this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2024
44 points (97.8% liked)

Ask Lemmy

27027 readers
664 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] ASDraptor@lemmy.autism.place 14 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (2 children)

In Europe we use expiration and best before dates.

With exp. dates, don't push it: they mean after that date, the food could spoil and there's biological risk on eating it. One day? Ok. 3 days... only if you have to and after looking closely for signs of spoiling. Cook it thoroughly.

With BBF dates, there is no risk unless evident contamination, meaning that after that date, the food will be edible but might have a different taste. Obviously, look for mold if the product was open, bwt it's generally safe to eat even after years. Except fresh uncooked food, almost everything else falls in this category here.

Edit: typo

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech 5 points 3 weeks ago

Very good explanation! The wording varies, in Czech and German it's like "consume by" and "can be stored at minimum until".

A store in my country once had an apology sign on display saying something along the lines of:

Some products in [this section] on sale [this year] were labeled with a "Sell By" date. According to [this EU directive], such a date is identical to the "Best Before" date. This has been fixed and we apologize for any confusion."

I have no idea how the "mistake" happened (normally, no food items share packaging between Europe and other continents) but I'm glad they got it sorted. The "Sell By" bullshit causes industrial-scale food waste by US supermarkets. Here, items about to pass BB are marked down by about 30% instead, and mom-and-pop stores usually have a discount shelf dedicated to past-BB items at 50% or higher discounts.

[–] shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee 2 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Do things that have a BBF date expire if you wait years?

[–] Nighed@feddit.uk 5 points 4 weeks ago

As they said, generally no, they may just not taste as good.

For example - a pot of chilli powder probably will be fine after 5 years unopened in a cupboard, but probably won't be as spicy as it used to be.

[–] ASDraptor@lemmy.autism.place 4 points 4 weeks ago

If well stored and with undamaged packaging, it can go for years without trouble. With bff products i generally go to groceries stores and look for a section dedicated to these products. They sell them cheaper and are completely safe. Good way to save money and fight food waste.