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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   2864 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 9, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

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All my groceries seem to have “best by” dates, what happened to actual expiration dates? The wife wants to toss everything after the best by date, even when it’s obviously fine for consumption.

A lot of goods have hard to define, far off and greatly varying expiration dates but easily defined and useful best by dates.

Lets say you're buying a loaf of bread, when does that really expire? It might get mouldy in two weeks or just become harder and drier over weeks/months but otherwise keep and be edible for years. What information do you want on the packaging?

Over here, consume by/expiration dates only really exist for things that reliably and quickly go bad and becomes actively dangerous to consume, like most pre-packaged fresh meat.

Are you saying you consider moldy bread edible? I throw away the whole loaf, and would look at anyone doing otherwise strangely. I'm wondering if this is a geographic/cultural norm - I'm from the US, for context.

For some reason, growing up, for cheese we would cut off the moldy part plus a couple inches, but I've mostly chalked that up to "grew up less well off than I am now" + "Jewish cheapness".

Are you saying you consider moldy bread edible? I throw away the whole loaf...

That's a waste of perfectly good bread. Cut off the moldy parts, eat the rest. Of course if the bread is completely covered in mold it's different, but I am surprised someone would throw out a loaf of bread over one small mold spot.

Cut off the moldy parts, eat the rest.

This is true for a large number of types of food, but bread is not one of them. Mold on bread goes deep, fast, and eating the deep mycelia is quite toxic.

I've eaten bread that had mold on it many, many times and never once gotten sick. It can't be all that toxic.

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