My normal supermarket has now removed “use by” dates from almost all of its fresh fruit and vegetables.
Really, they’re still on a bunch of mine (those that are packaged). That said, I appreciate them because it means everything goes into “reduced to clear”. And I swarm those sections as do many at my locals (I realise I have many locals depending on what I want, including places without quite so much packaging.)
This makes me completely bananas. A lovely Brie is not only approaching bacterial overload at 60 days, but is criminally beyond the stage of having the soft paste that marks this cheese. My cheese mongers in France were horrified that the US is prohibited from buying Brie until it is well past its prime
Its less of an issue since Im now lactose intolerant and cant eat it anyway, but its the tip of an iceberg.
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I am at the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to time of food preparation. I am single again and cook for myself 90% of the time. So I prepare relatively healthy stew and soup recipes in an 8 quart stockpot and freeze 20 portions. The down side is that I am microwaving a lot of meals so here is hoping that tupperware is carcinogen free! I generally consume all of containers within 3 or 4 months of them going in the freezer so they do not hang out in there for too long.
But dates on cans kind of irritate me. I think they switched from “best by … with limited nutrient reduction” to something equivalent to “almost no nutrient reduction” levels of dating the cans because the expiration dates went from 3 to 4 years out to 1.5 to 2 years out. And my can pantry used to be fairly large and well organized by dates.
Dates on fresh produce are an interesting topic, too. I donate to local food banks and nearly every time I go in to drop off the food I see huge stacks of pastry and bread. Rosauers Food does not dump dated food into dumpsters, they pull it and get it to food banks where the food goes back out to people who need it within 24 hours. The food banks do an inspection of all foods to make sure that there are no visible signs of it going bad before giving it away, so they do throw some out but most is consumed within hours of the food bank picking it up at the grocery store.
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I volunteered at a local food bank recently, as usual, sorting and breaking large bags of veg into smaller ones, for community agencies to dispense. Apparently there is a bidding system among food banks for HUGE quantities of things like onions and potatoes. The local agencies here don’t always want perishables from individuals.
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I find this one interesting because I’ve never seen any sort of dating on fresh produce packaging.
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Package, bagged produce - like celery stalks - anything that’s parts of a whole - I see it all the time. If it’s produce I take from a pile myself, nope, no dates… stilltasty.com. Is my friend for checking what a sate means
Interesting again. As I was typing my comment about no dates, I thought I’d better check the bagged carrots and celery in case those items would have dates. Nope. Not on bag nor on the plastic rectangle closure thingie. Nor my bagged sprouts or bagged scallions (these 2 both from Aldi).
Now I’m wondering about regional differences and will shoot my sisters and daughters a text.
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I thought we’d be talking dates and palms, too. I trust my nose, and don’t go by the date so much as the quality when opened. When the radishes grow hair, I toss 'em. If they don’t have hair yet, I usually find a way to deal with older veg.
Interesting!
That’s pretty much the stance taken by the supermarket. It argues that, if there’s a date, then folk are much more likely to toss it even if it’s OK. Fruit & veg I understand. Dairy & seafood I’m more cautious about dates.
This will not work with durian.
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Funny, but actually it does. Frozen durian (most of what I can find in U.S.).
Real durian (hard to find in U.S.) might be another matter.
I would not be able to tell the difference between fresh durian and durian that has gone bad. Mainly because experience with bad durian is completely lacking on my part, but fresh durian is so pungent I would not even want to think what spoiled durian smells like.
In whole foods meat departments circa 2005, meats could be repackaged. The date would have an r on it for repack and the repacked meat would get a date 2 or 3 days later. These repacks were mostly seasoned or marinated. I do not know why dunking meat in a tub og marinade, often reused, gives shelf life.
The rule was you never repacked a pack marked with an “r”. But one meat team leader said “r” packs are where the money is.
In any case, this process was inherently unsafe and unscientific. But it helped a meat team make margin.
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Maybe “shelf lifw”, in that scenario, means edible and still safe. Weren’t meats seasoned heavily at one point to mask the “funky” flavors?
Yes. And it explains the high value of black pepper and other hard spices back in the day.
I disagree and believe that to be a fallacy.
Back in the day, pepper was in such high demand , with low supply, that it commanded high prices in Europe. It was yet another example of supply and demand. The only people who could afford it were the wealthy. Exactly the group who could always afford fresh meat. Early European recipes, from Medieval times, show the use of many of the hard spices for feasting by the aristocracy. It was only from the 15th & 16th centuries that the Portuguese, Dutch and, later, the British developed the spice trade direct with the growing areas (and started to colonise them) that prices started to drop.
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Good one. That’s why I doubt I’d enjoy Durian.
Check this out, might change your mind. I love these guys and the Mystery Menu series.
