Why waste it?

Many people I know will systematically throw away anything that's passed its "best before" or "use by" date. In fact, I even know people who throw things out a couple of days earlier to avoid taking any chances!

The truth is, food didn't always have a date printed on it. Fresh farm- or home-grown foods don't either.

It's not that difficult to tell if a food is no longer fit for consumption. For packaged foods, a swelling of the packaging is usually a good give-away. Smell, apperance and taste are also pretty useful indicators.

Most things have some margin of error included in the dates, anyway, to protect the manufacturer "just in case". A couple of days shouldn't make a huge difference, especially if the food is to be cooked. (I wouldn't take any chances with some raw animal products such as sushi or carpaccio, which must always be eated ultra-fresh in my book, but those are not, generally, what I consider frugal foods anyway!)

Most fresh foods such as vegetables, milk, fruit, meat, fish etc can be consumed for at least a couple of days past their best. For yoghurts and cheese this extends to several weeks.

Cheese either goes mouldy (which can easily be scraped off) or hard (but you can still grate it and use it in place of parmesan on pasta dishes and gratins).

Yoghurts will actually keep for several months, as they are already fermented. Legislation, however, requires that the date be kept short, as the active ferments in the product die after a couple of weeks, meaning that it is no longer "live yoghurt", but simply fromage frais instead! Selling it under the name of yoghurt once it no longer is yoghurt would be fraud, hence the short dates! If you're dubious about eating it raw, you can still use outdated yoghurt in sauces, especially curries and creole dishes, but also in place of cream cheese in many recipes.

Canned, jarred and dried foods (including pasta, rice etc) can be kept for years without their quality being affected. Of course wheat is dried and stored for long periods before it is even turned into flour or pasta. So why should it be any different once it's in a packet in your kitchen? It's dry, so it won't rot or go mouldy... Flour should be kept in an airtight jar, however, to avoid it going rancid or getting infested with mites or moths!

Fruit and vegetables can often be salvaged and used long after most people would have thrown them away! In another post, I'll describe the best ways to deal with rotting fruit and veg, what can be salvaged and how best to use when overripe...

Bon appétit!