Is it ever safe to eat expired food?

I have been thinking about this for a while. What if a food product is a few hours or a day expired, would you eat it? What if the expired food is safely stored in the freezer, would it be safe to eat after its expired date? By food, I mean meat, and dairy products. What is the medical and biological reasons for not eating expired food?

 

Well I think that if it's only a day or hours past the expiration date then it can still be eaten, as long as the food does not taste weird. You can easily tell by the taste anyway if the food is still fit for human consumption or not.

 

Expired food has germs and microorganisms that feed on dead and decaying matter. Most of these microorganisms are harmful to you and might make you sick or even give you a stomach ache. However, that is not why I do not eat expired food. I avoid eating expired food because most of it tastes so bad and it makes me just vomit because of the smell it produces. I think that it is best to avoid eating expired food.

Even so, I find myself eating food that is about to expire sometimes especially when I have little or no money. Desperate times call for desperate measures. When times get tough financially, I can eat anything.

 

Undoubtedly it's not safe to eat expired food items. As Sidney said, the food may not be spoiled in the next minute after expiration time or date. There will be no problems in such situation. But for our stomach's safety it's better to avoid foods crossed expiry dates.

 

Sell By date and Eat by date are two different things. For example, a steak that says sell by June 4th. You can eat it on June 3rd or June 5th. But should see how it smells and feels first. If it stinks to high heaven and feels slimy, toss it immediately. If not, go for it. Milk goes bad faster than anything else though. I've had milk go bad a week or five days before expiration date listed. But when it comes to food past sell date, use your head. If it reeks, or id discolored, or has stuff growing on it...throw it out!

 

It really depends what kind of food. Some food is fine past it's shelf life and others are not. If you're not sure don't eat it. Be safe not cheap.

 

If you are thinking of your safety, better not to eat expired foods. Even if you think they can still be eaten, just to try to eat it. It's not really safe because the preservatives put in there are already expired and the contents such as the meat will already start to get rotten.

 

I certainly wouldn't recommend it,but I think it does depend on the type of food in question too. Some food takes a long time to mould, even after the sell by date has expired. I think as a general rule though it of course is not recommended.

 

I wouldn't recommend eating expired foods, although I an say that in dire circumstances I have done so before as well. Just because the package says expired doesn't mean that the product is actually expired. Nonetheless, I don't think that it's actually worth the risk and I have rarely ever found myself wanting to eat something that badly that I would ignore an expiration date.

 

Canned goods never expire though. You can keep peas in a can on the shelf in your home for like a year and they'll still be good. Can't say the same for many other store bought goods.

 

I won't eat expired food. I don't think it's safe and eating expired foods could hurt my stomach.

 

It's usually not a good idea. On the other hand, sometimes your immune system needs a good challenge; let it go a few rounds with the heavyweight champs of bacteria!

 

Not smart Sabrehawk. Food poisoning is no joke. It's like the flu meets having been on a roller coaster for 24 hours straight on a full stomach.

 

Milk is very sensitive, if the weather is humid and you leave it outside your ref for a couple of hours then it will start to spoil, regardless of the expiration date.

 

If it's frozen, you can probably still eat it (unless it's already green or something, obviously). As other users have said, some things are more sensitive then others. In general, I'd rather be on the safe side and throw it away if I have something else to eat/drink.

 

No it isn't, I never eat expired goods and never intend to. Once I was eating a packet of lays and I realized that it wasn't crunchy and I checked the expire date and it was 2 days old at least I only ate 2 chips out of it though so no harm was done but I sure threw it away.

 

Expired food could actually be consumed a week after it has expired. Don't get me wrong though don'r drink liquids after they expire because it could cause diarrhea or make you puke. Google the type of food that's expired and see if it's edible because you don't want too eat something that will make you throw up.

 

Oftentimes, what's printed on an item is the Sell By date. This is so stores have a deadline for moving a product off of the shelves. I've eaten eggs from a carton that stayed refrigerated and had a Sell By date that was almost two weeks old. No problems whatsoever. I've had mayonnaise if the fridge that I've used that was months pass the "expiration" date. I always do a taste and smell test to make sure. It's pretty obvious when things are going bad.

Things I don't play around with are any kind of pork or milk.

I usually try to unpackage things, wash them off, and then repackage them into meal-sized portions in separate packages. I'll put whatever I think I'll use that day in the fridge and freeze the other portions.

 

The expiration date found on most packaged food is there for a reason. But that reason may not be precisely what you think it is. Here's the best way to understand it all, and maybe even save some cash.