Food question: Expiration date.
Printed From: Tippmann Paintball
Category: News And Views
Forum Name: Thoughts and Opinions
Forum Description: Got something you need to say?
URL: http://www.tippmannsports.com/forum/wwf77a/forum_posts.asp?TID=182517
Printed Date: 02 May 2026 at 11:02pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.04 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Food question: Expiration date.
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Subject: Food question: Expiration date.
Date Posted: 27 July 2009 at 1:49pm
|
Being the model of efficiency, I finished my work for the day before noon and was told I could go home and do some work from there. For the first time in about two months, I got to come home and make lunch. After mulling over my choices for a few moments, I decided on a honey roasted turkey sandwich, with mayo, black pepper, and sliced dill pickle. I rummaged through the refrigerator, and came up with the ingredients I needed, only to remember that the pickles had been in there for quite some time. Now, my wife doesn't eat them, so she'd never know or even care just how long they'd been in there, so eating them or getting rid of them would have fallen to me. Anyway. For kicks, I checked to see if there was an expiration date on them........ May 25, 2009. I was confused. I thought the whole point of pickling something in the first place was to keep it from getting spoiled, rendering an expiration or 'best used by' date on a jar of pickles rather silly. Tasting them, they were still crunchy, so they made their way onto the sandwich and I am enjoying a successful and tasty lunch as I prepare to do some work from home. My question is.....do pickles really 'go bad,' or was that date a 'suggestion' by the pickle factory? ------------- ? |
Replies:
Posted By: Benjichang
Date Posted: 27 July 2009 at 2:11pm
|
Obviously, they're going to go bad sometime. I'd say with something like pickles, +/- a few months probably is going to be fine. If it were May 25, 2008, I wouldn't eat them. Side note, one time I found a can of Cream of Onion soup at my grandmother's house that expired in 1982. It was 1998 I believe when I found it. edit- I take that back. It expired in 1984, and I found it in 2000. -------------  irc.esper.net #paintball |
Posted By: jmac3
Date Posted: 27 July 2009 at 2:17pm
|
I have no idea if pickles go bad, but stuff(bottled water) is required a date.
------------- Que pasa? 
|
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 27 July 2009 at 2:49pm
Damn. I'll let you know if I die. ------------- ? |
Benjichang wrote:Posted By: Benjichang
Date Posted: 27 July 2009 at 2:56pm
------------- irc.esper.net #paintball |
Posted By: usafpilot07
Date Posted: 27 July 2009 at 3:05pm
And that's negotiable depending on how much alcohol you've had! ------------- Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo |
Posted By: Benjichang
Date Posted: 27 July 2009 at 3:08pm
|
Oh, lawl. I set that one up. INB4 Mack.
------------- irc.esper.net #paintball |
Posted By: agentwhale007
Date Posted: 27 July 2009 at 3:13pm
| I don't like eating anything a week outside the date. Less if it is a dairy product. |
Posted By: Mack
Date Posted: 27 July 2009 at 7:08pm
|
If it's got vinegar in it I ignore expiration dates. Reb; eat the pickles and put me in your will. Benji; feel better now? ------------- 
|
Posted By: little devil
Date Posted: 27 July 2009 at 7:27pm
|
For the most part I ignore them if everything smells and looks good. Except dairy and fresh poultry.
I think there more there to help push more of the product.
What did you do before there was best before dates??
|
Posted By: Mack
Date Posted: 27 July 2009 at 7:54pm
Have my ex try it and wait 24 hours. -------------
|
Posted By: ShortyBP
Date Posted: 27 July 2009 at 8:20pm
I'm in the "ignore" crowd. Pickles? Even if it were May 2008, I'd still eat them. If they don't taste right, I made a bad choice. If they still taste fine, then everything's good. For the most part, I'm amongst those that believe that expiration dates are largely a ploy to just get you to buy more. I just went to my fridge to check the date on the oldest bottle of salad dressing I have. It's a Kens Lite Caesar, date on bottle: Feb 2006. Yes, SIX. I still use it. As you can tell, I don't eat salad very often... hence the bottle not being finished yet (still have half of it left). But I do still use this dressing, despite being 3.5 years old. It's fine. It'll probably take me another 3.5 years to finish it. I expect it to still be good in 2012-13 when that day comes. Milk... date gets ignored. If it passes the sniff test, it's good. Sometime it spoils before the date, sometimes it lasts a few days past. Canned soup with expiration dates a year past when they are sold off the shelves? Please. Has our canning industry gotten so bad that canned foods no longer last for years and years (or decades)? I think not. My wife is of the "throw it out" crowd. I'm too cheap. I paid something like $2.50 for that salad dressing back in '05! Damned if I toss it out before it's done! |
Posted By: oldpbnoob
Date Posted: 27 July 2009 at 8:24pm
| With Mack on the vinegar. If it's been in the fridge and in vinegar you should be good to go as long as their isn't anything growing on it. Dairy is iffy on dates, but I think I read one time that the dates on milk are "sell by" dates really. Most products should be good for at least a week after. If it's skim milk or 1 %, I have seen it last nearly a month after the date. Lunch meats are where I am sketchy. I typically won't let them go for longer than 7 days, less for roast beef. |
Posted By: Bunkered
Date Posted: 27 July 2009 at 8:54pm
|
I have some mayo in my fridge that expired September '08.
Smells/looks/tastes normal to me, so I'm still using it. Haven't died yet. ------------- 
|
Posted By: GI JOES SON
Date Posted: 27 July 2009 at 9:59pm
|
they do the same thing with beers, budweiser tried to be cute and put a "born on" date on the bottoms of the cans and the bottles. its usually about 3 months, but i think like most other things its just a suggestion, plus or minus a few days/weeks/months (depending on what it is). sometimes with pickles you can taste if theres something funky about them too |
Posted By: The Guy
Date Posted: 27 July 2009 at 10:25pm
|
Since pickling is a method of preservation, you should be perfectly fine eating them. An expiration date is more of a stores way of covering their own butt. Sometimes stuff goes bad before, usually it goes bad long after. ------------- http://www.anomationanodizing.com - My Site 
|
Posted By: mbro
Date Posted: 27 July 2009 at 10:31pm
|
I'm with shorty on this one.
Being as my previous living situation was pretty awful I encountered a few milk jugs ready to explode in the back of the fridge due to bacteria causing gas expansion in the bottle. Quite awful. Thanks old roommates....(I don't drink milk) ------------- 
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos. |
Posted By: MeanMan
Date Posted: 27 July 2009 at 10:47pm
|
I had a Coke one day at my grandmas, I figures it was normal. It had one of those non-wide mouth tops everything has.
It expired 9 years prior to me drinking some of it. It was one of the worst tasting things ever. ------------- 
hybrid-sniper~"To be honest, if I see a player still using an Impulse I'm going to question their motives." |
Posted By: mbro
Date Posted: 27 July 2009 at 11:00pm
-------------
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos. |
Posted By: Kayback
Date Posted: 28 July 2009 at 4:03am
|
Yaks piss in toilets? Something new every day.
On to the preserved food thing, yeah, it should be good. Generally you'll not eat things that are off, they will just smell to damn bad to be able to stomache them. The whole 30 000 years of evolution thing. If your body doesn't want it, it'll generally let you know. First step is not liking the aroma. Expiry dates are *mostly* a way of protecting the company that sells it. Especially things like canned goods. Modern canning methods are way superior to older methods, including better pasturising and nitrogen flushing the cans. As for pickles, well they are pickled. If they have been in the brine/vinegar the whole time and not exposed to the air, they should be good. I generally don't bother with the expiry dates on them. They last until they are gone. Basically everything gets the sniff test. Open it up, smell it. If it makes me gag, it gets tossed On a side note, if you are worried about Semonella, Origanum (sp? sp?) kills it. So just add some to anything you are cooking that you are worried about. Obviously does not work with eggs :) Hell 2 months over for pickels is still "new". Quite often I've made something and only checked the ingredients while tidying up. I found something, I can't recall what, Jelly powder maybe, that was 1998 :) it made great jelly. http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/24/army.aged.cake/index.html - Incidently, 37 year old pound cake in a can. |
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 28 July 2009 at 7:52am
|
Kayback, I saw that link, that's awesome. Yeah, no ill effects from the pickles the other day, but I'll share another disgusting food story. When I was in college, I had a bottle of apple juice that I was drinking straight out f the container. Well, I got about halfway through it and set it on the floor where it got slipped under the bed and forgotten about.....until I moved out 4 months later. The bottle was swollen up, and inside it was mold and all kinds of nastiness. Rather than dispose of it, I duct taped the top on to make sure that any accumulated pressure wouldn't blow it off, took it home with me and let it stew for another few months. Then I took it outside and shot it with a .22. The thing exploded! There wasn't a single bit of plastic bigger than a dollar bill left. It was amazing the pressure behind that bottle. ------------- ? |
Posted By: new jersey
Date Posted: 28 July 2009 at 11:51am
|
For the most part, if its sealed I'll still eat it for a couple months after. If the seal is broken, the sitution is iffy.
Although my friends and I enjoy filling our vehicles with recently expired(often a week or less) Frito Lay products taken from the local distributing center.
|
Posted By: Frozen Balls
Date Posted: 29 July 2009 at 12:11am
|
PICKLES GO BAD. THEY GO TERRIBLY BAD. DO NOT EAT. ------------- 
|
Posted By: Frozen Balls
Date Posted: 29 July 2009 at 12:12am
|
The preceding post only applies to pickles that have been opened and sitting around in room temperature for a while, before being thrown into the fridge for a few more months.
-------------
|
Posted By: Hairball!!!
Date Posted: 29 July 2009 at 3:54pm
| I believe a jar of pickles that was dug out of the Titanic wreckage was eaten |