# Ethics and expiration dates. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 16, 2006, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethics-and-expiration-dates/368971 "2006-08-16T16:52:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![the\_PC\_apeman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac8455/32.png) [@the\_PC\_apeman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_PC_apeman)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2006, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethics-and-expiration-dates/368971/21 "2006-08-17T14:16:05Z")
What about bananas? They’re not expiration-dated but there are some pretty obvious aging clues. Is it ethical to purchase the greenest over the brown and freckly? I’ve considered the milk question before but I’ve never applied it to bananas. I suspect we have more emotional reactions to wasting milk. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2006, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethics-and-expiration-dates/368971/22 "2006-08-17T19:02:53Z")
[QUOTE=ThePCapeman] What about bananas? They’re not expiration-dated but there are some pretty obvious aging clues. Is it ethical to purchase the greenest over the brown and freckly? I’ve considered the milk question before but I’ve never applied it to bananas. I suspect we have more emotional reactions to wasting milk. [/QUOTE] I think it depends on when you’re going to eat the bananas. A green one won’t do you too much good if it is for today’s lunch. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2006, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethics-and-expiration-dates/368971/23 "2006-08-17T19:31:55Z")
I thought I was the only person in the world who would feel guilty about this. My family consumes vast quantities of milk, but I still can’t stop myself from taking the latest date I can find. Partly it’s because I can’t bring myself to drink milk which has passed the expiration date by even one day, no matter how much my husband insists that it smells fine. I could use it in a recipe, maybe, but not drink it straight or in a bowl of cereal. ---
**Author:** ![the\_PC\_apeman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac8455/32.png) [@the\_PC\_apeman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_PC_apeman)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2006, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethics-and-expiration-dates/368971/24 "2006-08-17T19:42:19Z")
[QUOTE=dalej42] I think it depends on when you’re going to eat the bananas. A green one won’t do you too much good if it is for today’s lunch. [/QUOTE] True. Milk can’t be consumed too early. I usually have a problem at the other end of things. That’s where I see the same issues coming up. I just thought it was interesting that, at least for me, there are fewer qualms about the greenest bananas versus later dated milk. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethics-and-expiration-dates/368971/25 "2006-08-18T01:31:53Z")
Bananas here are AUD$12/kg and they all look like shit anyway, thanks to the after-effects of Tropical Cyclone Larry (Most of the north Queensland Banana Crop was wiped out earlier this year). Fortunately, I detest bananas, so it’s no skin off my nose, but a lot of people here love the bloody things, for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethics-and-expiration-dates/368971/26 "2006-08-18T11:51:10Z")
[obscure movie reference] Kevin Smith’s mom always looks for the gallon with the latest expiration date, even if she has to take every jug out of the dairy case to find it. [/obscure movie reference] ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethics-and-expiration-dates/368971/27 "2006-08-18T12:04:13Z")
[QUOTE=ThePCapeman] What about bananas? They’re not expiration-dated but there are some pretty obvious aging clues. Is it ethical to purchase the greenest over the brown and freckly? I’ve considered the milk question before but I’ve never applied it to bananas. I suspect we have more emotional reactions to wasting milk. [/QUOTE] Depends on what age bananas you like to eat. SIL likes them completely green, Bro likes them… well, let’s simply say that when bananas at other family homes go beyond our own idea of their expiration date we give them to him; my idea of “yuck! way over” is still considered to green by him. But not everybody has a human waste disposal unit at hand. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethics-and-expiration-dates/368971/28 "2006-08-18T14:42:27Z")
I’d like to know if the OP reaches way down into a loaf of bread to get the good stuff in the middle, leaving the nasty rotten diseased bread on top to the rest of his family. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethics-and-expiration-dates/368971.md?page=1)