shelf life
Bees, spiders, and expired food. These are a few of my least favorite things. More like greatest fears, actually.
I've never had food poisoning, but somehow I became very risk averse when it comes to consuming food products when the date permanently branded into the packaging corresponds to yesterday or earlier. I once ate chunky milk accidentally, when pouring cereal in the dark in an effort to avoid disturbing my roommates (I was up for an early class). While the taste was disgusting enough to spark a gag reflex, I wasn't ill as a result. The sour milk incident of 1999 transpired well after my fear of expired food had developed, so I can't attribute my double-checking of expiry dates to chewing my milk that time.
In the past, I often discarded food automatically based on the expiration date, despite knowing that the dates aren't necessarily hard and true (as pointed out humorously by Jerry Seinfeld and the comic I've included below). Just to be safe.
In more recent years, I've tried to be more rational about how I react to dates on packaging. For instance, if the date on the yogurt container is in the past but there is no mould or foul smell, I'll eat it (this was a big step for me). Less waste is a good thing.
When I noticed that we had just under half a gallon of milk in the fridge on February 17th and the date on the jug read February 16, I tweeted.
After the sour milk incident, drinking it straight up was not my first choice even though it didn't smell bad. But I didn't want to dump it either. So I baked. Cinnamon rolls and rice pudding (of course, I used real maple syrup for the latter). Win win: milk not wasted and yummy homemade edibles.
