When it comes to getting rid of old food, we can often find ourselves attracted to the Use By and Best Before dates. And it makes sense; unless you have a wonderful sense of touch, taste, and smell, it can be very hard to tell is a food has gone off prior to using it. Unless it is really off and the mould is visible, we can often take risks with foods beyond their UB/BB date.
However, here are five foods you shouldn’t be in such a rush to throw out.
Egg
The first and most important food on this list would be the humble egg. Most of us chuck our eggs out the day they reach their BB date. However, the easiest way to test an eggs freshness is to drop that egg into a jug of cold water – just be gentle!
If the egg happens to sink, then the egg is fresh and thus safe to eat. If they sink to the bottom but turn, they are very close to going off. If they float? Bin!
Tinned foods
Many times, we see the label on a tinned product as the be-all and end-all. Remember, though, that tinned foods are noted as ‘war food’ for good reason!
They dates on canned foods can usually be used for a period of time after the date has ended. Typically, so long as you keep them properly stored, a week or two beyond their BB date should be doable.
Bread
How often do you go to use a loaf of bread, only to find out that it has gone stale? Eugh!
To help avoid this, you can store your bread in a cool, dark location. Avoid the fridge, though; it’s a myth that refrigerated bread lasts longer. It actually goes off sooner. Sometimes, all it takes is a quick sprinkling of some water onto the bread and this can invigorate it again. Otherwise, a quick heat on the oven/grill can do the same trick.
Cheese
While it’s always a bit of a risk to take dairy products beyond their BB, cheese can be quite a resilient old meal. The vast majority of cheddar cheeses can still be eaten until you start to see clear signs of mould forming on the food in the first place. Typically, the more sturdy or hard a cheese is the more likely it is to last beyond it’s BB for a while; the softer it is, the sooner it goes off.
Jam
If you got a good old tub of fancy jam and want to keep it in usable condition, you don’t have to worry about it going off immediately. While jam will not keep forever, it can be eaten beyond its best before. A jar of jam when stored correctly can last for as long as six months.
As ever, use common sense for any foods – if it looks weird, feels off, tastes dodgy, or simply smells bad, don’t bother. Don’t always assume, though, that a day or two beyond the BB date equals unusable!