Always a bone of contention was always told it won’t do you any harm. I suspect the father in law (bless him), thought the use by date meant you couldn’t use it till then no wonder his fridge sometimes resembled a Porton Down experiment. But he got captured at Dunkirk and ended up a POW camp in Poland till 1945, so he’ll have been immune
How do you treat use by dates?

Stick by them........... had food poisoning once and dont want it again.

I rarely throw anything out as i eat the stuff thats getting closer to the use by date first.

eat anything. ignore them totally. had food poisoning once but nothing to do with sell by dates. if it looks fine or smell fine that will do for me.

We used to get by just fine before the use by date era. Just used common sense. If it looked okay, and smelt okay, then it probably was okay. If it tasted like shit when you started to eat it, then you just threw it out and said " it's off that"

I throw all food out that's even reached its sell by date and any food that's been opened for more than 24 hours. But I dont buy that much that's left.

I was brought up in an era when few people had fridges and I don’t recall anyone ever having food poisoning. We didn’t have a fridge but a larder where everything was stored even meats, we didn’t have central heating so the larder wasn’t much warmer than a fridge.
The sell by dates and use by dates are a big con, years ago when you went too the baker, butcher, veg shop there was never any sell by dates on stuff.
There was a programme on TV where they went round collecting stuff thrown in the bins outside supermarket. They cooked it, invited all the bosses from the supermarkets who scoffed it. It was only at the end they disclosed where they got the food from.

Can of worms here Snowy, my wife will not use anything if a day after the use by, I cooked gammon steaks 2 months out of date and they were delicious, she videoed me eating it so could show the coroner!

Steak 4 days past the date is delicious.

Use your eyes and nose, sod the date and probe everything to make sure it`s 75 degrees c.

"probe everything to make sure it`s 75 degrees c"

That must be some hot totty!

Eat it and if it kills you then throw it out.

Works for me every time

If it looks or smells off then dont eat it, otherwise just eat it.

plenty of supermarkets pore dye over the stuff in bins though so i would not try this at home.

I’d have sued them

There was a programme on TV where they went round collecting stuff thrown in the bins outside supermarket. They cooked it, invited all the bosses from the supermarkets who scoffed it. It was only at the end they disclosed where they got the food from.[/quote]
I’d have sued them [/quote]

Who, the a supermarkets for throwing perfectly edible food in the bin ?

profit, profit and yet more profit. they could give some stuff away, think some actually do, but prefer us to give it away.

Depends what kind of food it is really. I do try and eat things before the date comes up though, and I'd never eat meat past it's use by date.

I've got a tin of Tandoori spices whose use-by date is something like 2005. I did use it by 2005, just not all of it.
Nobody said it was a "don't use after" date did they?

Best Before - will be OK for a while afterwards, it might just not be as good as it was. Generally dried and tinned stuff, not likely to go off quickly if stored properly (ie dry and cool place).
Use By - Generally fresh stuff, approach with a bit more caution. Fruit and Veg often has them, but they can often be extended for a while, especially if they've been stored chilled - you can usually tell if they're rotten. Dairy and Meat is more problematic, I've eaten Yoghurts (sealed) a couple of days past Use By without trouble, but anything open is more risky, and meat at least needs to be cooked thoroughly....

exactly. people laugh at me for my demand on having my meat well done. funny how its never me sat on the shitter next day pebbledashing as having half cooked brigade seem to find themselves.,

Hogwash, moist meat rules.

I like a bit of moist meat as well.

Is this thread past its best before date?

What happened to Talbot the Bin dipper ?

What Jamie said in his original post.

I also recall the milk being delivered by the milkman and kept in cold water in a bucket although, from memory, this didn't always do the job.