I’m eating dinner right now, which is pizza rolls and sour cream to dip them in. The thing is, the sour cream was bought two months ago and, according to the date on its container, it expired on the fifth of last month but I taste no significant difference nor notice any change in color or consistency.
Is the expiration date for something that’s already spoiled really needed? Does sour cream ever get so sour that its inedible? I know it can grow moldy as I’ve thrown out green fuzzy containers in the past but barring it becoming some alien bacteria’s new homeland, does the stuff last indefinitely?
Mine is still good though, so it’s not quite gotten to Barney or Howard Stern levels, as Cecil likened the rotten stuff to in his article. Is my sour cream just some sort of super strain or something?
No. It was opened about two weeks after I bought it, along with a similar sized container of cottage cheese. The cheese grew green and fuzzy over a month ago but the sour cream is still good.
Let’s do an experiment. If Aesiron eats it and is fine, than it was OK. If he gets sick, he should come back and tell us, so that we may always remember not to eat old sour cream.
I know the OP was serious, but we hear jokers and standup comics asking aqll the time “How come sour cream has an expiration date? What does it do, turn fresh? How can you tell when it goes bad?”
Yuk yuk yuk.
Simple answer: a little bit of the right type of bacteria gives cream a delightfully tangy flavor, and doesn’t hurt people who eat it.
But a lot of the wrong bacteria can make it both foul-tasting and even potentially deadly.
When you buy sour cream it has a little of the right bacteria. But after months in you fridge, it may have a lot of the wrong bacteria.
The exparation date is more of a suggestion really.
I’m sure the food corps have to incorporate some safety time into the best before date. Besides when it’s past it’s best before date, that implys that it’s still good or okay, and okay is good enough for me.
Aren’t those really “Sell-by” dates and not “expiration” dates? When I worked in the dairy dept of a supermarket years ago we were told the date on the milk was “sell-by”, and it should have lasted (I think) two weeks after that date.
This was like 20 years ago almost, so maybe things have changed, or I’m remembering incorrectly.
The sign in the dairy section says “sell by date” and it is good for at lease x days after that date but I did not think it was as long as two weeks - don’t remember.
I have had it go bad just days after the sell by date. Fortunately it is very easy to know with just a quick sniff
The dates stamped on food products vary wildy in terms of what they mean. I’ve seen ‘Best Before’ and ‘Sell By’, suggesting that it is still edible for some period of time after that date, and ‘Expiry Date’ and ‘Use By’ suggesting not to use it after that date.
Just a month ago, we had bought sour cream and didn’t open it for a couple of days. It was furry and blue the first time it was opened…a week before the date stamped on it! We also bought some homo milk for the kids which smelled and tasted fine, but had a texture that started to resemble cottage cheese. This was a few days prior to the expiration date.
I rarely get a couple of days past bread dates, but ketchup and mustard seem to go on forever. My wife will pitch stuff that is past the date that I would use. Dry unopened cereal, soft drinks, crackers, etc.
Purely anecdotal, but just last night we had some sour cream that came from a container that had a May 12, 2004 expiration date on it. It smelled and looked fine, so we used it. I’m still standing this morning, so I guess it was ok.
I worked in a supermarket while in school. The “sell by” dates are the last date the store can sell the item to a customer. This is to guarantee that the product will still be good for a few days after the customer takes it home and they won’t return it and tell the customer service clerk at the desk, “Smell this!” while holding open the spoiled chicken, milk, beef, shrimp <Ugh!>, <insert your favorite nasty product here> for them to smell, much to the clerk’s dismay. “Best buy” is a recommended consumption date where the item retains the level of quality and taste it had when it is bottled, canned, etc. and you usually see this on soda and beer.
Having also worked in dairy with a dairy manager who spent most of his day hitting on pretty women half of his age while they were shopping instead of stocking the shelves while the cart sits out of refridgeration, items may go bad prior to the sell by date because they should be refridgerated at all times until use. This seemed to be a particularly bad problem with the bags of shredded cheese. Ugh! :eek:
