Travelling Back to 2010
Use-by Dates:
Are they really as necessary as we've been led to believe?
It's my opinion that only pre-packaged raw meats, dairy products and breads need a clearly visible use by date. On everything else, I'd prefer to see a "packed on" date. That way we could instantly see how old the things we are buying actually are.
It's my opinion that only pre-packaged raw meats, dairy products and breads need a clearly visible use by date. On everything else, I'd prefer to see a "packed on" date. That way we could instantly see how old the things we are buying actually are.
Many things are filled with preservatives, natural or otherwise, and have a long shelf life. So buying something labelled "use by June 2011, doesn't really give any indication that the item was canned (or jarred or bottled) way back in, oh, let's say 2005, or earlier. I do think that things containing lots of preservative such as sugar, (jams for instance), don't really need a "use by" or even a "best by" date at all. Everyone knows these things will last unopened for quite a while, and once they are opened, who keeps them for more than a month anyway?
What brought this subject to mind was an old article I'd read and saved in a folder (god knows why?)and found again this morning. It told of a person who had checked every can, packet and jar in her pantry, fridge and freezer, then thrown out everything that was close to its date, even frozen foods. This seems senseless to me, a shocking waste of money.
Think for a minute about how our ancestors managed their food supplies. Spoiled foods were thrown to the dogs, especially meats, but other things, flour, rice, etc was kept in tins and regularly used up with the days meals. If weevils were found, grandma probably just sifted them out and kept baking, with no-one the wiser and no-one got sick. Fruit was eaten fresh and ripe, (none of this unripe, let it sit in the bowl for a week to ripen stuff that we get today*) and surplus that was going a bit soft certainly wasn't thrown out. Stewed fruits were made for desserts such as apple pie or crumble, plum cobbler etc, or even turned into homemade jams. Slightly wilted vegetables became soups or stews, even casseroles.
People knew more about how long food could be kept and how to store it.
What brought this subject to mind was an old article I'd read and saved in a folder (god knows why?)and found again this morning. It told of a person who had checked every can, packet and jar in her pantry, fridge and freezer, then thrown out everything that was close to its date, even frozen foods. This seems senseless to me, a shocking waste of money.
Think for a minute about how our ancestors managed their food supplies. Spoiled foods were thrown to the dogs, especially meats, but other things, flour, rice, etc was kept in tins and regularly used up with the days meals. If weevils were found, grandma probably just sifted them out and kept baking, with no-one the wiser and no-one got sick. Fruit was eaten fresh and ripe, (none of this unripe, let it sit in the bowl for a week to ripen stuff that we get today*) and surplus that was going a bit soft certainly wasn't thrown out. Stewed fruits were made for desserts such as apple pie or crumble, plum cobbler etc, or even turned into homemade jams. Slightly wilted vegetables became soups or stews, even casseroles.
People knew more about how long food could be kept and how to store it.
Even more recently, most people knew that if sliced processed meats were bought, they could be kept more than a day or two, by putting the ham or beef or fritz (devon to all you Easteners) into a fresh container each day. Much like the Christmas Ham is "preserved" by putting it into a bag after covering it with a cloth that is wrung out in a vinegar/water solution, (vinegar to prevent bacterial growth), a fresh cloth every day. We still do this these days.....why not similar treatment for our sandwich meats?
When did we become so reliant on what the "authorities" tell us is the right time to toss out our provisions and go shopping for "fresh" supplies? Can this be reversed by a little thinking and planning on our part?
*most fruits today are sold unripe and rock hard, many have been in cold storage, and people have gotten used to eating it this way. Try buying tree ripened peaches for instance, at the next Farmers Market, in the proper season of course. Bite into a peach that is ripe, soft, (without being squishy), juicy and filled with flavour the way a peach should be. Supermarket ones are more like cricket balls...
When did we become so reliant on what the "authorities" tell us is the right time to toss out our provisions and go shopping for "fresh" supplies? Can this be reversed by a little thinking and planning on our part?
*most fruits today are sold unripe and rock hard, many have been in cold storage, and people have gotten used to eating it this way. Try buying tree ripened peaches for instance, at the next Farmers Market, in the proper season of course. Bite into a peach that is ripe, soft, (without being squishy), juicy and filled with flavour the way a peach should be. Supermarket ones are more like cricket balls...
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YES! I have been noticing that there are more companies (and heaps of very small producers, like bakers and tiny little chocolatiers) who put a 'packed on' date.
ReplyDeleteWe three are trying to eat what's in season and I'll admit that it's been very difficult. We're struggling to find enough decent veges but our fruit bowl is full of apples and pears at the moment. I always thought it would be a great idea for someone (not me, because I'm not a green thumb or cluey enough) to open a fruit-n-veg store that *only* stocks stuff in season and as locally-sourced as possible, with perhaps some recipe ideas so that people can see how to get into going back to seasonal produce again.
How about it, River? Chat to one of your posher customers and go into partnership!
It's a great idea Kath, but I don't think I'm up to it. Managing a whole shop AND sourcing the products? I think I'd prefer the Farmer's Markets idea, where local farmers bring in whatever seasonal produce they've grown, they know their product and can tell people who ask how it was grown, the best way to cook it and so on. And markets have such an ambience about them. Almost like the local yearly show in small towns. A fun day out, fresh local foods and money kept within the community. I haven't yet made it to the nearest Farmer's Market, it's two bus rides away from me at the Wayville Showgrounds. I've even forgotten what day they hold it on. I'd better look that up and mark my calendar. Although my local fruit shop does have quite a lot of SA grown produce, and there's the one at Stirling that we all visit when i take a trip to Crafers to visit family.
ReplyDeleteI rarely take notice of use by dates if something hasn't been opened, with the obvious exception of bread because you can actually see when it's gone.
ReplyDeleteI had a tub of cream in the fridge that was still sealed and I opened it 6 weeks after the use by date and there was nothing wrong with it.
Smelled, looked and tasted fine.
Hot on the heels of saying that while I have no problem with using things like that, it concerns me when I think about the preservatives it takes to make it ok after that period of time.
I tend to think if you're sensible about what you buy, and cook on a regular basis {not really a given these days!} then there is little need to worry.
Do not get me started on the state of fruit and vegies in the supermarkets though!
Fruit in particular is atrocious, and there seems to be no happy medium either.
It's as hard as the footpath or so close to over ripe that it's virtually unusable.
Nothing tastes like what it should either. Everything is tasteless and when it's not it's because you've paid a squillion $ a kilo to ensure it's well grown and fresh.
Like I said, do not get me going. It's one of my favourite soap boxes.
Ok. Shutting up and going back to my corner now
;)
You make some excellent points. Most of our meals are home cooked, so if I see something that needs to be used up it becomes an inspiration ingredient to build around.
ReplyDeleteMy area is coming up on the beginning of winter, where no fruit is 'fresh from the tree' and the only local vegetables are hard shelled squash.
Kathy G; most of my meals are home cooked too and vegetables that haven't been used by the next shopping day get made into soups which are then frozen in individual portions.
DeleteYes, too many people are so dumb and throw things out, despite best before means... check it! Look. smell, taste, it isn´t that difficult!
ReplyDeleteEven salt has a best before-date, hilarious.
Back in the day I used the yellow pages, wrote down the addresses, looked them up in a paper-map and took off. These days...
We get dumber and dumber...
Iris; I find it ridiculous to have a use by date on salt! And I am sad that so many people now do not know about storing and using up the way we learned from our parents or grandparents. Or someone else's grandparent who might have told us.
DeleteOh yes. True then, and true now. Tomatoes are another fruit that suffers from being picked too early. A home grown one leaves the store bought variety for dead.
ReplyDeleteElephant's Child; I haven't had a home grown tomato in such a long time. I plant them here and grubs and insects eat all the seedlings. I have had to get used to the tasteless store-bought, so I rarely eat them these days. Now that summer is coming I could walk down to the local farmers market and buy some but they are only there one Saturday a month.
DeleteSomeone said on a site my wife follows, that they had a packet of 2-billion-year-old sea salt, and it was just their bad luck that the use-by date expired last month.
ReplyDeleteTasker Dunham; I remember reading that too and thinking they might have tried it and found it still good.
DeleteHa! How can salt have a use-by date?!
DeleteOurs say BEST used by... I treat that as meaning I'd better smell it first before eating. I pretty much agree with you 100!
ReplyDeletejoeh; this is all just as true as when I first wrote it back in 2010. I usually check for mould before tasting anything though.
DeleteI didn't know devon and fritz are the same thing. I agree with you, of course but a jar of Vegemite might last me two years. If satay chicken wasn't cooked, peanut butter would be similar. Jams and marmalade might last two or more months. But regardless, it is not hard to tell if something is 'off'. R doesn't approve but if mould appears on surface of jam, I spoon it off and still eat the jam below.
ReplyDeleteAndrew; they are not exactly the same, the taste is different especially with our "bung fritz" which is a little spicier. You should try some next time you are in SA, buy it from the deli section of the supermarket but peel off the orange "skin". I have spooned mould off jam too, but rarely, I tend to use it up fairly quickly. Vegemite doesn't last long here I eat it almost every day on toast. Peanut butter will change colour and taste weird when an opened jar is kept too long so that's easy to see it needs throwing out.
DeleteI read that article, too. What a waste of good food.
ReplyDeleteJoanne; I terrible waste of food and money, I can't imagine being silly enough to toss everything and go shopping just because the dates say so.
DeleteOh R I agree with you all the way. Used by dates expect on those mentioned by you are just to me so silly. Common sense is needed as it's gone out the window with so many people these days, and as you say people are used to eating those hard fruits.
ReplyDeleteWe used to undo cans of fruit no matter what the date and it certainly didn't kill us back then.
Margaret D; there is a serious LACK of common sense these days. i have a jar of lemon sauce in my pantry that is out of date by about two years. I'll probably use it next week to make lemon chicken. And I will be fine.
DeleteHick is always buying expired snacks at the auction, and we are none the worse for it. Well, with the exception of eating too many snacks!
ReplyDeleteVal; I have noticed that the auctions are good to you, saving you from having to go shopping and pay full price for expired goods that are still edible.
ReplyDeleteActually the powers that be in my tiny country has gotten wiser on this one point.
ReplyDeleteAll our stuff has two dates.
The first says Packaged on: XXX, the second is depending on the goods. On meat and co. it says Expiry date: XXX. On other stuff, it says Best before: XXX - often good after. And a big campaign has been afoot to teach us to use sight, smell and taste to discriminate - nobody ever died from a whiff, or even a taste of sour milk :) The only exception from this rule is sugar. It only tells us the packaging date, and then: Stored dry, sugar lasts practically forever.
Also all those goods near or on expiry date are marked down - I always scour these shelves ;)
I like this new system, as it is in accordance with how I always did it.
Mouldy stuff are thrown out, no mercy given, as mould do spread unseen through wet substances.
Merely 'off' things are given to the chicken, and too wilted veggies end up on the compost pile. In short, only mouldy stuff and leftovers from fish & onions (which both makes eggs taste nasty) are thrown out
Charlotte; it's good to have both dates and I agree sugar lasts forever if kept dry and I think the same of salt. I usually throw out mouldy things too. Sometimes with bread if the mould is just a tiny spot on the crust I will cut that off and make toast, but not often. I buy less of everything these days so there isn't much left over to go bad or throw out.
DeleteI do so agree with you (though I had to look up 'fritz' and 'Devon'.) Far too much food is thrown away and it's quite unnecessary.
ReplyDeletejabblog; I am astonished at how some people manage to have overflowing rubbish bins every single week, they must waste so much. Or it is all packaging from takeaway foods, fast foods or whatever they are called where you live.
DeleteBaby food and formula needs a use by date because the vitamin content cannot be guaranteed after a certain amount of time. The vitamins do deteriorate and values go down. Since this is the only food the young children eat, the nutrition amounts have to be accurate.
ReplyDeleteOther than that, buy fresh and local and use it up quickly is the best way.
messymimi; agreed, baby foods and formula need to be fresh. Thankfully the twins now are on regular milk and eat mostly the same foods as the rest of the family.
DeleteYes indeed! I have even heard a commentary on the radio, where scientists were saying what you have said: those dates are arbitrary and basically meaningless.
ReplyDeleteWe grow and preserve 70% of our food. I rely on my common sense, and my nose, to determine if food is still good.
Granny Sue; I can't believe things haven't changed much in the ten+ years since I wrote this. People still throw out perfectly good food because of the dates. I can't grow my own, so I buy less to waste less and I cook things which can be frozen in meal size portions, such as soups and casseroles.
DeleteI think most use-by dates are silly. In fact, in an effort to combat food waste, many UK shops are doing away with them for items like vegetables. You just look at the package and decide whether it looks fresh enough to pay for and eat! Makes sense to me. Like you, I only really get worried about expiration dates with meat, seafood and dairy products. (My mother used dried spices that were DECADES old and they didn't do us any harm. Probably didn't have much flavor, but we never noticed.)
ReplyDelete