Last week, I wrote about how I keep my refrigerator nice and neat, so foods don’t get pushed to the back and forgotten about. Well, look what I stumbled upon the other day:
A yogurt dated December 29, 2009. Oops!
This got me thinking about the “sell-by” versus the “use-by” dates, which aren’t always the “toss-by” date, especially when it comes to yogurt.
To me, the “sell-by” date means it is the last recommended day that I should buy the product, but it’s still okay to eat several days to a week after that date. I consider the “use-by” the date in which the item will be at its highest quality, and, if stored properly, the food will likely stay fresh a few days longer than the actual use-by date. Even still, I’ve eaten plenty of foods past the “use-by” and “sell-by” dates! 
But, of course, if the food smells or looks funky, I don’t eat it!
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To Enter: Leave a comment* on this post about a time that you ate (or drank) something WAY past its “sell-by” or “use-by” date.
*Receive an extra entry if you visit the NuVal website and leave a second comment about a perishable product with its NuVal score.
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I drank some milk, straight out of the carton, that tasted like cheese. It was not pretty!
last week I used the last of my Silk Soymilk Light in my coffee. ( with a score of 82! ) The date was definitely marked December 30th, but I was not about to let it go to waste
Balance used to make 100 calorie bars that I would eat as a pre-workout snack. They hadn’t been in stock at my local grocery store in a while but then I saw them at a Whole Foods in town a few months ago, I bought one thinking my store just stopped carrying them, after eating it and thinking it tasted a little funny I saw the expiration date was almost 6 months ago! I’m glad I didn’t get sick and realized I am better off without something that can last that long and not go bad.
I drank an odwalla smoothie that was about a month expired….but nothing bad happened to me
Without realizing it, I ate old parmesan cheese and let’s just say, despite how much I love cheese, the stomach ache wasn’t worth it!!
I am so bad. I never look at dates on my food. If it looks ok and smells okay I will eat it. At my house our skim milk is often in the fridge well past the sell by date and as long as it passes my sniff test it is okay by me.
i had a two week old single serving oikos that i had never opened. it wasn’t bad at all! But i would be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit nervous :/ hahaaa
I always stretch it with milk, especially soy, if it smells ok than I don’t throw it out. Sounds kind of gross no that I’m sharing that info
Larabars, dark chocolate, and tea… oh my!
If my cottage cheese smells ok and looks ok, I will eat it past the date. I am pretty careful though. I try to organize my fridge like you.
I once brought a steamable bag of broccoli and cauliflower to the office that was only a day or two past the use by date. I thought it would be ok until, after microwaving, my whole floor smelled intensely like sour broccoli for the rest of the day. Whoops!
My mother’s fridge/ pantry is notorious for housing products WAY past their use-by date. We now tease my mom viciously about this. I’ve got lots of stories!
A couple years ago (probably like 2 or 3), my mom and I made cornbread from corn meal that had a “use-by” date in the 90s. It had never been opened, and when we opened it up there wasn’t any bugs or mold in it so we decided to give it a try. The cornbread was REALLY dry but otherwise edible.
Another time a friend of mine put mayo from the fridge on his sandwich. After realizing it tasted funny, we checked the date and it was almost a year past the use-by date!
I’ve done this more than I’d like to admit… but one time I had a granola bar that was 6 months expired… tasted so so… and better than the time I bit into a Kashi bar to find bugs! It wasn’t even expired yet!!
Just this Monday I opened my Oikos plain yogurt took one bite without looking then looked down to see mold growing on top. The date on the container was Monday’s date but it was not safe.
I was eating a sandwich and was half-finished when I noticed a little white mold growing on the edge of the bread. Oops!
And Organic Valley 1% Milkfat Rfg Milk has a NuVal score of 81 — nice!
I almost feel like I shouldn’t admit this on this site, but Hamburger Helper. We bought it, oh, five-ish years ago, and every once in ahwile, we make it. My husband always asks me what expiration date I want rather than what flavor.
I was looking for the score for mayonnaise or corn meal to go along with my first comment, but I had not luck finding the scores. So I decided to go with the item currently sitting in my fridge well beyond it’s “use-by” date, Silk Like Chocolate Soymilk which has a score of 56. Not bad for the occassional treat.
Definitely used some eggs like a week after the sell-by date. We ate it and were fine. Phew!
Last week I ate a yogurt 5 days past its use by date! Nothing bad happened, but I was a little nervous during that day!
I had a yogurt cup that was more than a month expired and didnt realize it at the time, believe it or not, it still tasted great! lol
I eat yoghurt and cottage cheese past expiry all the time. It lasts much longer than the expiry date indicates.
I’m the worst about that kind of stuff. Usually it doesn’t matter to me but I ate a Kashi almond bar that was 4 months past the date and it was so dry it was actually disgusting!
I eat yogurt past its expiration date and its fine, it usually lasts longer than the mentioned date.
I hate to admit it, but I eat things past the use-by date all the time. Usually it’s dairy. Dairy products are always safe to eat past the use-by date. But that doesn’t mean they wont make you gag. As long as my yogurt smells ok, I eat it well past its prime.
I have also had Organic Valley 1% Milk, a NuVal score of 81, a few days past its expiration date and it was still delicious.
I used some coconut milk yogurt um..three months past the date but it seemed fine/smelled fine..I used it for baking so I figured that was plenty safe!
I have eaten yogurt and eggs past their ‘use-by-date’ and I’m still alive to tell the tale
So I guess it can’t be that bad!
I typically follow the same “rules” you do. I have drank milk 4-5 days after the use by date. Most times it’s been fine. I always smell it and give it a little taste before I pour it. One time I didn’t bother smelling or tasting and poured the milk in my tea. I didn’t notice any sour taste but believe the honey and strong english breakfast flavor masked the sourness. Later that day I found out my milk had gone sour. oops!
I ALWAYS use my yogurt after the sell-by date. I am the only one in the house that eats it and I don’t like it that often. I do like to have it on hand when I want it though. I have never had a problem!
I agree, I eat a lot of expired yogurt, but with no ill results!
I’ve eaten expired yogurt and “old” granola bars with no bad reaction. But there was the time I made a delicious sandwich with a crusty poppyseed roll, and it took me eating half the sandwich before I figured out why it tasted so weird – the bread was moldy and spotted blue! I think my mind felt more grossed out than anything else:)
Stuff like yogurt and milk( Fat Free is a 91) i can tell when it’s bad right away by looking at it, so I usually just trust the “look and smell” test. I always ALWAYS forget to check dates, but I usually eat the food I have pretty quickly haha so I don’t run into this problem very much.
I second the yogurt comments, no probs yet
I poured myself some cranberry juice once and realized as I was bringing the glass to my mouth that it was filled with a ton of floaties! Gross! I checked the sell-by date, which was almost 6 months past! I returned it to the grocery where I bought it. Yuck!
I hate wasting food. But it grosses me out even more to eat food that’s beyond it’s expiration date! Blech. Just this week I made mac and cheese with cottage cheese that was close to getting tossed. Use it or lose it!
Some plain yogurt yesterday morning. Was about 10 days past.
I often eat everything beyond dates because I am cheap and hate throwing things out. Yogurt dates can be hit or miss, so I usually smell really hard, and if not grossed out, still eat it!
I definitely ate a piece of bread with mold on it. I just scraped off the mold and toasted it. I figured the heat would kill all the bad bacteria! hahaha
Bread–without mold–always works well for me, no bad consequences (yet)…
I swallowed some milk that was past its date.I must add not a lot, thank goodness but it was still gross, gross , gross.
My milk always goes bad before the expiration date! I think it’s because I live in NYC and stuff sits out longer?
The other day we noticed that a box of granola bars was about 2 weeks past the date. They were a little hard, but I zapped one in the microwave for a few seconds, and it turned out delicious. It tasted like a peanut butter cookie.
I hate to be wasteful more than anything. It’s like throwing money in the trash. I don’t have a problem eating a piece of bread with a little mold on it, as long as I’ve torn the moldy part off, or steaming some fresh veggies that aren’t their usual crispness. A little stale cereal never hurt anyone…did it?
Definitely not milk, I don’t take chances on that, but I don’t hesistate to eat bad bananas or overly ripe produce–it’s always good in smoothies!
I actually just had a yogurt last night that expired January 8th. I freeze vanilla light n fit yogurts so I couldnt tell a difference anyway!
A perishable item that I drink is silk light soymilk and it has a score of 82.
Ha! This is funny–last Monday I ate some cottage cheese and then realized that it had an expiration date of 12/29/09. That’s right; I ate an item that expired not just last YEAR, but last DECADE!!
I have definitely found cheese in my fridge that I was about to use when I discovered the MOLD. Yuck!
Chocolate silk has a NuVal score of 68 and is something else I’ve inadvertantly consumed after the sell by date.
I always eat yogurt past expiration. I buy a bunch on sale and yogurt really does last a really long time. I’ve never had a problem.
Mayo! I saw that you are only supposed to eat it for 1 month after opening, and I have eaten long after that.
oh do i have a story about this topic. i was at a friend’s house party and a bag of pistachios were opened. comments were being tossed around how the nuts tasted funny, “soap” was one adjective used to describe the pistachios. no one thought anything of it though and most stopped eating them. a few minutes later i thought of it, COULD nuts go bad? UM YES THEY CAN. this particular bag of pistachios was from the early 1990s!! EW no wonder they tasted like soap!!!
Oh goodness, MILK – ugh! It was when I was younger, and STILL remember it. I never thought of milk the same again
Man I do it all the time. I’ve been known to scrape off the top of the apple sauce and use the bottom of the jar after it started getting brown. I’m too cheap to just throw it away! I blame the Dutchness
I just finished off some yogurt that was expired by about 3 weeks. Not sure if that is safe or not, but I had no side effects.
At my house we really try to stick by the dates, I do not like nasty surprises in what I eat! That said, I will eat yogurt a little past its date.
I ate a granola bar past it’s date one time…not too yummy!
I am usually very vigilant when it comes to expiration dates on food… but for some reason, it doesn’t matter to me when it comes to condiments and spices. Anything on my fridge door is a go! Hmmm… probably not a good thing…
Actually, just yesterday I ate some greek yogurt that expired a month ago- still good though!! But one time I ate a bite of JIF peanut butter and it was so disgusting! So I checked the date… it had expired 2 years earlier…not pleasant
My mother was a food hoarder from her depression days and one day we had cookies with our tea and while I was eating it I read the ingredients- healthy but it’s past use date was over 3 years prior from the date we were eating them. I lost my taste for cookies for over 6 months after that.
uhh…I ate some almonds the other day that expired back in September. I didn’t even know almonds HAD a “use by” date!!!
I think there’s some string cheese in my fridge that expired in 2008. Can you say, “It’s time to clean out the fridge”?
My husband thinks it is gross, but I drink milk and eat cheese and yogurt WAY past it’s sell by date. I mean, if the milk smells funky, I won’t drink it…but, yogurt and cheese basically are old milk…YUM!
I ate some butternut squash soup from a box that was probably… 3-4 months past it’s date. It was still delish!
I was overnight nannying at someone’s house for twins, clearly needing coffee, I made myself a cup with 2% milk and drank half of it before realizing that it qas curdled! Yuck. I had a tummyache that afternoon!
I’m usually pretty picky about dates, but the local market isn’t. My boyfriend bought a diet soda and while he was drinking it thought, “Hmm,they changed the label design.” Yeah, a couple years ago… Although I gather it was better than the 2-yr out of date snapple he got from the same market.
Over Christmas break I was back home and I ate instant mashed potatoes with a “Best By” date of 2003! I had just gotten my wisdom teeth out and was desperately wanting something warm, salty, and creamy…did the trick!
I eat bagged spinach that is past the date all the time. at my local grocery store, the date is always in the same week that I buy it in, and the deal is 2 bags for $4.00, and so I usually buy two bags a week and eat it all in a week, via green monsters, and sometimes added to pasta and wraps. but some weeks, I am not home for as much time and have to pack my meals, and green monsters are not ideal for packing, leaving me with an abundance of spinach, which I consume past the date.
Salad dressing- sometimes you just forget… and then you take the first bite… and realize it was two months past the expiration date. Gross!
A few years ago I prepared my daily morning coffee as I usually do – strong coffee made by my drip maker, 1 packet of “the blue stuff”, a tablespoon of half & half. I put the lid on my travel cup and headed off to work. After I got there I took my first sip and it tasty kinda funky. I took the lid off and discovered the half & half had turned, and had actually curdled in the coffee. Gross! It ruined the whole cup and I couldn’t get more.
Half & half is hard because I rarely go through a whole container before the date. It stays good for a few weeks after the date, but I always tread the line of wanting to use it up, but needing to get rid of it before it turns.
I always eat bread and tortillas past the date. I just usually try to do a mold check once it’s getting waaaay past the date. I eat it so seldom, that when I buy a loaf or bag of tortillas, it takes me forever to eat it all, and I hate wasting food! I love the first day of noticing mold and wondering if perhaps, perhaps, you just didn’t see it with yesterday’s.
I tend to be kind of crazy about not using stuff past the date – but I’m getting better! The last time I did this was on Thanksgiving because I didn’t buy more chicken broth, thinking I already had some in the cupboards. Little did I know it was about a month past its date. I didn’t really feel I had an option – I had to use it!
Well I’m not sure if this counts, but I’ve eaten bread that was bought several months before, but it was frozen between buying and eating!
I recently drank some Good Belly juice that I was trying to use up…but I took a drink and it was almost like wine! I checked on the expiration date, and sure enough, it was expired by about 2 weeks!!! AhhH!
I ate some eggs about 2 weeks after the sell by date. I thought something was wrong with them because the yolk was breaking when I dropped them in a skillet. Then I realized it was because I was dropping them from about a foot in the air. I was fine, but my eggs turned into scrambled instead of fried.
Wow, I noticed on the Nuval website that the Light Soy Chocolate Milk doesn’t score as high as the Regular Chocolate Soy Milk! Who’da thunk?!
Our baking soda in the fridge, we just checked it and it expired in 1998! And we’ve been using it all this time…luckily none of us have gotten sick
There’s tons of things in my fridge that are past the use-by or sell-by date, only because I like to try new foods and after I use each a couple of times, I get a new product and forget about the old ones. I recently came across a salad dressing from 2005… but put it on my salad anyway haha. I didn’t get sick, either!
I have totally done the same thing with yogurt. I bought a few too many because it was on sale! I was really nervous about whether i can still eat it (I hate throwing food out), so I googled it. This little post would have helped a few weeks ago!
Spinach. I know you shouldn’t do that, but I buy it in a big fresh express bag and can’t always get through it in a week. Those “best buy” dates are REALLY soon on fresh spinach. I only felt slightly funky after wards once – and threw it out. But I still do it
I ate some raw cheese one time beyond it’s sell date, but it was just past a few days, it was still good
I ate some tofu way past its prime once… funky tofu? Not fun.
I just recently used some expired frozen spinach-by about 6 months and didn’t notice a taste difference, however, the texture seemed a bit odd! Oh well…
I haven eaten a lot of chocolate that is past it’s use by date. It tastes preeetty much the same but just has some little white spots on it. No chocolate should ever be thrown out!
Oh and the nutella in our cupboard is waaaay past its date but as I said, no chocolate should be thrown out!!!
I have eaten many yogurts and eggs pasted the recommended date. They have tasted just fine to me and never gotten sick of them
I sort of think “buy before” dates are a marketing ploy and play on our collective overcautious tendencies. I always eat yogurt past its date. As long as it smells good, it’s fine by me!
I’ve definitely had condiments past their due date! I’m still trucking…
Yogurts, cheese, sometimes even some turkey sausage…how am I still alive?!
I usually eat package salad mixes and yogurt past their buy before or use before dates. Not way past the dates but I figure if they still look and smell okay then alright to eat.
going through some very hard times in my life ive had to not proudly go to a food bank and after that, sell by use by dates mean nothing ;p you’re just thankful to have food in the fridge and any donations! im thankful for my immune system!
I usually never even look at the exp. date on eggs. I’m more than certain I’ve eaten weeks old eggs before. Gross right?
The 2% Organic milk I drink got a 55. Better than I was expecting really.
I ate a bag of Stacy’s pita chips last month not thinking of pita chips ever expiring – they expired like 2 months previous D: gag!
fage yogurt… two weeks past its prime… into my mouth it went.
scared? oh yes. but it was fine
1% organic milk is 81 – higher than i thought!
I took a bite of cottage cheese recently – and quickly realized it had gone bad!
Light Silk Soymilk scores an 82 – not bad!
Thanks so much for the opportunity! I remember one day I was in a hurry and grabbed a whole wheat roll on my way out the door. I thought it tasted fine at first(they were my all time favorite food at the moment!)but then I decided to actually inspect it. Turns our there were traces of mold on it!!! I was so disgusted, but I didn’t think I actually ate any of the mold so that was good.
Boneless Chicken Breast scores a 39!
I’ve eated yogurt that is past date, too!
I’m notorious for finding canned goods in the back of my cabinet-health valley navy bean soup that they don’t even make anymore,mmmmm delish.:)
Yogurt! Just yesterday I ate a Greek Yogurt that was 4 days past the date stamped. It was delicious!:)
I drank soymilk that had thickened and was quite disgusting looking.
I believe my husband, last night, fed me a grilled cheese sammie using cheese that had to have the mold cut off it. Discovered that this morning, but obviously I lived to tell the tale!
i ALWAYS smell my milk before using it (old milk freaks me out). I was at a friends house and i didnt want them to think i was weird so I just poured it in my cereal. BIG mistake – it was soo sour and smelled horrible! i had to throw everything out!
yogurt for sure!
I’ve definitely pushed my luck with milk before, but, more often, I totally disregard “use by” dates because I end up popping everything in the freezer (where I dream nothing ever goes bad!)
Eggs, Bread and Yogurt..the list can go on..
I just had some yogurt that was a week over expiration date, but it was fine =)
Nice giveaway! Bread is something I use past expiration date!
[...] still have time to enter yesterday’s giveaway. I’ll pick a winner tomorrow [...]
i eat bread constantly pass the due date…but i put it in the fridge after coming home from the market so itll stay nice and fresh
Let’s just say orange juice has a very strong fermented tangy taste when its two weeks past the use-by date…thankfully, the taste is as far as I got!
I always eat cereal past it’s sell-by date, and when it loses it’s crunch I know it’s time to toss!!!
A cake mix about 2 years old. Wasn’t all that bad…just not great.
I was visiting a friend in Ohio (who just got back from vacation…hello first clue). I dipped a cookie in milk and immediately spit the cookie out! I thought it was the cookie (hah) and took a big slug of milk to get the taste out of my mouth…big mistake. That was probably two weeks past its prime..and awful.
Well.. I’ll admit it.. Recently I saw my milk was expired, but I really wanted some cereal. I did a quick smell check and than took a big gulp… wasn’t quite sure if it was still good so I took another big gulp. Yep it was definitely old. =( No cereal for me that day.
Like a lot of others, mine included milk. I went home to my mom’s house for break a few years ago, and saw a carton of milk (she can’t drink milk, so never buys it). I was thirsty, opened the milk, took a sip, then gagged. I admit, I did the same thing that Lindsay did. I took another to double check. It was kind of lumpy too.
I have a bad habit of drinking milk past the date stamped on the carton. I usually smell it first.. LOL
I drank a diet soda that had been expired for over a year! It tasted so disgusting. I never knew soda had an expiration date listed on the bottom of the can, now I ALWAYS check before I drink it.
I love the Garelick Over the Moon Fat Free Milk (NuVal score of 91) becuase it usually has a longer expiration date than regular milk. I’ve always been able to drink a carton of this stuff before the expiration date.
I have definitely made myself a huge bowl cereal with milk that was well within the ‘best by’ date and it was STILL bad! sometimes it smells funky and i throw it out but every now and then it sneaks up on me!
Do you know if there is certain kind of milk that goes bad before the ‘best by’ date? Am I missing something here?
I just ate some yogurt last night that was past it’s sell by date. Tasted good to me!
There’s a granola bar in my “emergency” stash that is about a year past it’s “expiration date.” I can’t decide if I should risk it and eat it (might just be a bit stale) or if I should trash it.
Oh! And I’m ALWAYS eating eggs weeks after their “sell-by” date.
I think that Feta cheese is usually good past it’s sell-by date. I guess one time though I went a little too long when I added it to a salad for my fiance and he asked me when we bought some blue cheese! Oops!
I made a judgement call on Almond Breeze almond milk last week. The package says to use or discard within 10 days. It is hard to tell if almond milk is “bad” because it doesn’t have a distinctive smell that regular milk has. I kept it a few days longer and then tossed at the 14 day mark.
Before I was married, I shared a big house with three other girls. New renters were always coming and going, so a lot of things got left behind, like food.
We had a cabinet stocked FULL of spices. I was using a lot of those spices for a while—when I checked the date, most of them said 1999! I guess it shows WAY expired spices won’t hurt you (but I’m sure the flavor wasn’t at strong as it could’ve been!)
Chobani yogurt dated 12-21-2009 found after the new year.
ate about 2 weeks after date. A little thicker but tasted good.
I often drink my almond milk if it’s beyond the date—as long as it’s only a few days and smells ok!
i baked with a can of pumpkin that was a year expired! didn’t realize until after the bread was out of the oven (still tasted great!) Shhh
I drank cocoa from the can that marked exp date 02/21/2009. Still taste good~!
Just a few weeks ago I needed some sour cream and the one in my fridge had a use by date of almost a month before. I figured since it was “sour” cream it was already meant to be aged, so I smelled it, then used it all up!!
Tasted just fine, and saved me an extra stop at the grocery store!! Definately always smell before takiing your chances!
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