Linger, longer, lasting.. Listeria ?

[#1]

'Use by' dates on meat to be extended to give supermarket shoppers 11 extra days to eat beef as food bosses get set to extend expiry dates before Christmas

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8607647/New-use-dates-meat-sold-supermarkets-provide-shoppe...

I think I'll stick to same as before, if they do bring it in.

(Listeriosis is a serious infection usually caused by eating food contaminated with the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes.

Listeria infection is a foodborne bacterial illness that can be very serious for pregnant women, people older than 65 and people with weakened immune systems.)

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/listeria-infection/symptoms-causes/syc-20355269

So, if Coronavirus doesn't get you, long dated meat might !

[#2]

This country really has stopped giving a damn about it's own people in the name of profit.

This will be the precursor to chlorinated chicken..

Naturally those making this policy wouldn't eat it. That fresh food will now command a higher price - which is what it's all about no doubt.

[#3]

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@7up wrote:

This country really has stopped giving a damn about it's own people in the name of profit.

I don't know, sounds more like the science is evolving. There is simply too much food thrown away. How did we ever manage way back in the 60's, 50's and even earlier. You looked at the product and decided. Mind you if you saw how other countries store / prepare food I think you'd have a fit. For instance, in Vietnam they don't keep yogurts in the fridge! Gulp! Having had much more than one, I'm still here. Mouldy cheese is another. Do you throw it away or just cut off the mould?

As for fresh food commanding more. Of course. Its usually perishable (mind you it doesn't get more fresh than out the back garden. 😀 ) The wife tries to use nothing but, with frozen / tinned usage coming in at a very low level. It is surprising given how the 'convenient' factor is pumped out in the adverts that meals created from scratch usually take less than 30 mins to come to the table. People abroad in poorer countries tend to still know how to create meals, whereas here, learning to prepare and cook meals at home seems to be well on the back burner (yes, schools do try their best).

[#4]

In the 50's & 60's meat was too expensive to leave lying around for an extra fortnight. People knew which kinds of food you could just cut the mould off - certain kinds of mould on cheese were OK.

I used to eat the bits of cheese containing dry white/grey mould but cut off the green/blue kinds. Modern food preservation methods (wrap it in plastic) mean that any mould is probably dodgy.

[#5]

Who needs Use-By dates?

If it looks/smells off then it probably is.

I've eaten much food having cut the off-looking bits away. I've probably eaten some with those bits still on. I'm still here!

After listening to parents'/grandparents' tales of the struggles in WWII and rationing tends to put some things into perspective.

[#6]

Yes and get one from the back of the shelve, as the use by date will be longer (from today).
Supermarkets arrange their stock so the stuff that has less life in it, will be at the front and the stuff that has more is at the back.

Can't remember where I read it, but my friend who works in a supermarket confirms that is what they do. It is called "Stock Rotation" apparaently.

[#7]

All very true, @Mav . I'm currently drinking fruit juice which is 18+ months out of date, with no ill effects.

[#8]

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@Alex wrote:

Yes and get one from the back of the shelve, as the use by date will be longer (from today).
Supermarkets arrange their stock so the stuff that has less life in it, will be at the front and the stuff that has more is at the back.

Can't remember where I read it, but my friend who works in a supermarket confirms that is what they do. It is called "Stock Rotation" apparaently.

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And makes perfect sense - that way there is much less waste.

[#9]

Not jet @jab1 

Wait until later tonight or tomorrow morning. You might be having some 'interesting' toilet breaks shall we say.😛

Well I am using Bonjela with an expiry date of August 2014. Mainly cos I have managed to bite the side of my tongue and it hurts. Must have done it during the night and I don't think it was a seizure.

Oh Well as Fleetwood Mac said.

[#10]

@Alex This is the third bottle of five I found when we were clearing out at my late mums - and about three weeks from the first, so I don't see any real danger.🤣

[#11]

Fair enough @jab1 

Sorry to hear of your loss.

My friend (well someone who I used to think was, but turned out not to be - long story I won't go into here), worked at a Wetherspoon and my sister got him a job. She worked there too.

Apparaently they sell stuff cheap because they buy stuff from their suppliers which is nearly out of date. You name it food and drink. Other places won't touch it as they are concerned it won't be sold in time. Wetherspoons buy it cheap and sell it cheap in the hope it will attract customers. If they sell it all quick they make their money back. Good business model Tim Martin.

When a few people I knew worked there and they knew me, they would let us stay for after hours. They would close the doors let everyone else leave. Lock in job.

All you had to do was help clear up and the staff out at stacking the chairs - I know that job. I think that is fair enough.

Then we'd have a drink afterwards - can't put it through the till as it has been closed. So they'd put the change in a pint class and write down what we'd had. It will get put through the till in the morning so it all adds up.

"Those were the days of our lives", as Freddie Mercury once said.

[#12]

When it comes to perishable food like meat, it's worth being careful.  A lot depends on what happens between the supermarket fridge and your fridge.  For example, you might have to queue at the check-out at about 20C, then travel on a bus where the temperature is over 40C for twenty minutes followed by a brisk walk in 30C+ before you can put the product back in the temperature it should be stored at.

A lot of people throw away food that's past its 'Best before' date which makes no sense.  With fruit like apples etc. you can tell if they are rotten or not.  'Sell by' and 'Display until' dates do not mean the same as 'Use by' either.  My local newsagent's regularly has chocolate bars marked down because it's their 'Best before' date and they can't sell them the next day.

Some time during the first few years of this century I found two different jars of chocolate spread at the back of my kitchen cupboard.  Both had expiry dates in1987 (yes, eighty-seven), one was rancid and inedible, the other tasted as good as if I'd just bought it so I ate it.  Some 15 years later I'm still alive to tell the tale.

[#13]

Back in the 80s, ATC cadets used to go on camp and were given old WWII compo rations. Very nice it was too. Boiled sweets, chocolate, processed cheese, mock turtle soup, some sort of processed meat, biscuits and other stuff. During basic training in the RAF, we also went out and had these compo rations on exercise. Nothing bad happened to anyone I knew. Mind you though, tinned stuff has always been able to survive longer.