• Shimitar@feddit.it
    ·
    12 days ago

    Not sure it counts.

    For my 30th birthday my father opened a bottle of 1878 Porto his father bought.

    So it was 130 years old.

    It was... Unreliable. Full taste, very sweet, much more liquorous than regular Porto. We drank it quickly, what was left was fully undrinkable only a few hours later, totally spoiled. But for half an our after being opened, it was truly the most amazing Porto I ever had.

    It has been bottled before cars existed... Before electricity became widespread...

    Really a lifetime experience.

    Now its gone, but I keep the bottle for future storytelling.

  • FishLake@lemmygrad.ml
    ·
    12 days ago

    Salt. What are the chances that my 2.5 billion year old salt will actually go bad in a few months?

    • chaosCruiser@futurology.today
      ·
      12 days ago

      It was originally sea water, but a few billion years go it went bad. After that, it’s been just as bad as the day it crystalized. Fortunately though, you can fix that very easily. Just add water.

  • 🐋 Color 🍁 ♀@lemm.ee
    ·
    12 days ago

    Pasta that was four years past its date. Some pieces were a bit brittle and I think it went a little softer faster than what was usual but overall I didn't notice any difference and I enjoyed it! 😃 Definitely don't do this with already cooked pasta though! The pasta I had was raw and in a sealed bag.

    • SouthEndSunset@lemm.ee
      ·
      12 days ago

      A guy I used to work with would put a discounted cause it’s about to go out of data’s salad on his van dashboard, in a [British] summer, leave it there for up to 6 weeks, then eat it.

  • SoulWager@lemmy.ml
    ·
    12 days ago

    If we're talking about ignoring a date printed on the package, salt. Dunno why it had a date printed on it at all.

    If we're talking about something that does eventually go bad, it would be some other spice that only rarely gets used, dunno which one though.

    If we're talking about something actually considered perishable, eggs.

  • Shimitar@feddit.it
    ·
    12 days ago

    Pasta, i think it was 10 years past expiration date. Packet was sealed and stored in a dry, cool dark cupboard. Once opened, it felt normal. After cooking, you could not feel any difference. It was Barilla.

    Also, cookies. Dry cookies, like crackers. Expiration date was past, how much i don't remember (years, anyway), but the cookies where just fine.

    Same kitchen.

  • Mothra@mander.xyz
    ·
    12 days ago

    Yoghurt about two weeks past (it was unopened previously)

    Milk six days past

    Red meat four days past (never frozen)

    I can't remember much else atm

  • ReallyZen@lemmy.ml
    ·
    12 days ago

    There's this brand of organic yogurt at my local shop that says "probably best before xx/xx/xxxx, but after that just lift the lid and have a sniff"

    I think I remember 6 weeks as being absolutely fine once, and 3 weeks didn't some other time.

    • EpeeGnome@lemm.ee
      ·
      edit-2
      11 days ago

      have a sniff

      I just always do that instead of looking at dates on food. If it looks off, smells off, or tastes off I trash it (always checking in that order, of course). Seems fine, I eat it. Never had a problem doing that.

      Well, never a food bourn illness problem. I had a big argument with a housemate about expired food. Shortly after she moved in, she promptly trashed any food that was any amount past expiration, and proudly informed me that she had cleaned out the fridge, saving me from eating pickles that were a whole 3 months past safe to eat. To be fair to her, half the things she trashed actually were bad, but the pickle jar went right back in the fridge. If you don't want me eating pickles that have been in the trash, Amanda, then don't throw out my perfectly good pickles! Good call on the bottle of ranch dressing though, I forgot that was in there and it looks nasty.

  • Alaskaball [comrade/them]A
    ·
    12 days ago

    a pack of sausages that were 3 years expired. I got a bunch of dried stuff that's more than a decade old but still taste fine, but I don't count those.

  • Ephera@lemmy.ml
    ·
    12 days ago

    My mum had these dried chili flakes, which were a few years past their best-by date. And honestly, I couldn't imagine these really going bad, so long as they remain dry. I mainly tasted some before throwing it into my food to test whether it even still tasted hot. But yeah, they were good.

    Never quite knew what to do with these, when I still lived there, but that made me consider buying some. I cook with more veggies now, where the chili really hits the spot.

  • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social
    ·
    10 days ago

    Very few food products have an expiration date printed on them. A lot of them have a "Sell by" date, which is not an expiration date. We have a local milk producer that prints a "Sell by" date on their bottles. The rule of thumb is that if it's stored in proper refrigeration, unopened, it'll keep for 2 more weeks. (Plus another week to use it up.) But it's impossible to explain that people. The disgust reflex is strong, and you can almost watch it on their faces as it overrides people's rational faculties. (Honestly, that experience helps me understand the recent election results.) As a result, the store that I worked in would as a rule of thumb take the milk off the shelf 3 days before the "Sell by" date, even though it'd be good for another 3 weeks. Milk that didn't sell, we had to pour down the drain.

    One time when I was working there, I had to deal with an irate customer who returned some fancy cheese hors d'oeuvres that she'd received as part of her pick-up order because the package had a "Sell by" date on it that was a couple days past. I refunded the cost of the item, and when I took it back to the cheese department, our cheese monger explained that the date was really only useful for the store to keep its stock rotated. The product didn't spoil after that date; in fact, it got better for several months as the cheese aged. But, we agreed, it's impossible to explain that to people.

    So, to the question, also while working there, I made a delivery to an elderly woman whose son ordered groceries for her. She had a number of items that she didn't use before the "Use by" date, and asked if I'd take them. One of them was a container of plain yogurt. I don't use a lot of yogurt, mainly as a condiment for Indian dishes, so I didn't even open it until about a month after the "Use by" date, and finally finished it probably 3 months after. (Just don't let it warm up, open only briefly, and always use a clean utensil to scoop it out.) It still tasted fresh and enjoyable.

    I still have butter in the refrigerator with a "Use by" date in 2023, because I bought a lot of it when it was cheap (on sale and employee discount), and put it in the freezer. I have eaten canned food several years after the "Best by" date. The heuristic is easy: It it smells good, it's edible. If it smells off, toss it. But I know that there are plenty of people out there with a hair-trigger disgust response, who are convinced that the moment the clock ticks over to the date printed on the package, the contents turn to poison. This heuristic probably grosses them out. Oh well, people aren't rational.

    • RisingSwell@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      ·
      10 days ago

      In Australia we have a split of use by and best before. Best before can effectively be ignored, just might be stale. Use by is closer to accurate where 2 days out of date milk will often be disgusting, presuming it's been opened. Anything still sealed lasts much longer than the suggested date.

  • ...m...@ttrpg.network
    ·
    edit-2
    12 days ago

    ...i ate a fifteen-year-old bag of craisins sunday night; they were good!..

    (my bowels disagreed monday morning, though)

  • Pulptastic@midwest.social
    ·
    12 days ago

    Way back when, one convenience store had milk that was stored super cold and/or was super pasteurized, it would stay good 30+ days after the expiration date. I think the longest I went was in the low 40s days after expiration and it tasted completely normal.

  • EpeeGnome@lemm.ee
    ·
    edit-2
    11 days ago

    My brother ate an 8 years expired Twinky we found when we were in boy scouts. We were cleaning out the troop's chuck wagon (food and cooking trailer). Something got lost at the back of a deeper storage compartment, and being the little skinny kid, I volunteered to climb in to find it. I noticed the Twinky slipped into a crack and read the date with amazement. The thing was over half as old as I was, and must have been sitting in that trailer, outdoors, for at least most of that time! After pardeing it around demanding everyone "behold the ancient Twinky" someone dared me to eat it. I never liked Twinkies, but as I'd already confirmed it was still sealed, and my brother was hungry, he didn't hesitate to claim that dare. We all watched in suspense for his reaction, and were disappointed when he just shrugged and said that it tasted a little dry, but otherwise no different than normal.