Food Expiration Dates
Food expiration dates printed on the can or package of food are not an infallible guarantee. It is a guess. It is an informed guess, and I think it is good guideline. Manufacturers generally perform due diligence and test the longevity of their packaging.
But it is still a guess. That is why many expiration dates are hedged with Best By dates. Those are the manufacturers’ best guesses as to how long the food inside will taste like it was meant to taste, with a fair degree of freshness. This is probably the most conservative guess for the longevity of the food’s wholesomeness. It is my opinion that manufacturers think that the food is probably safe to eat beyond that date, but do not want to promise that.
And here I want to stress that everything in this post is only my opinion. These are just some of my thoughts, and are not intended as any sort of guideline for anyone else.
In my opinion, Sell By dates cloud the issue of expiration. That term is merely a suggestion that the store should sell the product by a certain date. It does not speak about the wholesomeness of the food, nor is in any way a promise of safety. It is a commercial communication to the retailer.
It might seem unconscionable that there is not a real date on a package of food that says for sure how long it will be good for. But there are reasons why that can never happen.
Those are the same reasons why I never fully trust in any expiration or sell by or any other date on a package of food.
Caveat emptor… buyer be ware… was true in Roman times. It is still true today. Do not be lulled into a sense of security because we live in an era that promises complete and utter safety. There is no such thing.
One of the major factors in food longevity is heat. Even secured in a can or even better packaging, food typically goes bad faster when it is stored at higher temperatures. In plastic packaging, the effect of heat can be even greater.
If food is stored in a place or a climate where temperatures climb… even occasionally… the lifespan of the food can be drastically shortened. I have seen charts for packaged food where a certain item is estimated at 5 years of safety when stored at 50 degrees, 3 years at 70 degrees, and 1 year or even 6 months when the temperature is above 85 degrees.
Moisture is another major factor. If the air where the food is stored has high humidity, that can shorten lifespan too. The higher the humidity, the more effect it can have
Obviously, when the packaging is a metal can, the can takes the brunt of the humidity, rather than the food. But plastic packaging is essentially porous to some degree. That is why we are seeing thicker and thicker plastic packaging that is hard to open. The additional thickness increases shelf life. For some products that are moisture sensitive, it can increase shelf life tremendously. It is a very good idea. Even if it is a hassle.
MREs are a perfect example of double, thick packaging. Freeze dried food tells the story of why the less moisture, the longer food lasts, in most instances.
But let’s go back to that metal can. If I store a can in a refrigerator, the high humidity inside will degrade that can tremendously faster than a can on the shelf. I can see the normal degradation of years happen in a few months. Oxidation (rust) eats at the can with a voracious appetite.
Does that suggest another possible problem?
Packaging can fail.
A dent in a can is an opportunity for natural aging to occur at a greatly accelerated rate. Even more so with a crease. Rust at the seam of a can is a disaster. If the seal of a can is compromised with the very smallest of breaches, the chances of the food becoming seriously contaminated are extremely high. That invalidates any dates on the packaging. I throw it away. I do not taste taste the smallest amount. I do not sniff it. Some harmful spores can go airborne. I do not handle without protection. Bad food is potentially incredibly dangerous.
Plastic packaging is even easier to breach. A tear. A pinhole. I make SURE to check all plastic packaging to see if it is air tight. I don’t want to cause a problem by popping the seal, so I do this very gently… I put just a little pressure on the package and see if it ‘exhales’ the air inside of it, even a little. If so, there is a possible problem. I throw it away, etc., as for a bad can.
There is another safety issue that is hard to deal with. Food can be contaminated before it is packaged, or while it is being packaged. In that case, the expiration date doesn’t matter.
And here’s the rub… how can I tell if food is contaminated if it does not seem to be contaminated?
For some things there are no visible signs. For those things, I just have to trust and hope that the manufacturer is doing an adequate job in their safety procedures.
In a very tiny, miniscule amount of instances in the gargantuan, stellar, unbelievably humongous amount of food produced, a few people each year find out the hard way that someone, somewhere, has neglected their duty. But seriously… I do not think this should concern me on a day-to-day basis. I believe that I should not worry about what I cannot do anything about. Otherwise I would never eat anything, and that’s untenable.
However. There are certain things I do worry about. If I open packaging, and the contents seem ‘off’ to me in any way… smell, looks, or some sixth sense that tickles my brain and says ‘humm… there’s something about this that doesn’t seem right’… I LISTEN to my instincts.
Unless I’m actually starving to death, I believe that it is better to toss away questionable food than it is to say to myself, ‘oh, it probably is nothing’ and eat it. Some people in the United States do that every year. And regret it. If they live.
Even if a person is starving, severe diarrhea will only quicken death. It is the ultimate bad idea to taste the smallest amount of bad food.
Let me share how I deal with expiration dates.
I regularly check expiration dates on the food we store. But I don’t just look at the date. I consider the product.
I have found that certain foods packaged in plastic, with a lot of internal moisture as a natural part of the product, tend to degraded faster than their printed expiration date. We rotate and eat those products six months to a year before their official expiration date. We also seal those products in an additional thick plastic baggie. That seems to help.
We eat before the expiration date any food that does not taste fresh as it nears its expiration date. We know which ones those are from prior experiences with the food. In the high-heat environment where we live, organic rice, full of good oils, tends to taste ‘less good’ sooner than the date promises.
Some things last much, much, much, much longer than their expiration dates. Pure honey, sealed correctly. They have opened sealed jars of honey from the time of the Egyptian pharaohs and eaten it without any problems.
Cans of SPAM®. I have no idea how long the so-called ‘food’ inside lasts. That is why it is so popular in Hawaii, with constant high heat and high humidity. Highly popular during WWII, the longevity and cheapness of SPAM® is a thing of beauty. I hate it. I will not eat it unless starving. Maybe not even then. I’m just using it as the pinnacle example of something that lasts an unusually long time.
Simple thoughts that I operate on:
1. I check the expiration (or ‘best by’ or whatever) dates regularly.
2. If I have the slightest reason to believe the packaging is compromised in any way, even minutely, I throw it away. No matter how hard that feels.
3. Food that has shown to have a shorter span of freshness than indicated, we rotate sooner and eat it before the date, sometimes long before the date.
If you have any thoughts you’d like to share on this vital subject, please leave a comment. If you would like me to comment on your comment, include that request in your comment. Your email will not be published.
