I baked some frozen sausage rolls late the other night, and thought they needed something to dip them in for enhancement. Foraging about in the cupboard, I found some rustic style mustard that looked like just the thing. So I put a few dollops on a plate, and it was indeed very good with the sausage rolls.
Here’s the thing. It had been in the cupboard a long time, and the expiry date on the jar was September, 2016. Nearly seven years ago! But the jar had been tightly sealed and it looked, smelled, and tasted just fine.
Furthermore, the ingredients are (looking at the jar now) vinegar, mustard seed, water, white wine, flavour, lactic acid. What on earth could go bad in that mix of ingredients?
What are the opinions of the informed masses? I intend to continue using it because I’ve found no discernible problem with it. Obviously the cost of a jar of mustard is no big deal, but there’s a principle here about expiry dates that I’m interested in.
I’ve come very close to eating hot mustard of that age that had been opened and stored in the refrigerator. I reluctantly tossed it, but only because it looked significantly thicker and darker than it did in its youth. A sealed jar? You can bet I’d eat that.
I think a lot of expiry dates, are really “best before” dates. You’ve got some pungent and flavourful mustard that " expires" in March, 2021. Except in March 2022, it’s still fine. Seems to be anyway. And it’s been factory-sealed and/or refirigerated since then. Why waste it? Why not use it?
Manufacturers have to pick a date to use as “best-by”. It’s best for them to choose the earliest date that seems reasonable, because it just means their asses are covered, and you’ll have to purchase more. Sometimes retailers require best-by dates be within an arbitrary date range (Amazon, for one). I’ve written here several times about Amazon requiring a best-by date of no more than 5 years for any food product they carry, including salt and sugar (both are non-perishable). I left that job in 2016, so Amazon’s requirements might have changed since then.
There aren’t a lot of things I feel comfortable eating long past the expiration date, but mustard is one of those things. As long as there is no mold and it isn’t dried out.
Oh, and it has to be clean; if you dipped, dropped, or dripped anything perishable into the mustard, the mustard itself might be fine but might have something nasty in it.
Honey is the one thing I can think of that never expires. Seriously, archaeologists have found honey that is thousands of years old and still good.
What an odd coincidence. Last night I heated up a couple of sausage rolls (large ones) for dinner and went to the cupboard for the default Aussie addition, tomato sauce (ketchup). Suddenly I had an epiphany. Why the hell do we put tomato sauce on things containing meat? I would never dream of putting it on a steak or a pork chop. But I would happily put mustard on either.
So I grabbed the bottle of Heinz New York style mustard, believing that it was unopened. But It was opened. Sometime long ago, because the use by date was September 2020. So I stirred it thoroughly with a wooden skewer, licked the skewer and, upon deciding that it tasted fine, had it on my 2 sausage rolls. 24 hours later I am still here. And It was much better than the usual choice.
When it comes to food safety, whenever there is any doubt, there is no doubt. Even a miniscule risk of food poisoning isn’t worth it. If you can afford new food, buy new food.
Mustard has inherent antibacterial properties, and prepared mustard usually also contains vinegar or citrus juice which are also antibacterials. It’ll separate, dry out, or lose its flavor long before it becomes unsafe to eat.
One caveat: Honey never expires, and mustard never expires, but a mixture of the two does. Or mustard with any other sort of sugar ingredient. Mustard never goes bad because there’s not enough nutrition in it to support bacterial growth. Honey never goes bad because there’s too much sugar: Too much of anything dissolved in water will prevent anything from living in it. But a mixture of the two has enough-but-not-too-much sugar, and so things can grow in that.
Mayonnaise is another thing that doesn’t go bad on its own, only when mixed with other things. Specifically, things containing water. Pasta salad and potato salad, for instance, are notorious for going bad, and this gives mayo an undeserved bad rap.
I agree that most “best by” dates are pure manufacturer CYA. And that mustard is an especially shelf-stable product. Doubly so if still factory sealed.
Glass jars are functionally cans. The mustard in the jar was sterilized by heat so it would remain microbe-free as long as the jar stays sealed. That doesn’t mean canned foods won’t lose quality over time. I ate some ten year old canned pears my mom had. They tasted fine, but were quite mushy.
This is curious, because I’ve had mayo in a jar go bad after a few weeks of being in my fridge. I’ve never put anything into the jar except a clean butter knife from the kitchen drawer, yet two weeks after opening it became foul-smelling, so I chucked it.
When I was younger, my mom kept jars of salad dressing (Tang), not mayonnaise, in the cupboard, as well as ketchup and mustard containers. None of ever became ill from eating those room-temp condiments, as I am here 55 years later to report.
That’s odd. I routinely have mayo in the fridge for much longer than that, and I’ve never had it go bad. (Though I agree that if it stank, you should definitely chuck it!)
What kind of mayo was it? Did you have the lid on tight?
Yeah, that’s not normal for mayo. It generally takes us about two months or so to get through a jar of mayo. Never had an issue. And in my bachelor days, I’ve kept it for much, much longer after opening.
Homemade mayo you have to worry about going off in a few days. Commercial mayo is pretty indestructible in my experience, unless you contaminate it.
I agree that’s strange. Mayo is one of those things where I really do pay attention to expiry dates, but for commercial mayo like Hellman’s they’re usually far in the future. My current jar of Hellman’s has been in the fridge for quite a long time, and the expiry is mid-June, more than four months away.