Expiration dates are literally made up, very infrequently will any actual testing be done to see the exact time it takes for a food to decay enough to be either unenjoyable, unpalatable or inedible.
They’re usually 1 week from mfgr for unpreserved foods, 2 weeks to a month for soft foods like American sandwich bread, 3 months to a year for dry goods (depending on what it is) and up to several years for canned goods.
My salt has an expiration date. Salt is a rock, it is millions of years old (not sea salt, mined salt). It does not expire.
I don’t know where you got your information, and I can’t speak for other food stuffs, but I used to work in a milk bottling facility. I did quality assurance. Part of my job was to take gallons of milk (many of them) and put them in refrigeration until two days after the expiration date, and then taste them. While most of them tasted pretty much fine, about 30% were sour, coagulated, or some other sign of type of spoiled.
Expiration dates are real, but they are an estimation of when the product will go bad. Use your own judgement. Smells/tastes bad/weird, or is oddly oily and stuff, probably don’t consume that. Seems completely fine but past the expiration date, you will probably be completely fine.
I don’t mean any offense but is hiring someone to drink expired milk the best way of testing it? Can’t they like measure bacteria or chemical composition or something?
Hahaha no, that’s a fair train of thought. Let me clarify firstly that we didn’t have to actually drink it. It was more of a sip and spit like wine tasting. As for the second part, those processes take materials and money that a human with a free 30 min doesn’t.
Yeah, most experiation dates are made up. Some are real, like milk usually. I’ll still drink milk after the date, but I always make sure to smell it if I’m approaching or past that date.
99% of foods you can smell or see if they’ve gone bad before you taste it. Always use your senses, not some date printed on it by a manufacturer that wants to sell more product. We’re literally evolved to identify food that’s gone bad.
Yes I can. Take a look at the carton next time, I almost guarantee it says “ultra pasteurized” which is a more intense process that kills even more microbes than regular pasteurization. A few make it through the regular process, which is not a health risk, but eventually those couple bacteria will multiply and cause the milk to go bad. The literally one or two left after ultra take much longer to grow their population. “Then why doesn’t all milk go through the ultra pasteurization process??” Well, the low water and high fat content of cream means it can take more heat and pressure without causing a “cooked” or “stale” taste like can happen with milk, as well as higher associated cost with the process.
Except diary. Milk has an expiration date that (for me at least) is accurate to within 12 hours or so, when refrigerated.
Protip: if this plagues you, grab the Lactaid (lactose-free) stuff. It lasts longer. Soy milk lasts even longer than that, but I get that’s not for everyone.
Expiration dates are literally made up, very infrequently will any actual testing be done to see the exact time it takes for a food to decay enough to be either unenjoyable, unpalatable or inedible.
They’re usually 1 week from mfgr for unpreserved foods, 2 weeks to a month for soft foods like American sandwich bread, 3 months to a year for dry goods (depending on what it is) and up to several years for canned goods.
My salt has an expiration date. Salt is a rock, it is millions of years old (not sea salt, mined salt). It does not expire.
I don’t know where you got your information, and I can’t speak for other food stuffs, but I used to work in a milk bottling facility. I did quality assurance. Part of my job was to take gallons of milk (many of them) and put them in refrigeration until two days after the expiration date, and then taste them. While most of them tasted pretty much fine, about 30% were sour, coagulated, or some other sign of type of spoiled.
Expiration dates are real, but they are an estimation of when the product will go bad. Use your own judgement. Smells/tastes bad/weird, or is oddly oily and stuff, probably don’t consume that. Seems completely fine but past the expiration date, you will probably be completely fine.
I don’t mean any offense but is hiring someone to drink expired milk the best way of testing it? Can’t they like measure bacteria or chemical composition or something?
Hahaha no, that’s a fair train of thought. Let me clarify firstly that we didn’t have to actually drink it. It was more of a sip and spit like wine tasting. As for the second part, those processes take materials and money that a human with a free 30 min doesn’t.
Yeah, most experiation dates are made up. Some are real, like milk usually. I’ll still drink milk after the date, but I always make sure to smell it if I’m approaching or past that date.
99% of foods you can smell or see if they’ve gone bad before you taste it. Always use your senses, not some date printed on it by a manufacturer that wants to sell more product. We’re literally evolved to identify food that’s gone bad.
Maybe you can answer this. How can whipping cream have such a long shelf life? It’s like a month. Milk is usually a week or two.
Sugar content, I believe
That makes sense.
Yes I can. Take a look at the carton next time, I almost guarantee it says “ultra pasteurized” which is a more intense process that kills even more microbes than regular pasteurization. A few make it through the regular process, which is not a health risk, but eventually those couple bacteria will multiply and cause the milk to go bad. The literally one or two left after ultra take much longer to grow their population. “Then why doesn’t all milk go through the ultra pasteurization process??” Well, the low water and high fat content of cream means it can take more heat and pressure without causing a “cooked” or “stale” taste like can happen with milk, as well as higher associated cost with the process.
Except diary. Milk has an expiration date that (for me at least) is accurate to within 12 hours or so, when refrigerated.
Protip: if this plagues you, grab the Lactaid (lactose-free) stuff. It lasts longer. Soy milk lasts even longer than that, but I get that’s not for everyone.