How do you keep track of 'use by dates' for store cupboard ingredients?

[buckytom]

I buy stuff in hopes that someday I will be able to use it in a dish. My wife does also, but usually has more immediate plans for tbat stuff, but not always.

Every once in a while, my wife gets a bug up her bonnet and decides it's time to check the date of expiry on stuff and toss out the offenders. I do not believe in dates of expiration, so my task, shpuld I accept it, is to try to anticipate when my wife is about to make a purge and move things about into lesser accessible locations as to avoid expulsion.

Sometimes I just see her tossing stuff and distract her until a stay of execution can be had.

 

[sidevalve]

A rather frightening and messy experience opening a tin of tomato puree taught me that.

We also use the 'cat' test [if it's a meat product] - if the cat won't eat it then it's no good.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I have to agree with @buckytom neither of us in this household believes in expiry dates (especially when it comes to unopened stuff).

So my system is that everything once opened goes into sealed jars (so pasta, pearly barley, semolina, all my different flours, oatmeal, chickpeas, a multitude of dals and beans and other such lentils etc). The jars are labelled usually with the original packets label and any expiry date. I operate the same policy with herbs and spices, refill packs only and they go into my herb and spices jars. Nothing has the correct expiry date on it unless it has only just been purchased.
Tinned stuff if very little. The odd tin of beans, baked beans, tomato puree, coconut milk, coconut cream, coconut condensed milk, etc and well, I did the same in the UK before moving to Australia. I rotate stuff. I only purchase new when I have run out. I don't buy in anticipation of running out. I can cope without for less than a week.
(I operate a blackboard in the kitchen where anything that runs out during the week gets written up on and then added to the weekly shopping list).

BUT, I do actually label things in the freezer but only with what they are and when they were made. Not when I need to eat them by. I just got fed up of opening something that should have been a curry sauce to find out that it was vegetable stock or red lentil soup... somehow, they just don't work the same over vegetables and rice!

As for the idea of a disaster store, I have about 1 months supply of stuff in the house as it is in my pantry and that is not on rationing. I even have more than enough in the way of herbs and spices to keep all of those mysterious dals and beans flavoured during rationing and extending the supply to a say 2 month ration. So I don't really see the need to keep tins and tins of stuff and keep track of what's in them and when they need to be eaten by. After all, I lived in once place where we used to play potluck with the tins because the mice would 'eat' the labels off the tins to use as nesting material and bang went the tin's identity and expiry date in one go. So unless you have also written on the tins.... tinned pineapple with tomato soup somehow just didn't work! (though it did give us a desert).

 

[creative]

I would be more casual about not observing best before dates but for the fact that I have lost my sense of smell; hence I feel somewhat at a disadvantage when it comes to the ability to detect if a food has gone off.

Of course I still have my sense of taste, but I would be interested to know if a sense of smell can pick up what may not be detected by tastebuds?

 

[Morning Glory]

I would be more casual about not observing best before dates but for the fact that I have lost my sense of smell; hence I feel somewhat at a disadvantage when it comes to the ability to detect if a food has gone off.

Of course I still have my sense of taste, but I would be interested to know if a sense of smell can pick up what may not be detected by tastebuds?

I would think so - but we were talking about store cupboard ingredients. I am pretty sure that unless they get damp (in which case you would see mould) or infested with bugs (in which case you would see the bugs) - and both of those eventualities could happen before the expiry date, then any dried, tinned or packet goods are safe to eat. I certainly wouldn't hesitate to eat them. The only issue is likely to be that if herbs, for example, are very old then they lose flavour. Or beans, for example, may take hours too cook because they are so dried out.

 

[MrsDangermouse]

I pay almost no attention to "best before" dates, even "use by" dates are considered as guidance only....I'll trust my eyes, nose and tongue to tell me if they're ok. Can't remember the last time either of us had any adverse food reactions so we must be doing something right ;-)

We could probably live out of the freezer, tins and dried food for a couple of months if we needed to. We do keep a tin of "emergency cassoulet" in the motorhome in case we get caught short and no shopds are open (not unusual in rural France or Austria)...so far I reckon its done about 3000 miles *lol*

 

[creative]

I started this enquiry when I discovered I had virtually a whole packet of pearl barley (at the back of my store cupboard) dated 'best before Jan 2017'. I have subsequently eaten from it twice (first rinsing it well on both occasions).

The first time (just cooked with stock) was fine. Yesterday I made chorizo & pearl barley risotto - requiring twice the amount of pearl barley as previously. When I rinsed it, I did notice that it produced much more cloudy water, i.e. taking longer to rinse clean. The upshot was that, hours after eating the enjoyable meal (which tasted fine), I had diarrhoea! This must have been the barley since the chorizo was cooked correctly and, anyway, is not a raw meat. So, the lesson here is that I should have heeded the fact that it took longer to rinse clean and ditched it.

 

[Morning Glory]

I started this enquiry when I discovered I had virtually a whole packet of pearl barley (at the back of my store cupboard) dated 'best before Jan 2017'. I have subsequently eaten from it twice (first rinsing it well on both occasions).

The first time (just cooked with stock) was fine. Yesterday I made chorizo & pearl barley risotto - requiring twice the amount of pearl barley as previously. When I rinsed it, I did notice that it produced much more cloudy water, i.e. taking longer to rinse clean. The upshot was that, hours after eating the enjoyable meal (which tasted fine), I had diarrhoea! This must have been the barley since the chorizo was cooked correctly and, anyway, is not a raw meat. So, the lesson here is that I should have heeded the fact that it took longer to rinse clean and ditched it.

It possible you are jumping to conclusions - it could be all manner of things which could cause diarrhoea. But generally, not dried grains... and why would it change to being toxic overnight? Cloudiness in the rinsing water is just starch being released and isn't a sign of a problem.

I don't think I've ever bothered to rinse pearl barley!

 

[creative]

It possible you are jumping to conclusions - it could be all manner of things which could cause diarrhoea. But generally, not dried grains... and why would it change to being toxic overnight? Cloudiness in the rinsing water is just starch being released and isn't a sign of a problem.

I don't think I've ever bothered to rinse pearl barley!

I am familiar with cloudiness from rinsing pearl barley. This (2nd) time it was noticeably darker, i.e. not a pale creamy colour but almost yellow. I have no reason to suspect any other ingredient and I rarely get diarrhoea.

 

[Morning Glory]

I am familiar with cloudiness from rinsing pearl barley. This (2nd) time it was noticeably darker, i.e. not a pale creamy colour but almost yellow. I have no reason to suspect any other ingredient and I rarely get diarrhoea.

I can only say that if the 'best before' was Jan 2017 then that only means that taste will deteriorate. So you would have reason to sue if it was somehow infected.

 

[creative]

I can only say that if the 'best before' was Jan 2017 then that only means that taste will deteriorate. So you would have reason to sue if it was somehow infected.

Not really - 'best before' would cover their backs! Really, we are talking some 4 months on when I should have eaten it! I took a risk and paid for it...the rest is in the bin.

I note that high fibre foods can cause diarrhoea.

 

[Cinisajoy]

Not really - 'best before' would cover their backs! Really, we are talking some 4 months on when I should have eaten it! I took a risk and paid for it...the rest is in the bin.

I note that high fibre foods can cause diarrhoea.

My thought was too much fibre in too short a time. So you probably blamed the correct ingredient but for the wrong reason.

 

[creative]

My thought was too much fibre in too short a time. So you probably blamed the correct ingredient but for the wrong reason.

Yes that could be it! I am used to eating a high fibre diet but, as you say, it could be overload! It WAS a big, delicious bowl of food!

 

[Cinisajoy]

Yes that could be it! I am used to eating a high fibre diet but, as you say, it could be overload! It WAS a big, delicious bowl of food!

Last time I had overload, it was from some delicious pork ribs. I thought they were beef.

 

[Elawin]

I never take any notice of best before dates either. I usually only keep a couple of tins of each item in the cupboard (or four in the case of tinned tomatoes) and replace as and when they are used. I buy some packet foods in bulk, so in those cases the best before date is often long gone. So long as they are kept dry and in a steady temperature they are usually OK.

I recently finished a jar of home-made pickle that was four years old and there was absolutely nothing wrong with it - in fact a much, much younger jar of Branston (which had only been opened a couple of weeks and was still well in date) was thrown out because it had developed a bloom. I should really have taken it back but the cost of petrol to take it back was far more than the cost of the product. Commercially made jams don't seem to last long either.

Spices and herbs are usually fine if they have not been opened. They do lose a bit of flavour once opened, however, so in those cases I just bung a bit more in The large pack of chilli powder I bought some time back is still hot!