It is said that if retailers added just ONE DAY to their food sell-by-dates, the UK would save over £100 Million annually.
I've just had a butchers in my kitchen cupboard and found three items that are somewhat puzzling. A jar of Honey had a use-by-date of Dec 2017, some rustic Sea Salt was dated Dec 2014 (naughty me), and a bottle of Olive Oil is apparently good until Nov 2015.
None of these three products really go off. OK, the salt might become solidified, but the oil and honey are almost timeless. I didn't bother to look for others.
Of course there are some fresh foods that need to be eaten within certain 'time-frames'. You wouldn't leave a chicken hanging about in your fridge for a month; but then who buys a chicken not knowing when it'll be eaten (unless it was to be bunged in the freezer)?
When in the supermarket, there are very few items that I scour for a 'sell-by-date', however there is one product that really needs one (but doesn't have one); and that's Fish/Shellfish.
So, why does my totally harmless jar of honey have a ridiculous fantasy sell-by-date, but my kilo of possibly stomach-turning Mussels has nothing at all?
Answers on a postcard.....
Honey is a miracle food; it never goes bad. It was reported that archaeologists found 2000 year old jars of honey in Egyptian tombs and they still tasted delicious!
ReplyDeleteI believe that Olive oil is much the same; as long as it is kept away from the light.
DeleteI have always found sell by dates quite ridiculous, but I do wish you hadn't put that photo of mussels on your post - I am now drooling.
ReplyDeleteDelicious, aren't they!
DeleteBecause shell-fish are sold live, and when they are dead and cooked, they have a sell-by date on them. I know what you mean though, there is a sell-by date on Dead Sea salt which has been sitting around for millions of years already.
ReplyDeleteMust do a check in my pantry. I haven't done that for a few months now.
ReplyDeleteOn a journey I bought a bottle of water and then discovered it was out of date. That takes some doing because I once saw a guy on TV say that water is bottled 4 years before the use by date and kept in a warehouse for 2 years before going to the shops.
ReplyDeleteI don't take any notice of sell by or use by dates, I rely on instinct for survival.
ReplyDeleteI guess it is the fact that the seafood could spoil in a very short time if not treated the right way ( in fact by the time you got it home here in Oz) and then the time frame would mean nothing if you were busy throwing up and lamenting that it said it would be edible for another couple of days!
ReplyDeleteGood olive oil lasts well, but then again, I use that stuff up pretty quickly. I had a bottle of forgotten cheap olive oil hiding in my pantry that was a year or so beyond its expiration date (oops!) and it did NOT smell good.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had an expiration date on my derriere. Wouldn't that come in handy?