♪ a mighty good road

 

("Island Time")

I read an article about Khloe Kardashian's pantry -- something about "decanting" food purchases -- you take the product out of the container it came in and put it in another container...  

In the comments I noticed more of a trend I've observed before in Internet comments -- people are saying the dates don't matter.  The --

Sell by

Use by

Best before

etc.

I always go by those dates, because I'm old enough to remember when that practice started -- I was in junior high, I think, and there was an episode of All In The Family where they talked about it.  (And there was something about botulism -- if the can was bulging, you didn't want to eat the contents.)

It was presented at the time as a policy that was good for the consumer, because if companies weren't required to put on dates, customers could be buying products that were already old, and not know.

But the new generations don't see it as a consumer-friendly policy, they say the dates are meaningless and they will open the product and if it looks all right and doesn't smell bad, they will eat it.

My feeling:  if it might possibly smell bad, I don't want to smell it, I'll read the date and if it's past, "do svidaniya."

People come across like they are being frugal by using food or ingredients that are outdated -- my way of being frugal is check the date in the supermarket, and buy things where the date is far enough "out" that I'm pretty sure I'll use it before the date.

reader comments:

~  ...In many ways it is silly.  That can of tomatoes from the 1950s might have some odd flavors after sitting there for a few decades, but it isn't going to hurt you assuming it was in a steel can or glass jar that remained completely airtight and sealed.

~  1950s?  Sounds like your pantry doubles as a bunker.

~  There's a guy named Steve on You Tube who ate peanut butter from 1955.

~  Island Time

I live in a hurricane and tsunami prone state with the nearest help 2500 miles away.  I keep at least a month's worth of food in my pantry and have storage available for 300 gallons of water.  

Rotating the food is a chore--I'm always finding some odd can tucked away and going "damn, 2003?  Well, it's not bulging or rusted, so I know what's for dinner."  

        But it's better than the usual hurricane warning rush, which leads to people coming home with 5 cases of SPAM and a case of beer.

_________________________

A song for the day:

go on You Tube and type in

Rock Island Line, Johnny Cash

and play.

-30-