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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   2111 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 9, 2025

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All my groceries seem to have “best by” dates, what happened to actual expiration dates? The wife wants to toss everything after the best by date, even when it’s obviously fine for consumption.

I'm lucky my wife is reasonable about these dates. We sometimes have to have discussions about what I would consider to be common sense: Stuff suspended in olive oil and in the fridge is going to be OK to eat for a long time, a sauce that's almost all vinegar and salt is the same way, etc.

Over the years I've discovered some manufacturers are too aggressive with these dates, but the vast majority are too conservative. I would get frustrated quickly at someone throwing out food that's still good all the time.

There has been a bit of political pressure against rigid "expiration" dates on groceries because of concern that manufacturers are overly conservative on the dates leading to excess waste. On one hand, there is some wiggle room on many foods that become less desirable but still edible (brown spots on my bananas! Stale bread!) and manufacturers are assumed to gain from incentivising consumer waste (buying new loaves of bread to replace the stale one). Using "best by" (I often also see "sell by") is seen to better express best freshness without implying unusability.

I'm sure it's even more complicated for things that need refrigeration. I've had milk in the fridge curdle before the date on the package, but sometimes be fine a week after. Ultimately "is it still good" at the consumer level is best answered with a Mark I Human Nose (and eyes, and taste), although the date makes sense if you're managing sealed packages in bulk in the supply chain.

A lot of goods have hard to define, far off and greatly varying expiration dates but easily defined and useful best by dates.

Lets say you're buying a loaf of bread, when does that really expire? It might get mouldy in two weeks or just become harder and drier over weeks/months but otherwise keep and be edible for years. What information do you want on the packaging?

Over here, consume by/expiration dates only really exist for things that reliably and quickly go bad and becomes actively dangerous to consume, like most pre-packaged fresh meat.

Are you saying you consider moldy bread edible? I throw away the whole loaf, and would look at anyone doing otherwise strangely. I'm wondering if this is a geographic/cultural norm - I'm from the US, for context.

For some reason, growing up, for cheese we would cut off the moldy part plus a couple inches, but I've mostly chalked that up to "grew up less well off than I am now" + "Jewish cheapness".

I’m in the US and it’s completely normal to cut off the moldy part and use the rest of the bread for toast.

Are you saying you consider moldy bread edible? I throw away the whole loaf...

That's a waste of perfectly good bread. Cut off the moldy parts, eat the rest. Of course if the bread is completely covered in mold it's different, but I am surprised someone would throw out a loaf of bread over one small mold spot.

Cut off the moldy parts, eat the rest.

This is true for a large number of types of food, but bread is not one of them. Mold on bread goes deep, fast, and eating the deep mycelia is quite toxic.

I've eaten bread that had mold on it many, many times and never once gotten sick. It can't be all that toxic.

the visible part of the mold is only a small part of the whole thing. the toxic parts are the invisible roots that permeate the whole loaf. If you see it, it's already too late.

No, I'm saying that it might get mouldy and it might not. Bread doesn't reliably get mouldy (which would make it inedible) but it does dry out and harden, which doesn't make it inedible and the process is highly variable depending on how you store said bread.

Tons of goods are like this and I think expiration dates make more sense for things that quickly and reliably gets actually inedible/dangerous to consume, especially if it's hard to tell due to the packaging or the nature of the good.

In the US at least there was never a legal requirement or specification for expiration or best by dates for anything but infant formula. Some states have laws banning selling milk and or eggs past their expiration date, but I'm unaware of any regulation of how they are set or legal protection provided based upon them. So they mean nothing besides what the manufacturer would like you to believe.

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