I found some food I had for camping and it’s still in the original sealed pouch. The date stamp is 2014 so I assume you are not supposed to eat it past that date. I am not going to eat it but could I? It’s hot apple cobbler.
I’d prepare it and try it. YouTube has hundreds of MRE videos with people eating army food that is decades old.
Does the stamp say “best before 2014” or “use by 2014” or something else? “Best before” means after that date it may not taste quite as good and may have slightly less nutrition but it’s still OK to eat and will sustain life. “Use by 2014” is closer to "don’t eat after this date.
Also, you said “sealed pouch”. What preservation method was used? If it’s freeze-dried and the container intact it’s almost certainly still good (although use at your own risk, as always). If it’s preserved with salt and chemicals maybe maybe not.
For camping food in a sealed container, I wouldn’t even start to worry until it was about 50 years old. Dates printed on food are completely meaningless.
Perhaps the date stamp is manufacturing date? And some food packages have weird alphanumeric codes printed that look like a date but are not.
As an example I just grabbed a package of Mountain House beef stroganoff out of my Armageddon stash. On the back it clearly says “BEST BY SEP 2048” with the codes 18267 and 01:36 which I’m assuming are manufacturing codes of some sort. That means you can be assured the contents will remain both healthy to consume and with a certain level of palatability until that date. But after that date the food will still be safe to consume for some time after that - they just haven’t determined exactly how long and there may be some deterioration in flavor or appearance.
This is opposed to the “use or freeze by April 10, 2020” on one of the tubes of ground meat in my freezer (it was frozen by that date, if you’re wondering). That means either USE it by that date or there is a definite chance, even probability, that it will become unsafe to consume shortly thereafter. (Freezing counts as a use - it will stop the clock on the deterioration for an extended period, but eventually food in a consumer level freezer deteriorates, and once you thaw it the clock starts running again).
So the form of the food, any types of preservation it has been subjected to, and lots of other factors come into play. But it’s important to distinguish between “best before” and “use by”.
I few months ago I prepared and ate the contents of a can of Hormel Chili that was five years past the date that was stamped on it, mostly to demonstrate to my kids that it wasn’t some magical date after which the food inside was suddenly transformed into something inedible or dangerous. It was utterly normal, but my kids weren’t impressed at all.
In the late ‘80’s I ate Dutch canned rations from the mid ‘50’s iirc. Capucins (Kapucijners) and rice. No ill effects, and they were pretty tasty.
“,still good?” assumes it was good in the first place. It’s probably worse, surely not better.
Broomstick, that’s not what “use by” means, because what it means is absolutely nothing. In the US, the only food where any sort of date printed on the package means anything at all is baby food. For anything else, the manufacturer just puts it there because customers expect it.
What’s a capucin? In English, it’s used to refer to a species of monkey, an order of monks or a former town in Quebec.
There’s no regulation behind either phrase and maybe no testing, either. “Use by 2014” basically means “if you use this after 2014, don’t complain about the taste and expect your money back.”
Yes, there is no shelf life testing required.
These dates are to protect the makers and vendors of the food, not the consumer. Essentially the dates are we will stand by this product up to this date, after that we will not.
Certain things like fats in the food can turn rancid and ruin the flavor. If this happens before the use-by date the manufacturer should replace or refund money or product. After that, they will not.
The date does not mean anything about the safety of the food.
The “use by” or alternatively “sell by” dates on something like fresh, raw meat does mean something. It doesn’t mean that at the stroke of midnight the food becomes toxic waste but it certainly does give an indication of the product starting to go off. Likewise many forms of dairy.
I guarantee that if you leave liquid milk in the refrigerator a couple weeks past the “use by” date you won’t want to drink it, and parts of it may have congealed into lumps. As opposed to canned food which, as another poster pointed out, remains safely edible years past the date stamped on the can.
I’ve had milk a couple of weeks past the use by date that was still fine, and milk before that date that was soured.
Last week we used a can of coconut milk that was 4 years past the best by date. It was fine. The peanut butter is 2 years past, and a little dry but fine. (Can you tell we’re rotating our earthquake pantry?) If you have old dried beans, they need longer soaking. I’d be more careful with acidic food packed in metal.
Here are some guidelines:
ETA: I keep reading that hardboiled eggs are only okay for 2 hours out of the fridge. I presume this refers to peeled eggs, since I and many others have survived unrefrigerated hardboiled eggs in the shell on week-long camping trips. Unrefrigerated salami and hard cheese, too.
The OP said “sealed pouch.” so I’m assuming the food in question was dehydrated. In which case, it will be edible (within some degree thereof) as long as the packaging is intact and a seal is maintained. Mountain House should be good for several lifetimes.
New show on the History Channel- *Eating History. * Fascinating.
My dad worked in a canning factory in his youth, and he showed me how to detect a bad can (rusting, it swells etc, but he bounced a quarter and listed to the noise). He said the food in most cans is good for decades if the can is intact. (Acidic food like tomatoes require more caution)
I think the monkey is capuchin. Anyway, “Kapucijner” is a Dutch gray-brown pea, obscure enough outside Holland to not have an apparent official English translation. Very flavorful, and apparently nearly indestructible if canned for the Dutch military.
It’s backpackers pantry. The date does not say if it is use by the date.