I’ve got a microwaveable meal (Beef Stroganoff and Rice) which I bought from a reliable supermarket.
It comes in a sealed pack and (as per packet instructions) has been kept refrigerated.
It has a ‘use by date’ of Dec 16.
Will it be safe to open, heat and eat tomorrow, Dec 20?
I can afford to buy more food.
I don’t like to throw food away.
I certainly don’t want a stomach upset (especially near Xmas!)
Your help is appreciated!
The “use by” date doesn’t mean the food will go bad past that date. It’s just the date that freshness is guaranteed until. Especially since the 20th is only four days later, it’s safe to eat as long as it’s been refrigerated and the package hasn’t been opened. It probably will be in good condition even after several weeks.
How long ago did you buy it? I generally figure you can easily stretch out a “use by” date by 10% at least. And when in doubt, there’s always the “smell test” before you take that first bite.
"Use by" dates are NOT “this item becomes poison on exactly this date” dates.
Obviously fresh foods have less wiggle room than say, frozen foods would, but still, you’ve got at least a couple of days up to a week and beyond before you’re approaching anything resembling danger. Even (or especially) if the item could become dangerous on a specific date from manufacture, the manufacturer’s “use by” date is going to be very conservative, by default, just to indemnify themselves legally.
Yes, it’s safe.
As long as it’s been kept frozen it would be safe for considerably longer than 4 days past the “use by” date.
OP said refrigerated, not frozen.
I would never pay any attention at all to expiration dates, no matter how they’re worded. If it looks and smells like it should, then it’s probably good, even if it’s past the date, and if it looks or smells bad, then it’s probably bad, even if it’s not past the date.
Anecdotal evidence to support eating it;
I recently used a can of tomato paste for bean and bacon soup that was past its ‘Best By’ date by almost 2 years… tasted good and didn’t get sick. I have also eaten stuff in the fridge past the ‘Use By’ date by several weeks and had no issues. If it looks alright and smells alright, it should be fine. Just don’t apply the same logic to fresh meat, eggs or dairy, that will likely harm you. Canned stuff is typically fine but the quality of the ingredients tapers down with time.
Eat it.
The “use by date,” “sell by date,” etc., is marketing. Nothing more. If the packaging isn’t bulging, it doesn’t smell weird, and you’ve taken some care, it’s probably safe to eat. Under law, the only legal use by date is for infant formula.
(I have unused open jar of Vegemite on my desk at work. It’s dated August 2000. It’s still fresh as the day I bought it.)
Sorry, but that’s absolutely terrible advice. Many poisons and toxins can build to dangerous levels without making food look or smell bad, which is why health departments are so anal about following handling guidelines.
I just looked at my Karo syrup. It said to use by 10:45 on Sep 14, 2015. Also, there was about 1/2 inch of it, completely hard at the bottom of the bottle.
So I bought a new bottle. This one expires at 12:30 on Aug 22, 2020.
I have never seen the actual hour of expiration on anything else before. (I suppose I could have looked at this old Karo bottle sometime in the last 8 years, and then I would’ve seen it, but I didn’t.)
Let it be know that had there been usable Karo corn syrup in the bottom of the first bottle, and had it been enough…I would have used it. It’s corn syrup. What could go wrong? (I’m guess bypassing soft ball and going straight to hard crack, or something.)
Agreed. I mean, if it were true that unsafe food smells bad, food poisoning would be pretty nearly nonexistent.
On Monday, a friend opened a tin of fruit to make a fruit flan; it hissed when she pierced the top so she threw it away. Last night I poured some cream that had a use-by date of 12/12/2017 and it tasted fine - I suffered no ill effects either.
It’s hard to know how use-by dates are determined. It seems obvious to me that if the item is sealed in a pack, especially one that is filled with nitrogen as many are, and not allowed to get much over 4°C, it will last a lot longer than the ham I buy from a delicatessen which has been exposed to the air for an unknown length of time.
That’s (probably) not an expiration time, ya silly goose, it’s (again, probably) a production code. Amusing column on the subject by The Master:
+1. When it comes to food, use your senses especially your sense of smell. I have had things go bad before the expiry date, it happens rarely. If it doesnt smell like what its supposed to, then throw it out.
Oh, I know. It beggars belief that this stuff would be rendered unusable at exactly 12:30 or 10:45 (and if it was that sensitive, why not an AM or PM?). But if it isn’t a time, why is it written in the HH:mm format and put right above what is unquestionably a date? I ask you.
It’s as safe to eat as it was on Dec. 16. If you would have eaten it then you may as well eat it now.
Agreed that it’s safe to eat. I buy prepared refrigerated foods quite often, and though I try to consume them before the best-by date, occasionally they go a day or two past. They look and taste just the same as they did before the best-by date.
One needs to keep in mind that canned goods – including “canned” sauces in jars – are a special case that famously can be safely consumed way past their best-by dates. Not all foods are like that. Even though I tend to be skittish about stuff going even slightly bad, I had no problem recently using a jar of store-made pasta sauce that was about a year past its expiry date. It’s great stuff that I can only get from a store that’s fairly far away so I didn’t want to waste it. And it was perfectly lovely. I just made sure that the pop-up jar lid was still down, showing that it was holding the vacuum.
You mention eggs. I’ve found that those can be pushed at least a week or two or more beyond their posted expiry dates, if properly refrigerated.
From what I’ve read – not confirmed first-hand – the “smell test” may be fairly reliable for perishables that are properly refrigerated at a safe temperature, but not for perishables left at room temperature. Apparently, those can develop bacteria and toxins pretty fast before there are obvious signs of spoilage.
The pathogens that cause food poisoning are typically not detectable by smell; the organisms that cause food to smell and spoil are not necessarily dangerous.
In many cases, the populations of both types may increase more or less proportionally with one another - in which case the smell test happens to coincidentally be an indicator of safety.
But there are many kinds of scenario where they will not both increase in step with one another - and you will have smelly food that isn’t particularly unsafe, or unsafe food that smells fine.
The smell test is simply not a reliable indicator of food safety. If it were so, food poisoning would be rare.