Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Food expiration dates are sometimes arbitrary and not science-based


gfweb

Recommended Posts

10 hours ago, cdh said:

Milk especially... some milk last a week past date and is fine.  Some milk goes funky 4 or 5 days before the date.  Just have to be attentive to your dairy... Smell tests and coffee curdling test beat a date stamp any day. 

 

And there's nothing like seeing cases of milk stacked in the aisle of one's local grocery store, warming up while waiting to be stocked on the shelves.  

 

We generally have no control over how the product is handled, once it leaves the place where it is packaged into what we buy.

 

  • Like 4

Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

My eGullet FoodBog - A Tale of Two Boroughs

Was it you baby...or just a Brilliant Disguise?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, weinoo said:

 

And there's nothing like seeing cases of milk stacked in the aisle of one's local grocery store, warming up while waiting to be stocked on the shelves.  

 

We generally have no control over how the product is handled, once it leaves the place where it is packaged into what we buy.

 

 

The local Shoprite stocks the milk shelves from a refrigerated room situated behind the shelves.  The shelves are actually part of the refrigerated room.

 

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

The local Shoprite stocks the milk shelves from a refrigerated room situated behind the shelves.  The shelves are actually part of the refrigerated room.

 

My local Ralphs/Kroger does that. They are good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

The local Shoprite stocks the milk shelves from a refrigerated room situated behind the shelves.  The shelves are actually part of the refrigerated room.

 

I can't think of a local store that does it any other way....oh wait...maybe Sprouts? But everyone else has the set-up you describe for dairy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

The local Shoprite stocks the milk shelves from a refrigerated room situated behind the shelves.  The shelves are actually part of the refrigerated room

 

49 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

I can't think of a local store that does it any other way....oh wait...maybe Sprouts? But everyone else has the set-up you describe for dairy.

 

You've never shopped in a supermarket on the lower east side of Manhattan, I'm guessing?

  • Like 1
  • Haha 2

Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

My eGullet FoodBog - A Tale of Two Boroughs

Was it you baby...or just a Brilliant Disguise?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 7 months later...

Hoping my query gets some traction in this thread

 

I have some Chorizo Casero by Espuna (dry cured) which I bought two years ago from Spain. It was manufactured in USA. There were originally 5 little sausages; I used 2 and vacuum sealed the rest. They've been sitting on a shelf in the fridge.

 

Wikipedia says "In Europe, chorizo is a fermented, cured, smoked meat, which may be sliced and eaten without cooking, or added as an ingredient to add flavor".

 

Can these sausages be used?

 

 

Edited by TdeV
Correction (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@TdeV 

 

i do not have a clear answer for you .

 

I lived in Spain for two years 

 

1960.  I was 10 initially 

 

thus I love spanish chorizo , w the smoked paprika flavor

 

for quite some time , cured meats from Spain

 

were on an Embargo list.

 

I discovered 

 

La Tienda , in the NewYork-ish area 

 

https://www.tienda.com/index.html

 

and

 

LaEsoanola   USA

 

https://laespanolameats.com

 

Ive had sausage from espinosa 

 

the I kept in the crisper in the refrigerator 

 

for quite some time  , and am fine so far

 

my concern  would be :

 

does the VacSeal , ( not frozen ) refrig'd

 

change something that might then  harm you ?

 

no idea.

 

I did the other day look at both the above places 

 

and the shipping , theses day 

 

put quite a dent in my enthusiasm.

 

 

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

"expiration / best by / use by" dates in USA (note:  USA is not the whole world...) are - with a single exception - dates established by the manufacturer, typically cited as "timeframe for best quality"

 

being a bit non-conformist, I don't hesitate to use stuff that is days to months "out of date" (depending on the foodstuff) - but two years on a (non-pasteurized) meat product most definitely exceeds my bounds.  I would not use/eat the stuff at this point.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, TdeV said:

Hoping my query gets some traction in this thread

 

I have some Chorizo Casero by Espuna (dry cured) which I bought two years ago from Spain. It was manufactured in USA. There were originally 5 little sausages; I used 2 and vacuum sealed the rest. They've been sitting on a shelf in the fridge.

 

Wikipedia says "In Europe, chorizo is a fermented, cured, smoked meat, which may be sliced and eaten without cooking, or added as an ingredient to add flavor".

 

Can these sausages be used?

 

 

 

Chorizo and other sausages have been used for years as a preserve, with a lot of salt inside. They were hung up and consumed when they wanted, but as time went by they dried up, sweated the water and became harder. But it was still edible, the drier the more flavour, and they were typically used for beans and stews. Open in half, see how they look and smell, you should not have any problems.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In many cultures, if not all, sausages were invented as a way to preserve meat in the days before refrigeration. Families would slaughter a pig and make some of the meat into sausages dry them before the meat went bad.

 

Here in China (and many other countries) some families in the countryside still do. But city families also make sausages to see them through the winter.

 

sausages2016-17.thumb.jpg.f5ed6d3b0f73f956c59ecd74f5b6783f.jpg

A selection of home made sausages in my kitchen in China

 

sausagesdrying.thumb.jpg.5d965b377fd5b51af11b842a97425d80.jpg

Sausages Drying

 

Edited by liuzhou (log)
  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, liuzhou said:

In many cultures, if not all, sausages were invented as a way to preserve meat in the days before refrigeration. Families would slaughter a pig and make some of the meat into sausages would make them and dry them before the meat went bad.

 

Here in China (and many other countries) some families in the countryside still do. But city families also make sausages to see them through the winter.

 

sausages2016-17.thumb.jpg.f5ed6d3b0f73f956c59ecd74f5b6783f.jpg

A selection of home made sausages in my kitchen in China

 

sausagesdrying.thumb.jpg.5d965b377fd5b51af11b842a97425d80.jpg

Sausages Drying

 

I had an immediate mental image of youngsters sinking a long ball and crowing about hitting "nothin' but pork!"

  • Like 1
  • Haha 3

“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...