*hangs head in shame*
Last week I cleaned out my kitchen cupboards and I found lots of out of date food.
And by out of date, I mean REALLY out of date – Just look at this….
This went out of date in June 2009 – over four years ago.
This was the most out of date thing that I found but there were lots of other things that were at least a couple of years out of date – all of which were binned by Mr Frugal who came in to the kitchen half way through the task to find me sitting in the middle of the floor surrounded in everything from tinned peaches to cider vinegar. He won’t eat anything even one day past it’s used by date so he binned everything, even the things that just had a best before date which I would have been happy to eat if they weren’t too far past!
It’s an argument discussion we have regularly as there’s been many times when he’s thrown out half a loaf of bread that’s past his best before date even though it would have been perfectly fine to eat.
It annoys me because I know there’s a difference between ‘Use By’ dates, I wouldn’t ever eat anything that’s past the used by date for health and safety reasons but best before dates are OK as long as you use your common sense!
So even though I’m sure the sachet of Ainsley Harriet cous cous would have been fine to eat and the bottle of cider vinegar would have been fine to cook with (if I had a clue what to use it for), they went in the bin.
How frustrating is that when I’m usually so careful with using up leftovers and not wasting food!
What about you though – would you eat food that was out of date or is it straight in the bin if anything does ever go past the sell by date?
And to show you just how long ago 2009 was, look at the difference a few years brings….
