about super-hybrid (GM) crops that have no known problems but not about out of date cheese.
That is just so, so, European
White Rice use date: before you die )I store mine in 1/2 gallon jars or mylar pouches).
Being a tin foil hatter, I’ve done my research on food storage. Canned corned beef? 15-20 years in decent conditions.
If it’s in a can & it’s not bulging or leaking, it’s eatable.
People need to learn this, they may find themselves needing to eat old stored food to survive in the not too distant future.
/johnny
In the US, on most non perishables like canned goods, the use date is completely arbitrary, at the discretion of the mfg.
I routinely eat things well beyond BBDs. I ate yogurt a couple of weeks back that had supposedly expired in November. I wouldn’t do that with other dairy, but yogurt seems to go beyond well after the date.
If we’re talking food waste, check out the amount of food that ends up in dumpsters behind restaurants because the order was made wrong. And check out the good food in grocery store dumpsters that was still useable but past the date.
And then there are the school lunchrooms, where millions of children throw away Michelle Obama’s menu items.
Good description, and accurate.
Yeah, does anyone think those people on the Walking Dead are concerned with “best by” dates? /grin
You read my mind; since when does rice have an expiration date? I buy large mason jar type containers from Home Goods and it keeps forever. The biggest problem might be protecting it from mice. I had forgotten all about corned beef, I’ll have to figure out the best type.
Just made a casserole with brown rice that was a bit past it’s best by date.
Ended up throwing most of it out as it was a barely edible rancid.
Okay, you had to remind me how much I miss that show....
I am more than convinced that those are nothing but pure marketing at it’s best.
My doctor wonders why I'm not dead yet.
Brown rice is best kept in the freezer. I also keep my red and black rice in there.
I’ve found that in-the-shell peanuts are often rancid before their sell-by date.
Cracks me up when they reduce hard cheese because of the expiration date.
It goes from $14 a wedge to $2 to move it.
It’s been aging in a cave for 2 years people!!
It aint bad!
One brand:
I have ordered it from here before I found it more or less locally:
http://www.philamfood.com/Ox-Palm-Corned-Beef-11.50oz.html
Properly Stored, food with Best by dates can be edible indefinitely.
That’s not to say you are going to like the taste. Although edible, 3 year old salad dressing tastes so bad, you likely are going to throw it out and the salad you put it on.
Basically, you are going to waste more food, not less.
There are some exceptions though, for example sugar, Velveeta, and some other foods properly stored don’t loose their taste. I have ate 15 year out Velveeta and it was alright.
High fat content foods don’t keep well unless frozen, refrigerated or canned.
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