Outdated Products

[cwcdesign]

I just tested my SAF red instant yeast which has been in my freezer for probably 2 years in a ziplock bag. It's also thawed out twice due to hurricanes. And, it behaved perfectly! I am impressed.

However, I do have in my cabinets never opened KAF products such as boiled cider (2015) and Vermont cheese powder and instant clear gel (both fall 2016). Are these still useable. KAF seems to put very short use by dates on their products and I'm wondering if that's just to sell more.

If you all say to toss them I will, but obviously I'd rather not.

Thanks!

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[Mike Nolan]

Here's what one site has to say about using outdated foods.

I've had a lot of foods go bad long before the date on the package, which is really frustrating. Recently it was a package of Sargento cheese that was moldy when I opened it a week after I bought it. I couldn't remember what store I bought it at (I almost never save receipts), so I just tossed it.

I've been known to cut out moldy parts of fruits and vegetables (if small) and use the rest, but cheese is one of those things that I won't use if moldy, unless it's the mold it was designed to have. I also won't use moldy bread, even if the mold might be the one that produced penicillin in Dr. Fleming's lab.

Beyond that, if it looks and smells OK, I'll generally use it. Dry items are ones I'll use beyond their expiration date. Flour is OK as long as it hasn't gone stale or the oils in it turned rancid, but both of those produce easily recognized odors.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by Mike Nolan.

[BakerAunt]

Cwcdesign--I just opened a bottle of boiled cider that supposedly expired a year or so ago. It smells as it should, so I used it, and it tasted as it should. I refrigerate it after opening.

I've had opened cheese powder that I've used beyond the expiration date, and it has been fine. If it passes the smell test, use it!

I've also used instant Clear Jel beyond its date, but I'm not sure at what point it will stop doing what it is supposed to do.

I've had flour in the freezer past its supposed expiration date, and it was fine.

I read somewhere that manufacturers are required to have expiration dates on products--even something like baking soda, which Frick explained to us NEVER expires.

[Mike Nolan]

As the article I gave a link to above says, the only foods that are REQUIRED under federal law to have an expiration date is infant formula and some baby foods. In some states milk is required to have an expiration date so it can be removed (by state law) when it is past that date.

Otherwise, all those notations and dates are voluntary and IMHO sometimes they're rather meaningless.

[cwcdesign]

Thanks Mike and BakerAunt for the link and information. You both confirmed what I thought and after all KAF uses a best by date. It's frustrating when that date is only a few months after you buy it. I now keep all my flour in the freezer since I just am not baking as much as I used too. Maybe some day I can bake more again.

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