What's the greatest extent (as in the most amount of time) to which you've eaten something past its expiration date with the food still being enjoyable?

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.

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.

This can of pineapple slices has been found in the back of the food cabinet in December 2020. Its expiration date was in July 2017. I did not open it. I carefully removed the can outside right into the trash bin. I didi't want to risk an explosion of this fruit bomb.

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.

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.

I bought a cup of plain yogurt for some naan bread. However do to my natural laziness and the yogurt getting pushed to the back of the fridge I ended actually using it over a year past it's expiration date. The yogurt looked fine, tasted fine (other than being very tangy) and ended up making some tasty naan bread.

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.

I have some spices that are probably pushing 10+ years old that are fine tossed, they're probably just less flavorful than fresh ones.

Do you mean a true expiration date, as in "this food is not safe to eat", or just best by?

If it's the first, I tend to trust my nose and eyes up to a point, depending on the type of food stuff that can grow things that will make my anus prolapse get treated more by the exact date than my nose, same with stuff that's hospital bills in food form. If the date is up, that kind of stuff goes out even if I can't detect anything off, because the risk/reward just isn't favorable. Similarly, if my nose does pick up something off, idgaf what the date is, it gets trashed.

It does help that I've got creeping on 40 years of kitchen exposure and a damn sensitive nose.

But best by? Most of the time, a properly sealed container of something that was safe when it was put in the container can take weeks or months past the best by date, when unopened, to have a noticeable change in taste. Some stuff, particularly canned and freeze dried goods, you can sometimes open them years later and have no detectable difference from something freshly packaged. Obviously, it isn't everything, since some stuff preserves better than others, but food safety isn't usually affected at all.

You gotta be more careful with meats, as an example. It won't necessarily spoil, but it goes tasteless and textureless before some other ingredients.

It really is a case by case basis though. Something like canned tomato soup? It'll taste exactly the same for years. Something like minestrone, though, you go to to a year after best by and you'll notice everything being extra mushy, and the flavor gets blander. Sometimes, even a few months past in that specific soup.

But freeze dried? I've never had anything freeze dried be worse over time if the package is still sealed. That's kinda the point of freeze drying. If it does change, it's on a scale of decades, assuming a good seal on the packaging.

Things like salt pork, there's a fairly firm time limit on. Less so with pickled vegetables, though texture gets bad with some things. Regular dried meats, like jerky, unless it's vacuum sealed, it'll get kinda blah within a week or two of the best by date. Dried fruits, peppers that kind of thing can last years even without packaging. I had a big box of dried peppers that lasted like five years and the last chili I made with them was just as good as the first. Not a bit of difference in taste, texture, or heat level.

Worst thing I ever had that was past best by was deviled ham. I'm not even a fan of the stuff to begin with, but you wanna talk about something getting funky and even more sludgy, holy crap. It even smelled like vomit. Well more than usual lol.

Stale chips. About a week or two past their best by date. They are very chewy and gross. But since I didn't wanna waste them or go to the store, I put olive oil on them and seasoning and put them in an air fryer for a few minutes. They were bomb. Now I do this with regular salted chips. Add olive oil, seasoning Parm cheese etc.

Curry paste, like maybe a year and a half past expiration date. It's one of those things that if they are not moldy they are good, the taste just dies down. So I just made the curry with extra paste and it was yummy!

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.

• Bottle of Coke (unopened, stored without exposition to light) --> one year after exp. date
• Can of noodle soup (unopened) --> one year after exp. date
• dried noodles (unopened; the ones you have to cook before they are edible) --> unknown - at least one year after exp. date
• soft candy (unopened, but exposed to higher temperatures) --> 6 months after exp. date
• chocolate (unopened) --> 6 months after exp. date
• yoghurt (unopened, uninterrupted cooling chain) --> 2 weeks after exp. date

all of these food items were perfectly edible. The candy was a little bit less soft, as it was exposed to higher temperatures once, but they tasted as good as freshly bought.

Most things that have not been opened and/or have not been exposed to light or temperature extremes can be eaten safely way after the expiration date exceeded. But with dairy one has to be more cautios. A week or two past the expiration date shouldn't be a problem, considering it has never been opened before and the cooliing chain has not been interrupted.

I wouldn't risk meat or fish, tho. Food poisoning can be a nasty ordeal. I'd rather dispose of it than taking any risks.

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.

the shop I work in lets staff take written off stuff just so it isn't going to waste so I regularly eat food that's past the expiry date, I think the oldest thing was a bottle of pepsi max lime that was a bit over a year out. It was still fizzy but idk if it tasted off or if I just didn't like the flavour.

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

The greatest - I don't know. The most recent I used: I have this box of instant dark cocoa powder I bought around 5 years ago or so and it's best before Sep 2023. I had a nice cup of hot cocoa with whiskey last night.

Twenty five year old beer.

Some beers get better over time. Dark beers and wild fermentation beers. There's a upper limit though, after a while the flavor thins out, like butter spread over to much toast.

So this beer smelled excellent, yet tasted very shortly intense and then vanished. It wasn't delicious in that way, but very interesting to taste and in that sense enjoyable.

Nutella two years past it's date. Not sure why it held up, there's a ton of reasons it should have gone bad... small miracle but people have made holidays over less.

I am using a chili sauce that's about 2 years out of date.

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

(my bowels disagreed monday morning, though)

Yellow curry paste - About a year. I kept it well sealed. Never had issues.

Bread - my current loaf was "best. By 11/20." There's no mold and I've continued to have my slice with no issues. I store my bread in the fridge.

Chicken - I freeze chicken and will pull out a piece to defrost. I've pulled out some truly ancient chicken before. Still cooked up fine.

Furikake - I just ignore the expiration to be honest. I use it until I'm out, which can be months if not a year. But it's just rice seasoning so I don't think he could do much damage anyway.

I had this pack of hamburger buns that were absolutely in perfect shape months after their expiry. The inside of that pack much have been perfectly sterile.

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.

Some middle eastern brand of juice crystal mix. It's kind of like Tang, in mango and guava flavours, and the containers are the size of coffee tins. I think it might have been expired when I bought it. It expired 4 years ago but I still drink it occasionally and don't notice anything wrong.

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.

Paging Steve1989 to the thread