[Closed] What's your "Best Before/Use By" Record?

Beats my 3 month past bacon (smoked).

Ooh, I dunno. Meat carries far greater risk than simple tonic I reckon. (Though bacon does last ages to be fair.)

Does frozen stuff count? As most things say "freeze on day of purchase and use within a month"? If it does I had a lamb hot pot over chrimbo/ new years week with the best before date as (something)/11/12. The lamb was a bit grey and tasteless, I didn't even get the shits either.

I also once got a tin of pop in south africa, coke if i remember rightly, out of a vending machine in a rugby ground we were training in and the best before was something like ten months previous. It was rank.

Not sure about that, had some dodgy bacon tonight. BB was the 16th but been open since friday. Smelt a bit odd so tried to nuke it in the frying pan to add to pasta but definitely didn't taste quite right so just ate the pasta and veg.

threw out some jelly last year that I bought to take to uni in 1999! Most of the other packs were used making vodka jelly but this one escaped and just got moved around until it hid in the back of my cupboard where it was found in the autumn.

take to uni in 1999

😆

Last night I ate a tin of pineapple chunks that went out of date in April 2008. I'm not dead yet.

I've got a bottle of Tuborg in my draw at work, went out of date some time in 2008.... I've only been working there since June 2009! I've got a feeling it's gonna be there for quite some time...

beer and tonic water don't count. What could go wrong with them?

We've eaten a tin of sweetcorn (in about 2010) that had a sell by of 1998. It was fine.

Its going through my Mum's homemade jam store that frightens me. She stockpiles the stuff. Some of her own concoction and some from the local WI group. All neatly labelled up by Mrs Goggins of Fir Tree Farm, Chuleigh by Little Moor or something.

I have thrown away stuff from the 80s in the past couple of years but every time I visit she's sneaked something in from the garage. I think she has jam jar piles like Mcmoonter has log stores.

Sorry guys over Xmas we found at the back of the drinks cupboard a bottle of blueberry liqueur (came from a working trip to Norway) saw how old it was, just about to pour it away when we said "let's try it" four of us had a sip, then a small glass. Tasted damn fine so its back in the cupboard. The use by date was 17 years ago! Normal stuff, there is a 5 years out of date can of peaches (distilling) in a kitchen cupboard.

Does 4year old dry stuffing mix (paxo) qualify? Lacked something in the taste department but we didn't die 😀
As for the freezer, as long as it got no freezer burn, it gets defrosted in the fridge & used (I made an exception for the 2 year old fish that was to be used on the date of purchase)

knorr stock cube (of some animal variety) used over christmas, best before 2004. Not going to lie it had seen better days but I was desperate and shops were shut. Kind of a bit slimey to touch and a funny white colour. Not sure it added much to the meal, apart from risk of imminent death. I worked on the principle that it was so out of date that any self respecting potential nasties would have moved on to something better tasting after all that time.

deadlydarcy - Member
Ooh, I dunno. Meat carries far greater risk than simple tonic I reckon. (Though bacon does last ages to be fair.)

Maybe. I factored in the preservative powers of the "smoking" (" " because it is probably just chemicals?)

my dad's got some custard powder - best before: june 1994, so must have been bought before I was born (jan 94) - tastes good now, so wonder how good it tasted back then, but it's weird to be eating something that's likely older than yourself! 😆

The bottle of Angostura bitters that we use has a price tag of 7/6. Pre 1971 but still makes a fine cocktail.

Oh, and the Spag bol called MARI0 and the chicken stock called JULI0 in our freezer were not pet names after all. Turns out they were the dates I froze them.

but it's weird to be eating something that's likely older than yourself!

That would make you a toy boy... 😉

Had a can of Sainsbury's "Beer", about 20-30yrs out of date.
The can showed signs of rust.
Still tasted better than Foster's.

Moving house last year unearthed an emergency jar of Co-Op Mustard, dated 2003. 🙂

Opened, tasted, binned.
Not nice.

Not sure if age or just crap mustard.

If you have food with product ingredient as "vegetable oil" (palm oil) it will last until the next nuclear war and it will still be fresh. 😆

Bought a 10p bag of crisps in school once they were all soft and stale, checked the date and they had been in school for longer than I had!

Anything tinned is safe for decades.

There were tests done on various tinned stuff that was over 100 years old (found on a boat that had sunk) and they were all still safe to eat.

I would completely ignore dates on anything tinned or bottled as long as it was still sealed.

I'm halfway through a bottle of Dave's Insanity Sauce - best before 2007.

Used regularly, seems fine still.

I've got stuff in the cupboards that pre-dates best before/use by dating.

Loads of stuff in the in-laws kitchen from early 2000s. Went in to get some biscuits at Xmas & they'd got choc digestives from 2003. There's custard and fruit salad (lol) in rusty tins, jelly (WTF), packets of crisps in flavours you haven't seen for years, jars of Maxwell House & Nescafe with seriously old labels on and don't get me started on tins of Quality Street and Roses.

Does anyone actually know the difference between use by and best before? Exceed the use by date and it could be hazardous to health, exceeding best before just means it might not taste as good.

Not knowing this difference is commonplace

My emergency food store at work contains a packet of Pasta & Sauce that has a best before date of June 2008. I reckon it should be fine.

At work I found a bottle of Becks that was 3 years out of date.

Boss at the time said drinking at work that day was fine. Bit flat but drinking at work is always fun.

I did die but I got better.

When I first left home 28 years ago my mum bought me a few bits for the freezer, including some orange juice concentrate.

After several house moves I finally diluted it a couple of summers ago when the freezer packed up - it was surprisingly good. Does beg the question, does orange juice have good/ bad vintages? :-/

Sandwicheater wins just for being brave enough to drink Becks.

1989 bottle of Marques du muurrietta Rioja. Was a little tired and a whiff of oxidisation, should have drank it 10 years earlier.
Was on a food photoshoot yesterday and the home economist (chef for film/photo food) threw out a bin bag full of dark chocolate that had been in her garage, we opened a bar of Lindt 70% to try but it had bloomed to a pale brown colour and had a gritty texture so I didn't eat any more. Best before 2005.

Does pepper go off?

Since discovering the joys of black pepper I rarely use white pepper any more. Cooking the other day, I used a pinch of white from the shaker then thought "I don't remember ever filling this..." I reckon it was last refilled by my gran, and she died somewhere circa 1992.

it had bloomed to a pale brown colour and had a gritty texture

It'll be fine, just looks funny.

Got a bottle of olbas oil next to me with a expiry date of June 1994. Still clears my sinuses and makes my eyes water, what I can't figure out is how I've had it so long and where it was hidden (esp given I lived and worked in US '97 - '99)!

Found unopened in the booze cupboard just before Christmas, bottle of Baileys 2007!

Does anyone actually know the difference between use by and best before?

What in this thread makes you think they don't ?