Expiration Dates...
Posted by Beans and Greens on Apr 30, 2007 · Member since Apr 2007 · 169 posts
I noticed some soy yogurt I hadn't opened yet that's a week past it's expiration date in the back of my fridge..... I decided it doesn't taste bad or smell bad and soy yogurt is pricey so I'm just going to eat it. I don't think I'm going to get sick from eating it but I'll make sure no one else eats it just in case ;)
Do you think a week past expiry is ok? Do any of you do this with other things lol?! I do this with soymillk too sometimes...
when i was eating lots of regular yogurt there would be times where i'd eat one and then see that it was a week or 2 past its expiry date, but it was completely fine, didn't upset my stomach at all (and this from someone who's lactose intolerant and didnt take lactaid at the time)
so i'm guessing soy yogurt would be fine, but then again i dont know anything about soy yogurt but i would guess it'd be more stable than actual milk yogurt?
i'm a big believer in:
if it's liquid and not fuzzy, moldy, or stinky--it's good
if it's a solid food (bread, etc) and a bit of mold on the outter edge, pick the mold off--good to go
:)
Expiration dates are overrated. Use your best judgment.
I have to echo to use your common sense. There were no expiration dates before there were companies to put them on the food so I believe we were born with an inherent sense of what a bad food looks/smells/tastes/feels like.
Also, if the soy yogurt has live cultures in it, it's very unlikely to go bad anytime soon. I keep my soy yogurt un-refrigerated for days sometimes and it's still good (only the ones with live cultures though).
Typically expiration dates that are printed on packages are anywhere from a few days to a week earlier then the product will actually "go bad." Especially if it is something that generally has a pretty long shelf/refrigerator life, I say you are probably safe for a while past the date!
Typically expiration dates that are printed on packages are anywhere from a few days to a week earlier then the product will actually "go bad." Especially if it is something that generally has a pretty long shelf/refrigerator life, I say you are probably safe for a while past the date!
That just made me remember how I just used some vacuum packed silken tofu in March that was one entire year past its expiration date (yes, 1 year!!). It was still good, I couldn't tell at all that it was even a day past the date.
And that in turn makes me think of the time I opened up hummus I had just bought at the store that was one week before its expiration date and it was covered in mold.
Sometimes the expiration date is selected only because the product looks different at a certain point, even if it's still good. I have a bottle of ketchup in the fridge that is WAY past is expiration date. It darker than normal, but otherwise fine. I've heard that bottled orange juice is the same way--the color will change, but it's still fine.
it's my opinion that companies just use them so that if you eat something that has gone bad and it was past the expiration date and you get sick, you can't sue them. However, most consumers, I would like ot think, are smart enough to realize when food goes bad. So go for it. Especially if you knwo what it SHOULD taste like, then try a bit and if it's funky just toss it ;)
Funny, I got up this AM thinking about a post I sent waaaay along back there called "How Long to Keep Stuff" or some such thing, a realistic take on expiration dates. You might look that up.
I too have eaten yogurt (even plain cowmilk kind) way past its expiration date, with no ill effects.
But, having said that, how come when someone thinks something has gone bad, they want YOU to taste it? :o
I also agree that you would know. I had some tiny mozzarella balls in salted water from TJ's. I thougt they were fine cause they were cheese and had been refrigerated. I don't know what the expiration date was because that usually isn't valid once the food is opened. (i had opened the package and then forgot about it for a while.) When I tasted after it smelled fine, it had the WORST bitter taste like eating aspirin. A small taste should tell you if it's bad and then you're good to go!
i noticed yesterday on some yogurt i bought it said that yogurt is good 10 days past the "sell by" date right on the container.
I, too, eat things past the expiration date...especially soy milk. That is actually one reason I began buying soy milk to begin with! I've never been a huge consumer of any "milk" beverage, but I discovered that I could keep soymilk in the fridge a lot longer than the organic cow milk I was buying. I rarely look at dates anyway. I have taken cheese on 5 day backpacking trips and it still seemed fine...a little oily b/c of the heat, but otherwise good. I think it is really funny how some people go SO nuts about expiration dates, but don't actually think about what they put in their bodies...ex: I have friends who will throw out half a gallon of milk on the exact day it "expires," but will eat a dinner consisting of something like fried bologna, potato chips, and coke. (that is an exaggeration, but you get the point).
I think all of us here are less obsessed with expiration dates, because it isn't so scary when a vegetable goes bad. Soy milk going bad, I say, "Too bad, guess I'll have to throw it out." Cow milk going bad, I used to say, "Oh, that's disgusting! Get it away from me." Bad cow milk definitely smells worse than anything in my fridge now could ever smell. And meat going bad? As far as I'm concerned, it already rotting at the store!