In the back of the cupboard the other day I found a packet of dried noodles - a cheapo version of Super Noodles - that were best before June 2022, so two years out of date. I opened the packet, put the noodles in a bowl, sprinkled on the sachet of flavouring, doused them in water, microwaved them and then ate them.

I just couldn't not. I hate wasting food; for my sake, for the food's sake and for humanity's sake.

And I've never been ill because of it.

'Best before' is just a recommendation. 'Use by' is to be taken seriously.

I've had some bags of pasta in my cupboard since the height of the pandemic. I recently opened one of the bags and had some of its contents and it was fine.

I ignore dates. Look and scent is enough.

When I was about 15 I ate a chocolate bar in a box in someone’s attic with a use by date in the 70’s. It was absolutely fine, and more to the point, so am I.

I subscribe to the Theresa May school of food - if there’s mould on the jam, scrape it off. One of her more sensible contributions to public life.

Mould on jam and cheese is harmless.

Bread's the only thing you should be wary of.

cosmictanya wrote:

When I was about 15 I ate a chocolate bar in a box in someone’s attic with a use by date in the 70’s. It was absolutely fine, and more to the point, so am I.

That actually almost made me heave! I remember in the 90s finding in our damp loft a Ladybird children's book - I'd guess of my older sister's, so from the 70s again, with (what looked like) chocolate stuck to the back of it, and it absolutely repulsed me. I think I threw the book away without anyone's permission or anyone seeing.

A few months ago I did find a sheet of paracetamol in a drawer that expired in 2021 and I found that a bit concerning so upsettingly threw it away.

It was either that or donate them to some starving children.

I think I'll have to throw out my Br*xit/COVID stash of dried beans, they're 5 years old at this point and will never rehydrate properly.

Yes they will.

Put them in some water and see.

Do people still have to do that thing of soaking beans for 24 hours or else they'll kill you?

With dried beans they do need to either be soaked for ages or at least cooked in something like a pressure cooker.

Or just slow cook them for ages till they're soft (don't forget to skim off the scum).

I don't eat beans of any sort so I'm safe.

Butterfield wrote:

A few months ago I did find a sheet of paracetamol in a drawer that expired in 2021 and I found that a bit concerning so upsettingly threw it away.

It was either that or donate them to some starving children.

I’d have donated them to the sick kids. Or at least kept them around in case a visitor needed any paracetamol. At most, they just wouldn't work as well. They aren’t going to have transformed into opium in the meantime, more’s the pity.

As for your Ladybird book with chocolate stuck to it - this attic wasn’t damp, and the bar was in its sealed wrapper. I was up there helping with something, we came across it, opened it, and it tasted exactly like a Dairy Milk should taste.

My mother is dreadful for dates - everything is binned the day before. She comes round here and does it too. She’s a baby boomer. I subscribe to her parents generations attitude to these things - don’t be ridiculous, don’t waste stuff.

Saying that, she did have a packet of jelly in her cupboard that went off in something like May 1986 - and since she’d moved twice by the time I found it in the 2000’s, she must’ve packed that and deliberately moved house with it.

The jelly was also perfectly fine by the way. A slightly concerning but very vague tang on its own, but fine with ice cream. At least, the kids I served it to, one of them my own, didn’t complain.

It’s my belief that one of my great fears - leukaemia - took off in the second half of the 20th century due to sell by dates and an excess of household cleaning products. Fortify your immunity.

SiberianPrincess’sMidriff wrote:

Do people still have to do that thing of soaking beans for 24 hours or else they'll kill you?

All dried beans need to be rehydrated, and for most of them that involves soaking them for 8 hours before boiling (lentils and cowpeas are a welcome exception).

Additionally kidney beans and black beans need to be vigorously boiled for 10 minutes to break down some toxin that's in them and makes you sick (but not dead) otherwise.

Oh god, that’s what restaurants and deliveries and ready meals are for.