# Foods that don't seem to ever expire **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 20, 2015, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-dont-seem-to-ever-expire/710419 "2015-01-20T22:18:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-dont-seem-to-ever-expire/710419/1 "2015-01-20T22:18:06Z")
Digging in the pantry for a snack… what do you know, an unopened bag of dates! I love dates. They look disturbingly like cockroach husks, but they’re very tasty. Open it up, munch away – nice, chewy, sticky sweetness. Good dates. Into the fridge for future snacking. Then I look at the expiration date – Aug 2013. That probably means I bought them in 2012 or even 2011. And they were fine. What other foods (besides canned food, dry rice, and other obvious long-lasting foods) seem to last forever, as long as they’re unopened? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-dont-seem-to-ever-expire/710419/2 "2015-01-20T22:24:09Z")
Anything that’s mostly sugar, like honey or syrup. The concentration of solute is too high for anything to survive in it. Anything that has essentially zero Calories, like vinegar or mustard. There’s nothing for anything to eat. Be warned, however, that a mixture of two such substances, like honey mustard, loses both of these protections, and hence _can_ go bad. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-dont-seem-to-ever-expire/710419/3 "2015-01-20T22:34:14Z")
Wonder Bread. It doesn’t even go stale. ---
**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:** [January 20, 2015, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-dont-seem-to-ever-expire/710419/4 "2015-01-20T23:28:05Z")
I’ve used salad dressing five years after the expiration date. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-dont-seem-to-ever-expire/710419/5 "2015-01-20T23:39:33Z")
Voila, a website that addresses the consuming question of when a food goes bad: > **[Home - Does It Go Bad?](https://www.doesitgobad.com/)** > > DoesItGoBad.com is all about the shelf life, storage, and spoilage signs of various food products. It's your go-to guide on food storage. \*although I can’t tell who the site proprietor(s) are. Maybe they also run the American Ptomaine Association. \*\*I question the site’s advice on when horseradish goes bad. They don’t seem to differentiate between “prepared horseradish” (judging by the photo and the description of preservative content, they’re talking about horseradish _sauce_) and simple horseradish in a jar (that contains only horseradish root, vinegar and salt, the way the Great Creator intended). I imagine the latter would last a long long time, but I generally consume it long before it attains antiquity. The bug that could grow happily in that kind of dynamite has my respect. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-dont-seem-to-ever-expire/710419/6 "2015-01-21T00:04:26Z")
Vegemite ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-dont-seem-to-ever-expire/710419/7 "2015-01-21T00:11:12Z")
I like this website for such questions. A lot of things last longer than one would think. > **[How Long Does Food Last? Guide to Shelf Life & Expiration](http://www.eatbydate.com/)** > > How long does food last - past its printed date? Information on sell-by, use-by, best-by and other dates and how to calculate the actual shelf life of food ---
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-dont-seem-to-ever-expire/710419/8 "2015-01-21T00:18:55Z")
> [@Cunctator](#): > > Vegemite Yup, Vegemite lasts forever. Hot English Mustard Treacle and Golden Syrup, even if opened the worst that happens is they go a bit like sugared honey ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-dont-seem-to-ever-expire/710419/9 "2015-01-21T00:37:20Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Anything that’s mostly sugar, like honey or syrup. A friend of mine owns a well known honey brand (at least well known around here, but it is in stores all across the country). He’s trying to get some kind of certification and as part of that he has to put an expiration date on the bottles so his dilemma is…how far out should he set the date? Too close (say, a year) and he’ll have to pull product back if it expires. Too far off (maybe five years, I mean, it doesn’t ever really go bad) and he runs the risk of people looking at it (that don’t understand) and thinking ‘this doesn’t expire for _five years_ blah, I wonder what they did to it to make it last that long, I’ll just get a different brand’. I don’t know what he ended up doing, probably something in the middle, he also does actually want to make sure that it does get returned to him before it starts to crystallize in the bottle since then no one will buy it anyways. We all know it’s not bad, but you might as well just buy the one behind it that doesn’t look like that. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-dont-seem-to-ever-expire/710419/10 "2015-01-21T00:58:12Z")
Peeps! I ate some old chocolate-covered raisins not too long ago with no ill effects…I think they were purchased in 2011 or so. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-dont-seem-to-ever-expire/710419/11 "2015-01-21T04:47:04Z")
Semen! ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-dont-seem-to-ever-expire/710419/12 "2015-01-21T08:30:24Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Semen! Wait, you keep it around? Why not just get it fresh? Plus, nobody seems to eat that in my house, even though I do try to sell folks on the idea. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-dont-seem-to-ever-expire/710419/13 "2015-01-21T08:42:22Z")
I once found a Little Debbie snack cake in the back of my fridge. It had probably been sitting there for close to a year. I was half tempted to eat it but I chickened out and threw it away. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-dont-seem-to-ever-expire/710419/14 "2015-01-21T10:05:06Z")
Canned foods properly canned are basically immortal, I recall reading about people finding some early arctic explorer’s camp and opening and eating a can of beans nearly a century old. Veggies can lose their color and texture but as long as the seal on the can isn’t breached they are still edible. I’ve eaten canned foods that expired ten years prior that tasted fine and didn’t even have a texture change. This is what bugs me about post apoc stories, if 99% of people die before the first month is up there should be enough canned food that even the kids of the survivors would not need to farm or resort to cannibalism. ---
**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:** [January 21, 2015, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-dont-seem-to-ever-expire/710419/15 "2015-01-21T10:56:26Z")
I found a block of feta in brine in the back of my fridge once that was more than a year past it’s sell by date. Tasted just fine. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-dont-seem-to-ever-expire/710419/16 "2015-01-21T11:00:05Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Digging in the pantry for a snack… what do you know, an unopened bag of dates! I love dates. They look disturbingly like cockroach husks, but they’re very tasty. Open it up, munch away – nice, chewy, sticky sweetness. Good dates. Into the fridge for future snacking. > > Then I look at the expiration date – Aug 2013. That probably means I bought them in 2012 or even 2011. And they were fine. > > What other foods (besides canned food, dry rice, and other obvious long-lasting foods) seem to last forever, as long as they’re unopened? > **[Water activity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_activity)** > > Water activity (aw) is the partial vapor pressure of water in a solution divided by the standard state partial vapor pressure of water. In the field of food science, the standard state is most often defined as pure water at the same temperature. Using this particular definition, pure distilled water has a water activity of exactly one. Water activity is the thermodynamic activity of water as solvent and the relative humidity of the surrounding air after equilibration. As temperature increases, aw... ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-dont-seem-to-ever-expire/710419/17 "2015-01-21T12:33:19Z")
I remember when Krispy Kreme first opened in Australia one of my son’s friends bought some. He ate a few and then the remainder disappeared under things in his bedroom. Some weeks later he discovered them and tried them and thought they were no worse than when he first ate them. He was horrified by this and insisted that it was “unnatural,” that if they were really food they should deteriorate. So he never ate them again. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-dont-seem-to-ever-expire/710419/18 "2015-01-21T13:35:27Z")
Some foods are in a natural state that prevents decay under the right circumstances. Put a McDonalds hamburger and fries on a plate and leave it in a dry location, it will dry out rather than rot. High fat, high salt, it has natural preservatives. Put it in a plastic bag and seal the moisture in, it will turn into a fuzzy mass in a few days. We’ve pulled a couple of things from the back of our pantry that were beyond the sell by date, and didn’t have good experiences. Tartar Sauce and Clam Chowder, they sure looked like they weren’t as good as new, and went right down the drain. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-dont-seem-to-ever-expire/710419/19 "2015-01-21T14:10:12Z")
I’ve noticed canned meats have surprisingly long best-before dates. Canned ham, canned corned beef, anchovies, etc. It is probably because of the low water content & salt-o-plenty. There are two cans of fish in my pantry now (herring fillets and King Oscar sardines) with 2017 dates. The herring actually has 12/31/2017 which is all of three years from NOW. I don’t even remember when I bought these, certainly not within the last six months and it could easily have been more than a year ago. ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-dont-seem-to-ever-expire/710419/20 "2015-01-21T14:57:37Z")
Maraschino Cherries. I dropped one into my Brown Cow last night and I’m pretty sure I’ve had that jar in the fridge for about 4 years. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-dont-seem-to-ever-expire/710419.md?page=2)