If I know I’ll use it or freeze it in time, and it looks/smells OK, heck yeah!
Gosh, I sure am lucky I’m not in a location that gets it’s beef from Romania, and am instead in the very beef-intensive Kansas City.
Yup, and I’m glad I’m in Cafe Society, were we make silly lighthearted jokes, and not in Great Debates where they demand cites and get pissy.
If your friend is actually saying it is creepy, she is a snob. (If she is merely saying something like that it is dangerous, she is merely mistaken.)
I couldn’t tell. Probably because it wasn’t funny.
If they’re willing to sell it and it doesn’t look or smell funky, I’ll buy it.
If it wasn’t safe to eat for at least a day or two past the sell-by date, the sell-by date would be sooner.
eatbydate has guides for how long foods should still be good, cooked, thawed, and frozen.
I was at the natural foods store a few weeks ago, and saw some frozen dinners that were marked way down. The expiration date was 2009. :eek:
It was one of those things where it didn’t occur to me to get the manager until I was on my way home. :rolleyes:
Several hours after I posted this, I was at the same market, and saw some yogurt that “expired” November 27. I told the manager than I would buy it all if I was charged half price. She said I could, so I did.
Give your friend credit for being honest; I bet a lot of people won’t buy it, but won’t admit they won’t, if you see what I mean.
And, I must admit, I would NEVAH freeze it; I only buy it if I can cook it that night. (I also never freeze pork or beef.)
The meat has “instant coupon” stickers; the vegetables are on a rack right by the door to the back room - they have to be cut up and cooked that day; processed / packaged food may be in bins at the front by the registers, but I think most of it is sent to food kitchens - write-off + PR + karma > discounted price, and that’s fine.
I buy meat on sale all the time and freeze it. Never noticed a difference in quality myself. The biggest problem is remembering to defrost it and cook it within a reasonable time. Sometimes, I forget about that.
Bought a strip steak tonight on way home. Per pound price a few days ago–$12.99/lb.
They marked it down to $7.99/lb today with expiration tomorrow… eating it as we speak. Taste that much better at today’s price. Done it perhaps 100 times the last five years. Never got sick, had problems, etc.
I don’t know if people who get all freaked about the expiration date on steaks know about aged beef. That $50 steak at Ruth’s Chris? That particular piece of beef hung from a hook in the open air of a cooler for twenty-one days. The beef is so expensive, because the original cut shrinks up, and they have to cut the mold off the outside.
Even the “fresh” beef at your store is “wet aged” in the vacuum sealed bag for at least a week to make it edible.
Expiration dates in the U.S. are very conservative, I’d have to hunt for a cite but I will say I recently heard a story on NPR about it.
Having said that, I recently bought two rotted products: 1) a couple of onions from the loose bin, and 2) some pita bread - I didn’t bother to check the expiration date but I hope that it was mistakenly left on the shelf vs. labeled for actual consumption.
Having been reassured and schooled by y’all, I got a 3 rib “prime rib” roast today in day-old. Marked down from $37 to $21, codes out today, happily waiting in my freezer now for the Sunday after Xmas
Short of removing all them from each bin, tossing the old ones and putting fresh ones in, there is no way to avoid the occasional bad onion.
Absolutely – I couldn’t tell you the last time we bought non-stickered meat. At least two bucks off per pound? Hell yeah, sign me up.
Shoot yeah!! I also like the rack of bakery goods that’s been slashed to next to nothing. More for me!
My supermarket discounts meat if it’s within a day or two of its expiration date. I’ve gotten some great discounts this way, assuming it looks ok.