# Are old stale spices potentially dangerous to eat? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 2, 2014, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-stale-spices-potentially-dangerous-to-eat/697229 "2014-09-02T04:01:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-stale-spices-potentially-dangerous-to-eat/697229/1 "2014-09-02T04:01:07Z")
Help a helpless old bachelor, of the sort who can’t fry water, with a Cuisine Question. Answers at the “Seriously Dummies” level, please. I just cooked up a pot of pinto beans, ground beef, and tomato sauce along with some spices that I’ve had sitting around for about 5++ years (just the spices, not the other ingredients). The spices are very weak, being old and stale. But do old spices go bad in ways that are bad to eat, or do they just dry out and get lame? Spices in question: Cumin, Italian Seasoning (mixture of bunch of stuffs), and dried minced onions. (I’m not _too terribly_ worried, or I might have thought to post this _before_ eating it. :dubious: Just slightly.) It certainly _tastes_ okay, I think. Don’t need answer fast, as it’s too late now to really matter. //old-rolleyes// 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-stale-spices-potentially-dangerous-to-eat/697229/2 "2014-09-02T04:48:15Z")
They just dry out and become tasteless. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-stale-spices-potentially-dangerous-to-eat/697229/3 "2014-09-02T04:58:47Z")
Not dangerous, just not tasty. ---
**Author:** ![Lydia\_Phalfav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a6a055/32.png) [@Lydia\_Phalfav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lydia_Phalfav)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-stale-spices-potentially-dangerous-to-eat/697229/4 "2014-09-02T05:11:59Z")
I compost my old ones, except for onion & garlic. To keep my good ones fresher longer, I stick them in the fridge or freezer. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-stale-spices-potentially-dangerous-to-eat/697229/5 "2014-09-02T06:48:36Z")
Okay, thanks. Now, 3½ hours later, I haven’t dropped dead yet. You’re right, the spices are a bit weak (although not totally tasteless). If I live until tomorrow, I’ll let y’all know. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-stale-spices-potentially-dangerous-to-eat/697229/6 "2014-09-02T06:50:53Z")
I grew up in a household where the spices were routinely older than I was. You will die of disappointment in the lousy taste. There isn’t enough nutrition in dried old spices for deadly bacteria to live on. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-stale-spices-potentially-dangerous-to-eat/697229/7 "2014-09-02T07:38:36Z")
> [@Lydia\_Phalfav](#): > > I compost my old ones, except for onion & garlic. Why not onion and garlic? Those things seem to compost well enough as fresh trimmings. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-stale-spices-potentially-dangerous-to-eat/697229/8 "2014-09-02T13:09:01Z")
Are there spices which are toxic if you eat them in ridiculous quantities, like, say, putting a cup of nutmeg in your cake recipe? > [@Mangetout](#): > > Why not onion and garlic? Those things seem to compost well enough as fresh trimmings. They’re also inclined to start growing, which means they scavenge the dead bodies of their fellow plants and next thing you know, you’ve got zombie compost. ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-stale-spices-potentially-dangerous-to-eat/697229/9 "2014-09-02T13:15:05Z")
Unless they are discolored or stuck in a solid lump in the bottom of the container they are probably safe to use. Worthless, but safe. Until I cleaned out her spice cabinet my mother was still using spices in little metal containers that had 19cent price tags on them. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-stale-spices-potentially-dangerous-to-eat/697229/10 "2014-09-02T13:22:32Z")
Um, I think it’s impossible to fry water. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-stale-spices-potentially-dangerous-to-eat/697229/11 "2014-09-02T13:27:29Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Are there spices which are toxic if you eat them in ridiculous quantities, like, say, putting a cup of nutmeg in your cake recipe? A cup of nutmeg in your cake may make you hallucinate (but it’s not a nice trip). It’s also likely to taste like Satan’s Asshole, so good luck eating the whole cake without throwing it up. Eat enough juniper berries over a long enough time period and you might damage your kidneys from the sesquiterpenes (cedrol, specifically), but how often do people really cook with juniper berries these days? I think I use it in my sauerkraut and corned beef, and that’s it. Likewise, a ridiculous, inedible amount of file could lead to liver damage and potentially cancer from the safrole in it, but safrole is generally a concern more from the root bark of the sassafras, rather than the leaves, which is what file is made from. And that one’s pretty controversial, even at high doses. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-stale-spices-potentially-dangerous-to-eat/697229/12 "2014-09-02T13:49:37Z")
> [@Lukeinva](#): > > Um, I think it’s impossible to fry water. I worked in a restaurant once. Tossing a small handful of ice into the fryer was one way to get even with the fry cook when he was a dick. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-stale-spices-potentially-dangerous-to-eat/697229/13 "2014-09-02T13:57:21Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I worked in a restaurant once. Tossing a small handful of ice into the fryer was one way to get even with the fry cook when he was a dick. When it comes to frying, look to the [Texas State Fair](http://thebloggess.com/2012/09/texas-never-change-but-stop-trying-to-kill-me-if-possible/) (birthplace of the corn dog): > [@](#): > > I asked the girl at the counter if I could just get some fried water and she looked at me funny and I explained I was on a diet and so I wanted something “light and healthy”. Then she asked the other girl in the stand if they could fry water and the other girl told me they’d specifically been told not to because “it causes explosions”. So basically I went hungry because of explosions. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-stale-spices-potentially-dangerous-to-eat/697229/14 "2014-09-03T06:59:36Z")
> [@Lukeinva](#): > > Um, I think it’s impossible to fry water. I would not even have known that. Ignorance fought! Anyway, I survived the Night Of The Stale Spice Onslaught! Actually, it wasn’t even as tasteless as I’d have expected. Those old spices sure _smelled_ like they would be tasteless. But apparently, once moistened up in the pot, the whole mix wasn’t arf bad. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-stale-spices-potentially-dangerous-to-eat/697229/15 "2014-09-03T16:47:10Z")
Grinding them a bit before use can also help. I had my parents’ wedding gift spices for awhile, but then I discovered [Penzys](http://www.penzeys.com/). ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-stale-spices-potentially-dangerous-to-eat/697229/16 "2014-09-03T18:51:02Z")
I have heard it recommened that you burn all your dried spices in the fireplace on New Year’s Eve and start fresh every year. We tried it once, but some spices smell disgusting burned. They do tend to lose flavor as they age, but then you just add more. One ought to season to taste anyway. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-stale-spices-potentially-dangerous-to-eat/697229/17 "2014-09-03T19:08:48Z")
> [@Lukeinva](#): > > Um, I think it’s impossible to fry water. It depends on what kind of batter you use.