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Best By Dates

Do you guys/gals follow the "Best By" Dates? Ive had sauces that were 2 years past the "Best By" Date and were still as good as day 1. Also, I have a hand full of sauces that I cant even Find a date on.
 
Is there any hazards in eating sauces well past the "Best By" Dates? As long as they look, smell and taste good? Ive also had some super hots in my fridge for years that are still good for adding a tiny bit to spice up a dish. Thoughts?
 
It would seem that if a sauce is shelf stable for a year, there's no reason you can't have it another year or two. If it needs to be refrigerated and it's open, I wouldn't eat it much more than 6 months past date. People might call me stupid, but there have been times where I've gone to the cupboard for food and there's a can of spaghetti-os 6 years past expiration. As long as something isn't super perishable or I'm risking botulism I'll eat it. Hey, I'm not dead yet so maybe I'm onto something. 
 
There's expiration dates, and Best By dates.  Milk and other dairy items have an expiry date, I usually follow that fairly close, maybe a bit past the date.  Usually, with a BestBy date, there's nothing wrong with the item but there may be some degradation in color, texture, etc.  Lemon juice that is past the best by date tends to turn a grey-ish color.  Nothing wrong with it, it just doesn't look nice. 
 
In home canning, rule of thumb is often one year.  Was at a party once where the desert was made with the last jar of grandma's preserves.  Later I learned grandma had been dead for a decade.  Did not get sick, but would not have eaten it if I had known.
 
Technically I think milk is a sell by date SL not expiration and you can still use after within a reasonable time. But yes there are sell by and best by. Best by is often required depending on copacker or juridstiction but can be consumed after including years. Other times is is marketing so you toss it and buy another.
 
The Hot Pepper said:
Technically I think milk is a sell by date SL not expiration and you can still use after within a reasonable time. But yes there are sell by and best by. Best by is often required depending on copacker or juridstiction but can be consumed after including years. Other times is is marketing so you toss it and buy another.
 

Marketing - What I figured. I have quite the sauce collection and I have yet to open a bottle (be it 2-3 years after the "best by"date) and not consumed it all.
 
The Hot Pepper said:
Technically I think milk is a sell by date SL not expiration and you can still use after within a reasonable time. But yes there are sell by and best by. Best by is often required depending on copacker or juridstiction but can be consumed after including years. Other times is is marketing so you toss it and buy another.
Just checked the refer...milk does indeed have the Sell By, yogurt has a Use By(expiry) date.  Parmesan has BestBy.  Thanks for pointing that out.  Meats have a Sell By date also. 
 
Marketing is a big reason for BestBy, exactly for what Boss said.  If the unopened bottles have been stored in a cool, dry place and not been subjected to extreme heat or light, they should remain safe for years.  Within reason, that is...AJDrew's decade old preserves, probably not much potential for problems.  A decade old canned salmon....yea...not so good....
 
Sometimes new sauce makers want to put a Best By date on their bottles.  I encourage them not to unless it is required by their processing authorities.  If they do a large run and then are sitting on cases of sauce 18 months later, if the sauce has a best by date 6 months out...makes it tough to sell to stores or even customers at a farmers market. 
 
 
I think all sell by/best by/use by dates are BS. Use common sense - Does it look OK? Does it smell OK? Does it taste OK? Follow those steps in order and save money on not throwing away perfectly good food.

One of the big things with milk is when it was OPENED. I've had unopened milk a couple weeks past the date, perfectly fine. I've bought milk with a far out best by date that I opened when I got home, and it went bad before the date and was stored properly the whole time.

You might say I'm risky but I never get sick. I wouldn't encourage young people, old people, sick people, or people with compromised immune systems to follow this, but I think most people are fine.
 
It's definitely not BS just use it as a guideline. Would you really rather see no date at all?
 
The Hot Pepper said:
It's definitely not BS just use it as a guideline. Would you really rather see no date at all?
I'm not advocating for no date at all. I just think that they are more or less arbitrary. I do use them as a guide, but don't automatically throw something out that is past a date. Having a date, even if it's very conservative and food is likely to be good beyond it, isn't a bad thing. I'm more inclined to think producers are more conservative to protect from liability.

So I look, smell, taste, and if it passes the tests, I eat it. Hasn't failed me yet.
 
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