With scant regulations in place for repurposed food, and institutional purchasing specifications silent, food liquidators underbid their competitors and win contracts nearly every time. In the secondary food market, you get what you pay for, and never has the saying “garbage in, garbage out” been more appropriate.
-Kent
And along the same lines:
Grocery shoppers look to expired food to save money: report
(NewsNation) — Grocery shoppers have become resourceful amid America’s ongoing record inflation, which has spiked grocery prices by 13% over the last year.
According to a September Food Dive study, six out of 10 of the 2,000 surveyed consumers reported buying foods close to the expiration date due to affordability, with 46% saying they disregard the printed expiration date altogether.
While discount grocery shopping isn’t new, the report did find this eye-opening stat: 16.6% of those shopping for bargains started doing so this year.
My wife found my favorite protein bars at the fleamarket for 25 cents apiece. She picks me up some expired treats whenever she hits the market. (The flea market by 65 in Bowling Green if you're looking)
ReplyDeleteI hut the discount grocer first, than the big chain.
ReplyDeleteUp here in the great white north, the label is "best before" date. The idea is that after that date it is no longer fresh, so yeah that shit goes on sale all the time. Bought many a loaf of bread a day before the BB date and froze them. if you toast the bread there is no difference in taste that I can discern.
ReplyDeleteHow come I see them putting "use before/use by dates" on products like bottled water, but not on wine?
ReplyDeletepossibly bacteria in water versus wine preserved by its alcohol content.
Deletethe "best by" date isn't an expiration date...you can save a lot of money on canned goods by using that...
ReplyDeleteThat "expiration date" on canned goods is pure nonsense. A lot of people believe, WRONGLY, that canned food will kill you if eaten after the "expiration date or best by date". Boolshit. It's mostly a contrivance by food manufacturers and .gov to force the uninformed into throwing out what they have and buying more.
ReplyDeleteIt may not taste as good as when freshly purchased, however it has the same nutritional value and as long as the can seal is intact it won't go bad. The only canned food that I've seen go bad is canned tomatoes. I think that the acid in the tomatoes eventually eats away the seals. If the top or sides of the can is bulged out, toss it. I've got ten year old cans of tuna that are perfectly fine when opened and eaten.
Nemo
I was eating Vietnam era C Rations in 1980.
DeleteI et an ten year old can of smeat and lived!
DeleteChutes Magoo
I was eating Korean War rations in 1970.
Deletere -- can to toss
DeleteWe have problems with tomato products in cans instead of glass.
Another short-timer is canned pineapple... it eats the can from the inside.
The expiration date means little, really. I sometimes find my canned food is a year or two out-of-date. The food pantry won't take it, because it's expired. Canned green beans still taste the same to me, expired or not. They get expired because I prefer fresh beans, and won't eat the canned ones, except that I hate to throw away good food I paid for. I only buy cans for an emergency.
ReplyDeleteWhen I once volunteered an "Feed My Starving Children." The younger kids filled the food bags, the older kids packaged the bags into boxes. Being the old guy, I got the grunt job nobody wanted, sticking expiration date labels on the food bags. Would somebody truly hungry care about the expiration date? I don't think so, but it had to be done because of somebody's rules. We tried some of their rice concoction as part of the volunteer experience. It was pretty good, and better than some casserole side dishes I've had at Thanksgiving dinner. I wouldn't want it every day, unless I was really hungry, in which case I would be grateful.
Geek
Every once in a while I notice a package of (usually) beef that's clearly been relabeled at least once. If it's cheap enough I'll buy it and toss it in the freezer. It's not like the thing isn't gonna get cooked properly before being eaten.
ReplyDeleteCanned food? I've used cans almost 20 years past their date, and I'm still here to talk about it. It's not a common thing but I hate throwing stuff out without at least checking first. I did have to throw out some sweetened condensed milk that had turned into a brown brick after 15 years once.
In general I'm finding it harder than even just a few months ago to find marked down food at the big chain stores. I've long had an idea of what stores tend to mark things down at what times, but even going to certain stores on a Friday/Sunday morning isn't a guarantee anymore.
The food expiration dates are placed there due to government regulations. They are placed there by the food companies merely as their best guess as to when the product will still maintain their best nutritional value. The real edible value is of course much longer, and the nutritional value will slowly degrade over time. But as long as the item is edible, the nutritional value will remain somewhat intact, although less than optimal.
ReplyDeleteThe best thing that I have been able to discover is that if you are willing to eat it, meaning it is not disgusting, than it is likely to have at least some nutritional value. Don't of course, take any chances with food that might be spoiled, bulging cans, etc. It could ruin your entire day.
As they say, when in doubt, throw it out. But my mom canned a lot of things when I was growing up, with just a hot water bath, and we never had any problems. Now they recommend using a pressure canner. That of course is how I would go, to be safe. And my mom never canned any meat or other types of things that could cause problems. Just fruits and veggies. The scientists today say that it is not safe to do so, and I won't tell you do follow my mom, my grand mother, of my aunts practice. Again, because just because we used to do it, doesn't mean that it is safe today.
Beef and pork, buy the outdated stuff. Good meat is aged anyway. I buy a pork shoulder and make sausage out of it. Hell, they could repack it and charge a higher than normal price and say it was aged.
ReplyDeleteDaryl
By gawd, if there's one product's best-before date I pay attention to it's salt. Yup. Yessiree Bob, salt. In the ocean it's been fine for a gajillion years but on the grocery shelf it has a BB date. Trust the scoience they say.
ReplyDeleteHell yes! I hit the Aldi every Monday morning at 10 am. That is when they are finished marking down the must sell now products. Most of the time it is pork but I got beef sirloins last week and mutton chops the week before.
ReplyDeleteBeware of canned acidic foods like tomatoes of various types, and for some reason, mandarin oranges (maybe all acid citrus fruits, can't say for sure). These are the ones that detonated on me in storage. And they weren't THAT far past their BB date.
ReplyDeleteAs usual, YMMV. Check for bulges before opening.