Thread: How many of us throw away food before it's really gone bad?

We never throw out food. If it goes bad or is well beyond the expiration date, we just chop it up and add to the compost bin for next year's planting.

Interesting info but I think their "90% " of Americans throwing away "expired" food is ridiculous. I know very few people that actually do that.

Never. The use by date is just a guide. We can all sniff it and see if it all right.

Same thing I do. We both got food poisoning at the same time but from a restaurant. Don't want to go through that again. Therefore when in doubt! One thing I have started doing the past few months, often it's hard to find the expiration date. So when I do I mark it on the label in permanent marker. Easier to see at a glance!

Originally Posted by maryb119

I taught my kids this rule.....when in doubt, throw it out.

Please be careful with certain things though. For instance, in Canada right now, there's a recall on mushrooms for possible Listeria contamination. The recall specifically states:

Food contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes may not look or smell spoiled but can still make you sick.

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/about-th.../1433730071945

I am very careful about spoiled meat. If I am even one bit unsure, I throw it out. I hate having food poisoning.

I have to mark the date frozen and the date thawed or my hubby and son will throw it out.

I try to watch dates but I'll toss anything that seems questionable.

I make a lot of soups out of things that are starting to go, I call it "Bitsa stew" because it has "bitsa this and bitsa that" thrown in. We have a chest freezer so I'll make a HUGE pot of stew and portion it out in to single-serving size glass "tupperware" and stick them in the deep freeze. DH works from home so those are good fast lunches for him, and good fast workday dinners for me. SO much less sodium and sugar than store-bought soups!

I LOVE all the farmer's markets we have around here but with just DH & I, we can't eat the food as fast as we buy it. I make a lot of soups and casseroles out of fresh seasonal produce to freeze for winter too. (I call those "hibernation soups") It seems crazy that I can cook fresh local food into a soup and freeze it for months, and that will taste so much better than if I buy "fresh" frozen produce and make the soup the day I eat it. The in-season produce is just SO much tastier, even after being cooked up and frozen. I don't have enough single-serving freezerware dishes for that, so those hibernation soups get frozen in gallon-size freezer ziplocks and defrosted in larger batches. It's fantastic, I'll just dump one into the crockpot on a lazy wintery day and we'll have hot soup and yummy smells all day with virtually zero effort.

I love my deep freeze. And I'm glad my DH likes my cooking and isn't fussy about "leftovers".

Originally Posted by DebbieJJ

This is in NO WAY supposed to be a blasting post on my wonderful hubby. My DH grew up with absolutely nothing and he went to bed hungry quite a lot of the time. We met when I was 21 yrs. old, and he's 10 yrs. older. But what I'm getting at is this.....he remembers when an expiration date on something meant that it was the last date to use that item (I really think he dreamed this or it makes sense to him), so now if something says that "sell by" date was last week, it magically went bad, but it was ok until then. So I really have to use all my bought canned food, even pasta and cake mix, etc., before the sell by date, or it goes in the trash. I can't convince him otherwise, but this morning I read this and I printed it out for him so now maybe he'll think twice before wasting our money (or maybe I won't buy as much?)....http://www.grandparents.com/food-and...ampaign=fnl154

OHHH, my #1 pet peeve about my significant other. Rarely will eat leftovers or anything precooked and frozen. But will eat processed food daily (yuk). He always wants "fresh" milk. I say he needs to buy a cow and milk it. Anything dairy has to be bought no longer than 2 days ago. He asks how old the eggs, sour cream, ketchup, mustard, butter, & salad dressing are, requires the cast iron skillets be washed with soap each time before use, often will smell his plate of food before tasting it, but not since I surprised him by throwing the whole plate, food and all, out the back door. I'd say he is OCD but he wouldn't know what that is. What is this with men? My house is clean, no crawlies, my dishes are never left dirty, food is timely refrigerated, & no one has ever gotten sick or died from my cooking. This annoys the h.e.doublel out of me. Last month at church I heard the men at their breakfast meeting worrying about if the leftover raw eggs would be good the following week. The ladies all just laughed at that. lol