"Best if used by" dates...do you follow or ignore?

[Omy]

A friend of mine is a stickler for following the dates stamped on foods. I tend to use those dates as a guideline, but often ignore them.

She recently threw out almost 5 pounds of flour that had been stored in her fridge "because it was about to expire". I'm sure I've never checked the expiration date of flour...it gets tossed only when I notice something walking or flying out of the bag. She won't use an egg that's a day past the "best if used date".

If meat or fish smells bad, I toss it regardless of date stamp. But I often use condiments and dressings that are months past their stamp.

I'm never sure what to do with "expired" canned food. If the can is intact and it's less than a year old I will probably use it if it looks and smells fine.

I throw away food with freezer burn, but don't worry about dates if food in the freezer is well wrapped and doesn't smell bad when I defrost it.

Am I playing with fire?

[Louise]

I rarely look at the dates. I'll go a few years beyond the dates of canned foods. I just used a can of pears that were about three years beyond the best by date. It was fine. I try to rotate my pantry so this doesn't happen, but I found it in the back of the cabinet one day.  I just used some instant tapioca that was years beyond the date in a pie. As far as meat/dairy goes, I pretty much ignore the guidelines if it's stored properly. I mostly go by the sight/smell test. No problems and I've lived this way for decades.

I think a lot of best by dates are marketing. I agree that quality may deteriorate in some products, but that doesn't mean they are necessarily bad to consume.

[JLee]

I generally ignore them unless something is super old, like a salad dressing dated over a year ago will go but yogurt from 3 months ago is fine if it passes the sniff test.

[GilesMM]

The discount grocers are often peddling stuff near expiration. We've never had a problem.

[oldladystache]

A few years ago I saw my neighbor heading for the dumpster with lots of food and I asked her about it. She told me she throws everything out when it gets to its sell by date. I told her she didn't need to do that but she insisted, so I asked her to give it to me rather than tossing it.

Since then she's been keeping me supplied with eggs and produce and meat and some canned goods.

Unfortunately, she fell about 2 months ago and hasn't recovered. She's in hospice care now with her daughter staying with her.

But to answer your question, I don' t pay any attention to the dates.

[GuitarStv]

Use your nose and eyes.  I've found that if the food smells fine and doesn't have anything that looks obviously wrong, it's good to eat.

As mentioned, yogurt three months past the expiry date usually tastes fine and will result in no ill effects.  Milk is very iffy around here - usually a day or two after the date and it is going bad.  Cheese without mold/discolouration is always good.  Canned goods are fine for years after the expiry date, just make sure they're not dented outwards and not rusted.  Cereal/cookies tend to taste a bit funky when you get a few months over the date, so I don't eat them.  Freezer stuff stays good as long as it doesn't get too badly freezer burned (minor freezer burn is fine if you're doing stews).

[Chaplin]

The Climate Town channel on YouTube has a great video about this topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GDLaYrMCFo

The TLDR is, as people above has said, trust your nose. It's still worth watching for many other reasons.

[Tasse]

"Best if used by" means exactly what it says. It doesn't have anything to do with food safety; it's just how long the producer is willing to stand by the quality.

[SunnyDays]

I only pay attention to expiry dates on medications, and even then, give them a 6 month grace period.  For canned food, it is generally good for 2 years past the Best Before date, as I was told by Maple Leaf when I called to inquire about a can of meat that had a code on it.  Even after that, it's past it's prime nutritionally and taste/appearance-wise, but is still safe to eat as long as there is no major dent in the can where air may have gotten in.

Dates are guidelines only.  Looking at and smelling the food will give you the best indication of the safety of the food.  As long as it's been stored correctly, I don't let dates worry me.  I've never heard of anyone I know getting sick from expired food.  Undercooked chicken is usually the culprit.

[jfer_rose]

During the early days of the pandemic, I made a recipe for pumpkin bread with a can of pumpkin that had expired a couple of years previously. It was so delicious, the best pumpkin bread I've ever had. I've made the same recipe a couple times since then and both members of my household agree that it wasn't nearly as good. I don't think the expired pumpkin was the cause of the extra-delicious baking, but it sure does tell me that expiration dates are just suggestions.

[Shinplaster]

You can do the float test for eggs.  I just finished using a carton dated a month ago - they were all sinkers and perfectly edible.   I take the sell/best buy dates as a suggestion to watch the quality, that's it.   Our yogurt is 6 weeks out of date, and fine.  Our peanut butter is a year out of date, and also fine.  I'm sure I have some canned items in the pantry that are out of date, but until it has been years, I won't worry about it.   DIL was about to throw out yogurt a week ago because it was a week past its best before date.  She hadn't even opened it to see if it was OK, and was shocked when I said the dates didn't matter.  She's been tossing it for years without doing a nose and visual check, and is upset at the money she has wasted.

We have the same issue as GuitarStv with milk or cream though.  I think that is more a function of living in the GTA - since we moved here 3 years ago, sour milk has become a recurring problem, even when they are well within the use by dates.  I suspect grocery stores around here let it sit on pallets for hours before refrigerating, or their fridges are not cold enough.   I now buy milk or cream only at Costco if possible - we don't seem to have a problem with theirs.

[Metalcat]

Lol, no, I don't pay attention to those dates.

[YttriumNitrate]

I generally ignore most of them.

A few years ago a store near me had a great price on 5lb boxes of oatmeal in vacuum sealed pouches so I really loaded up. The expiration/best by date was maybe 6-months from when I bought it, but it still smells/tastes great.

I also have a few bottles of sunblock that are a few years past their expiration. Sunblock definitely does lose some of its efficacy over time, so while at one point it was SPF50 I now treat it as SPF15 and haven't had any issues.

[10dollarsatatime]

I mostly ignore them. If it looks good and smells good, it's probably good.  I have found that there are particular things where the quality falls the closer it gets to (and passes) the best by date.  Soft protein bars are one of those things.  I used to buy them from the second chance store, but had stale hard bars about half the time.  (We've got a second chance store that receives Costco returns/damaged packaging/close dated items.  I love it.)  OTOH, I'll buy up the GF pastas, dry goods, occasional cans of things, etc.  I also have chickens and keep their eggs on the counter for up to a couple of months before they've dehydrated enough to be unpleasant. 

[snic]

I make my own yogurt. Haven't noticed a "best by" date on it yet.

That said, if kept long enough it does go bad. It's pretty obvious from the sour taste and sometimes the green fuzz provides a good clue. Generally that's my rule with any refrigerated food.

I've never yet cracked an egg open to find it's gone bad. Never did understand why they say natural gas smells like rotten eggs. Has everyone on the planet smelled eggs rotting except me?

[Tasse]

I also have chickens and keep their eggs on the counter for up to a couple of months before they've dehydrated enough to be unpleasant.

To be fair, fresh untreated eggs genuinely will keep longer than grocery store eggs that have been bleached. But still, the float test mentioned upthread is a better assessment than the date.

Milk and yogurt both will look/smell/taste bad well before they are dangerous to consume.

[Dicey]

I'm on an eat down the pantry quest. Last week I used up some pudding with a 2014 expiration date and a gifted box of latke mix, which expired in 2018. Both were fine.

Yesterday,  I popped into Grocery Outlet, as we were driving by after doing another errand. They had a nice snack that would be good to share at the Magical Moab Meetup, so I bought a bunch. Between now and then, some of them will "expire". I doubt anyone will care.

[lhamo]

One of the people in my Buy Nothing group used to work as some kind of food science person.  According to her, you can ignore the best by dates on most foods. 

I'm on an "eat down the freezer/pantry" drive and about to make a batch of cream of broccoli soup from some frozen broccoli from Costco that has been in our freezer since early pandemic days.  Gonna use a baggie of old parmesan rinds of roughly the same vintage to add extra umami to the broth (made from better than bullion that is also long past its due date).  I will get several nice meals out of food that other people probably would have tossed. 

[10dollarsatatime]

I also have chickens and keep their eggs on the counter for up to a couple of months before they've dehydrated enough to be unpleasant.

To be fair, fresh untreated eggs genuinely will keep longer than grocery store eggs that have been bleached. But still, the float test mentioned upthread is a better assessment than the date.

Milk and yogurt both will look/smell/taste bad well before they are dangerous to consume.

Eggs can float and still be fine.  Eggs can sink and be rotten. I had a chicken for a while who's eggs floated the day they were laid.  If I'm feeling responsible, I crack them into a separate dish, but I've not had a rotten egg yet (knock wood).  Old ones can get a the thick texture as the moisture evaporates through the shell, though.  I bake with those on occasion, but I don't eat them plain.  To be fair, I don't know that I'd do the same with grocery store eggs.

[Blue Skies]

I've used grocery store eggs a month or more past their expiration date and never had a rotten one yet. 
I found a bag of flour that had expired 5 years ago in my pantry, and used it up.  No problems with it, though I do live in a cool/dry climate.

I had heard about a study the military did saying tylenol 20 years past it expiration date was still 80% effective, and safe to use.  This is the closest I can come to it with a quick google.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/drug-expiration-dates-do-they-mean-anything
I will usually toss liquid medications a year after the expiration date, but other than that I just keep it around until it gets used.

[snic]

I've used grocery store eggs a month or more past their expiration date and never had a rotten one yet. 
I found a bag of flour that had expired 5 years ago in my pantry, and used it up.  No problems with it, though I do live in a cool/dry climate.

I had heard about a study the military did saying tylenol 20 years past it expiration date was still 80% effective, and safe to use.  This is the closest I can come to it with a quick google.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/drug-expiration-dates-do-they-mean-anything
I will usually toss liquid medications a year after the expiration date, but other than that I just keep it around until it gets used.

My aunt was a nurse and she used to scoff at drug expiration dates. I'll take acetaminophen or ibuprofen or cold medicine that's a couple of years out of date, as long as it's in pill form. I agree with you about throwing out liquid medications not long past the expiration date. That include eyedrops. Which is painful because anti-allergy eye drops are expensive and my wife needs them only a couple of time a year - but when she needs them, they really help with the itchy eyes. The expiration date is usually 16 or 18 months, so she gets maybe 5 or 6 uses at most out of a bottle.

[NorCal]

I volunteered at a food bank that had a policy on this.  Canned food could be eaten if it was less than a year after the sell-by date.  I assume this is based on assumptions around liability and safety.

This is what I generally stick with for canned goods.

I gauge anything in the refrigerator based on sight and smell.  This stuff goes bad eventually, and you know when it goes bad.  The dates are also less useful, as it really depends on when they're opened.

[seattlecyclone]

"Best if used by" means exactly what it says. It doesn't have anything to do with food safety; it's just how long the producer is willing to stand by the quality.

This. "Best before" means "we have no reason whatsoever to expect that the food would taste any less than perfect before this date." It is not an indication that the food will self-destruct the next day after the printed date. We eat stuff past the printed date all the time. We do occasionally go through the pantry and put stuff near/past its printed date in a "use this first" area, but the stuff still gets eaten.

[Zikoris]

Probably ignore and go by visual/smell, but I very rarely have anything hit the expiry date because I simply don't buy food and then forget about it for weeks/months/years. If that happens with any regularity, you should change your shopping system so you're not buying such a ridiculous amount.

A good system to try is "empty fridge Friday" - shoot to have no perishable food/ingredients (other than condiments) left in the fridge by the end of the week (or by whatever day you grocery shop). Even if you don't always hit it, it's a good thing to shoot for. Makes mystery gross/rotten shit a thing of the past.

[Metalcat]

"Best if used by" means exactly what it says. It doesn't have anything to do with food safety; it's just how long the producer is willing to stand by the quality.

This. "Best before" means "we have no reason whatsoever to expect that the food would taste any less than perfect before this date." It is not an indication that the food will self-destruct the next day after the printed date. We eat stuff past the printed date all the time. We do occasionally go through the pantry and put stuff near/past its printed date in a "use this first" area, but the stuff still gets eaten.

Yeah, best before dates have always been about quality, not safety.

Dried legumes are perfectly safe to cook and eat after 5 years, they just have a horrid, borderline inedible texture, but would be great in a survival situation.

When I'm in my city home, I get most of my groceries from a service that collects about to/recently expired foods from grocery stores and sells a week's worth of food for $40. They have signs all around the distribution center explaining the whole "best before, still good after" concept.

[GuitarStv]

Probably ignore and go by visual/smell, but I very rarely have anything hit the expiry date because I simply don't buy food and then forget about it for weeks/months/years. If that happens with any regularity, you should change your shopping system so you're not buying such a ridiculous amount.

A good system to try is "empty fridge Friday" - shoot to have no perishable food/ingredients (other than condiments) left in the fridge by the end of the week (or by whatever day you grocery shop). Even if you don't always hit it, it's a good thing to shoot for. Makes mystery gross/rotten shit a thing of the past.

It's not always a matter of forgetting it.

I bought a two kilogram container of unpopped popping corn on sale from costco 12 years ago.  We've been slowly eating our way through it and are down to the last 1/10th or so - still tastes great.

[ChickenStash]

I usually ignore the dates and go by how something smells, looks, or tastes. Our senses are pretty well tuned to detect a lot of harmful things if we pay attention.

The biggest exception for me is mayo and deli meat. I had a very bad day that was likely caused by a sandwich with so if I have mayo or deli stuff that's been in the fridge for longer than I'm comfortable with then it gets tossed. Lunch meat doesn't usually hang around but for mayo I try to buy the smallest amounts I reasonably can just so I don't wind up tossing too much.

[Morning Glory]

Thanks for this thread! it reminded me use up some milk that was about to go bad. I would normally put it in the freezer but this partial gallon was already frozen once when we went on vacation, so I tried making ricotta cheese in the instant pot. Now that I know it's easy I will probably start making it all the time. We don't drink milk but I use it in oatmeal and recipes.

I am firmly in team "sniff test" however I did just throw out a partial bottle of hot sauce that had become discolored (it was probably just growing vinegar mother and thus fine but it looked gross and there wasn't that much left so I only deserve half a face punch lol). Other than that the last time I am pretty good about sticking things in the freezer if I can't use them right away. Most of my items are homemade or not in their original containers (I bought airtight ones for pantry staples after a moth infestation) so there aren't any dates anyway.

[Photograph 51]

Probably ignore and go by visual/smell, but I very rarely have anything hit the expiry date because I simply don't buy food and then forget about it for weeks/months/years. If that happens with any regularity, you should change your shopping system so you're not buying such a ridiculous amount.

A good system to try is "empty fridge Friday" - shoot to have no perishable food/ingredients (other than condiments) left in the fridge by the end of the week (or by whatever day you grocery shop). Even if you don't always hit it, it's a good thing to shoot for. Makes mystery gross/rotten shit a thing of the past.

It isn't always that the food went out of date after being bought.  I buy most of my food from either a bent  and dent store or a warehouse buying program that sells the food already out of date for dirt cheap prices.  I have been buying items already out of date for years and have never had a problem.  For the warehouse program, we have to buy by the case.  Since the discount warehouse is about 60 miles from where I live, a group of us puts in quarterly orders and the person with a box truck picks up the items (we all chip in to cover that person's travel and time.)  I just put in the my order and will pick it up next week.  These are a few of the items I ordered with sell by dates:

Bird's Eye Microwaveable Yellow Turnips- 12 boxes, 12 ounces each, best by date 11/23/22.  Cost: $0.01
Jacqueline's Oatmeal Raisin Vegan Cookie Dough- 210 cookies, best by date 3/30/23.  Cost: $6.24 ($0.32 per pound)
Boca Spicy Chik'n Veggie Patties- 12 boxes, 10 ounces each, best by date 3/17/23.  Cost: $1.19
Eclipse Non-Dairy Cookie Butter Frozen Dessert- 8 containers, 14 ounces each, best by date 6/1/22.  Cost: $0.01
Green Street Roasted Garlic Hummus Bites- 10 pounds, best by date 4/24/23.  Cost: $1.19
Follow Your Heart Soy Free Vegenaise- 6 containers, 14 ounces each, best by date 7/21/23.  Cost: $1.19

The only way I can get these kind of prices is to be willing to purchase items that are out of date.  It also doesn't make sense for me to change my shopping system to not have a ridiculous amount.  The only way I can buy these items is buy the case and the only way I can buy them without having to drive a long distance is to order when everyone else in the group is ordering.  Since that is only once every three months, I buy a lot at a time and then only have to fill in with an occasional visit to the bent and dent for fresh items.

[Sibley]

All of my food safety problems have resulted from improper storage or handling, not how old it is. There is a point where it becomes silly, but that is generally several years after the best by date. I think I had the same bottle of lemon juice in the fridge for about 10 years. I know my parents had a bottle of worschester sauce that was easily 20 years old.

I do toss things that start looking bad, smell bad, or otherwise I'm concerned about. I tossed the end of a jar of mayo today because it looked quite suspect.

The people who are so strict on best buy dates in my experience also have a lot of overlap with anxiety.

[Just Joe]

Beware of old mayo or mayo that didn't make it through a power outage. I'm pretty sure it was mayo that gave me a week of misery that landed me in an ER back in my early 20s. Just a theory.

We have a can of soup that we've had for 20 years. Its part of a running joke. We bought it, neither of us ate it and one day noticed how old it was. So we put it back into the pantry and it has followed us through several moves. It'll go away if it swells someday. Neither of us will ever eat it. Kids know to stay away too. Just one of those dumb jokes that lasts forever.

Count us as the sell/use by date is a suggestion.

[snic]

Beware of old mayo or mayo that didn't make it through a power outage. I'm pretty sure it was mayo that gave me a week of misery that landed me in an ER back in my early 20s. Just a theory.

We have a can of soup that we've had for 20 years. Its part of a running joke. We bought it, neither of us ate it and one day noticed how old it was. So we put it back into the pantry and it has followed us through several moves. It'll go away if it swells someday. Neither of us will ever eat it. Kids know to stay away too. Just one of those dumb jokes that lasts forever.

Count us as the sell/use by date is a suggestion.

Early 90s: The host of a party I went to showed off a can of "Tow-Foo", which was swollen but hadn't burst (yet?). He said that he'd been at his mother's place recently and she'd said, "Don't we have a can of tofu somewhere in here?" and pulled this can out from the back of her cabinet. His guess was that it had been there since the 1950s. I wonder if it's still biding its time.

Almost more surprising to me was that tofu was once sold in cans.

[FireLane]

Polar researchers in Greenland came across a 60-year-old stash of canned goods left behind by a previous expedition, including crackers, jam, beans, and meat. They ate it all. It was still good:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/arctic-explorers-uncover-60-year-old-food-stash-180956936/

I wonder what the "best if used by" dates on those cans said.

[Omy]

That's cool. I should have made this a poll to see if there is anybody reading this who actually follows the dates.

I just threw out a can of three year old turkey chili. But I'm not sure I would eat "fresh" turkey chili in a can. No idea how that even made it into my pantry.

[SunnyDays]

I'm pretty chill even about mayo as long as it's been refrigerated it's whole life.  I once made a big bowl of potato salad and didn't check the date on the mayo.  After it was made, a family member said the mayo was a year old and wouldn't eat it.  The other three of us did, with no ill effects.  I probably wouldn't have used it if I had know, but I didn't and everyone survived just fine.

[darknight]

I've had food within "safe" date go bad, so the dates aren't always 100%. I can't imagine a world before expiration dates, people just went by what was taught to them of how the food looked/smelled.

[GuitarStv]

Found some three year old chocolate chip cookie dough in the back of the freezer and made cookies with it yesterday.  There's something different about the flavour but they still taste like chocolate chip cookies and I'm not dead yet.  :P

[Adventine]

Found some three year old chocolate chip cookie dough in the back of the freezer and made cookies with it yesterday.  There's something different about the flavour but they still taste like chocolate chip cookies and I'm not dead yet.  :P

That's one good freezer!

[use2betrix]

Non-important medications, fair game as long as they don’t look weird. Anything that important I would have consumed it before it expedited (as directed).

Dairy and meat I’m pretty weird about. A few days might be ok, but I’m not pushing it. Zero chance I’m taking any sort of risk even smelling milk that’s 2 weeks past its expiration. If it’s bad I’ll probably be grossed out of that food for a long time.

Basically - it depends on how long the shelf life is. If it’s a food with a 2 year shelf life and it’s a few months past, I won’t think twice. If it’s a food with a few week shelf life, I’ll give it a few days.

[Raenia]

Food, if it looks fine and smells fine, no bulging cans or broken seals on jars, I'll give it a quick taste test. If all senses say it's fine, I'll go ahead and eat it. Best By dates are mainly indicators of freshness, not safety. Use By dates can go either way, but are generally quite conservative, and most things last longer if stored properly.

Medications, depends what's in it. Solid dose/tablet or capsule products stay good for a long time, though may lose some efficacy. With very stable compounds (Ibuprofen, for instance), the expiration date is more about how long it's worth testing out to, rather than something actually being wrong with the product. In my experience, most companies won't bother testing past 3-4 years max, but if a product is meeting criteria at 4 years, there's no reason to expect it won't make it to 5. Gel capsules I'm more suspicious of, especially if they weren't stored perfectly - and the medicine cabinet in a bathroom is a terrible place to store medications. Liquid dosage products are even more iffy, and especially anything containing Phenylephrine. Those I wouldn't take much past expiry. Anything with a 2 year rather than a 3 year expiration period, it's probably because in testing some parameter was trending toward failing criteria. Throw away and buy a new one.

Things like lotion and makeup, the main concern is the potential for bacterial growth. Pump bottles are safer than flip top bottles are safer than jars you stick your fingers in.

Sunscreen came up in another thread - definitely loses efficacy, but I still use out of date sunscreen. That calculation might change if I burned easily, had a family history of skin cancer, or spent a lot of time outside.

[Josiecat22222]

FDA only has a true expiration date for infant formula.

All others of the "best buy" "sell by" "expiration date" "freshness date" etc is a mishmash without a formal standardization process and is more geared to optimal taste and other marketing gobbledygook than actual food science.  The true food safety answer is to follow your nose.  "when in doubt, throw it out" applies to dairy/meat products in my fridge based on smell.  Frozen or pantry goods (largely canned goods or true dry goods like beans/rice/lentils/pasta etc have no absolute rules in my home.

[Dicey]

Yesterday, we stopped by a SuoerWally to get supplies for the Magical Moab Meetup, specifically S'mores stuff.  They had  packages of "6 Full Size" Hershey bars (the best for melting) for $1. I bought five. There is no expiration date on the outer wrapper, but I suspect the inner bars will have expired or nearly expired dates. Don't believe anyone will care, certainly not this mustachian.

[simonsez]

Polar researchers in Greenland came across a 60-year-old stash of canned goods left behind by a previous expedition, including crackers, jam, beans, and meat. They ate it all. It was still good:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/arctic-explorers-uncover-60-year-old-food-stash-180956936/

I wonder what the "best if used by" dates on those cans said.

There was the guy who owns the "Boneyard" in Alaska who ate mammoth meat and said he seemed fine afterward.  Ethics aside, food storage is pretty interesting!

[erp]

Agree with everyone about mostly ignoring the posted dates and going by smell/taste. That said, if something feels kind of off, I won't generally worry much about tossing it. I try to do a good job eating the old stuff before it goes bad already.

I do try to eat more fresh/not frozen veggies and stuff, with a preference for things that haven't been refrigerated and shipped across the world. Most of this ends up not even having a best before date, but if a local farmer or butcher told me to throw something out after a week, I'd probably take their word on it.

[use2betrix]

Non-important medications, fair game as long as they don’t look weird. Anything that important I would have consumed it before it expedited (as directed).

Dairy and meat I’m pretty weird about. A few days might be ok, but I’m not pushing it. Zero chance I’m taking any sort of risk even smelling milk that’s 2 weeks past its expiration. If it’s bad I’ll probably be grossed out of that food for a long time.

Basically - it depends on how long the shelf life is. If it’s a food with a 2 year shelf life and it’s a few months past, I won’t think twice. If it’s a food with a few week shelf life, I’ll give it a few days.

My wife made a Mexican dish last night with sour cream on top. When I had leftovers today, I checked the date on the sour cream before putting it on. September 26th. I survived last nights risky encounter unscathed, but knowing the date today, I did not have sour cream on my leftovers.

(99.9% I’d be fine, but again, weird mental thing)

[GuitarStv]

Non-important medications, fair game as long as they don’t look weird. Anything that important I would have consumed it before it expedited (as directed).

Dairy and meat I’m pretty weird about. A few days might be ok, but I’m not pushing it. Zero chance I’m taking any sort of risk even smelling milk that’s 2 weeks past its expiration. If it’s bad I’ll probably be grossed out of that food for a long time.

Basically - it depends on how long the shelf life is. If it’s a food with a 2 year shelf life and it’s a few months past, I won’t think twice. If it’s a food with a few week shelf life, I’ll give it a few days.

My wife made a Mexican dish last night with sour cream on top. When I had leftovers today, I checked the date on the sour cream before putting it on. September 26th. I survived last nights risky encounter unscathed, but knowing the date today, I did not have sour cream on my leftovers.

(99.9% I’d be fine, but again, weird mental thing)

Your mistake was not using greek yogurt in place of sour cream.  :P

[FlytilFIRE]

Opened a jar of pasta sauce that was NINE YEARS past its sell-by date. Tasted it, ate it. No problems.

[Omy]

That's WAY longer than I'd try, but very impressive!

[use2betrix]

Opened a jar of pasta sauce that was NINE YEARS past its sell-by date. Tasted it, ate it. No problems.

[Model96]

Yep, the nose knows!