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Message board > Debate Topic: Best Before Dates on Foods
Debate Topic: Best Before Dates on Foods
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Zora
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Debate Topic: Best Before Dates on Foods
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Hi everybody!
Since today is a holiday in Spain, I figured that I �d give the debate topic a try and see how it goes. I saw a news item today that I thought to be neither political, nor religious and free from educational views - since a lot of us are on holidays!  (Forgive me Maryse, we wil discuss your idea one day... I haven �t forgotten about it, I just wanted to see if we could do something "non-educational" first.)
The topic is "Best Before Dates - Marketing Tool or Not?"
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1384647/Do-sell-date-paranoia-As-Ministers-consider-scrapping-best-labels-leading-expert-explains-tell-food-fresh.html
Now, I was reading this article and quite often, I have commented to my significant other that "I remember a time where canned products didn �t have Best Before dates and nobody died because they ate soup or peaches from a dusty tin in granny �s larder that had to be 3 or 4 years old - at least!"
In fact, as time went on, my parents bought a little grocery store - a general store actually (I know, it sounds old West, but I am a prairie girl born and raised! lol)... and bread products often got taken back and later sold by the pound, (A penny a pound!) to farmers to use as feed for their chickens or pigs... The thing about this is that most of it was still fresh and edible!!! And many people bought these products not for the livestock but for themselves.
Heck, I just bought a jar of mustard not long ago and it said consume before two months... well, I remember my mom had a jar of this mustard (English mustard, I think) that stayed in our fridge for years and nobody ever died from it. In fact, I really ask myself ... are we really having the wool pulled over our eyes by companies that pretend to care about our health, but are actually just encouraging us to "buy-buy-buy and buy some more?"
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15 Aug 2011
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ueslteacher
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IMHO It really depends on the product, Linda. Maybe they didn �t use to stuff food with that many chemical ingredients back then, which can probably change their formula as they degrade with time and thus cause food poison. Imagine a situation (and it �s a true story told by my friend who used to work at the supermarket): the workers of the supermarket were made to wipe off the overdue date on the baby food and put a good one. How would you like to not knowingly buy expired baby food and give your baby a stomachache at best? I hate, when I buy products in the supermarket with a good date, but when I bring them home it turns out they aren �t fresh (e.g. frozen fish which is wrapped in layers and layers of cellophane has a stink) BTW as to the cans, did you know that fruit canned with pits/stones release hydrogen cyanide? If you store them for more than two years, the concentration of HCN increases, and eating such cans can be lethal. The consentration of the poison can be easily decreased though by drinking sugar water if the cause of the ailment is determined in time at least that�s what I remember from a class at the University. Moreover, when I want to buy a box of juice, I won�t buy it from a mini-market that has no air-conditioning and where the box has been sitting on the shelf in the sun for a while. I won�t buy ice-cream from a near-by store if I know there has recently been a black-out in the area... You might call me crazy:) but I just don�t want to get sick from food. Can I prevent all accidents? Definitely not, I�m just a human being. But I�d rather prevent the ones I can:) Sophia
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15 Aug 2011
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maryse pey�
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dear Zora,
no problem about the topic.
Let �s try to give a comprehensible opinion.
As far as I am concerned more than the dates I carefully check the shape of the tin. Of course the consumers are regularly warned about these so �precious � dates to take in account.
What a waste !!!! So many people cannot buy food and the supermarkets are obliged to distruct the �out-of-date � products...
So why my doctor - who is known to have some authorized knowledge about viruses and so on, isn �t he ? as the most of doctors and scientists - told me that I can consume this food at least for 1 long year after the given date...
Unfortunately we live in a consuming society. I do not doubt that some products are becoming poison if ever... As Sophia has said it might be due to what is added, so-called vitamins and other �kind � things to help us to stay healthy people !!!
I was told a long ago that this so �pure � food we are given to eat is finally as disastrous for us that some natural poisons ! Let me explain when something is not really �perfect � our body creates naturally antibodies, like a kind of vaccine strengthening our natural defenses. What if we only eat �pure � product, �perfect � products made tasteless, colorless or on the countrary perfectly artifial in look and taste are given to children ?
Do you remember the true savor of the fruits of the past, the perfume coming out from the baker, the florist and so on ?
Today everything unpure is forbidden in our plates ! How can our kids can make their preference with �one-savor-only � products ????
Well, I remember once when I bought yoghurts with a wrong date... I had to throw them : it was visible that I could not consume them. It happened once !
Now I buy products I want and consume them if they always smell ok, look ok and taste ok...
And that is why I am used to say �you cannot kill the naughty seeds so easily ! �. I know what I mean... I am the worst of the naughty seeds I know !!!! LOL.
Maryse. |
15 Aug 2011
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GIOVANNI
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It �s funny that this is the article we are discussing today because I have just been doing some investigating of my own. This is a discussion we often have at home because my family states that I am paranoid when it comes to food. I have always wondered whether the dates on products were correct, whether it is a way of making us use more, or whether we are using too many chemicals today. Recently, I had an unopened jar of unused mayo on my shelf with an expired ub date. I decided I would phone the company to see whether this was usable or not. I contacted the company and was advised that it was still good to use. I asked when the actual date would be for non consumption and was advised that it was good for at least another couple of months if the jar had not been opened. I remember when I was a child my eating habits were not as they are today. Food would be left out and we would eat it. We would go on picnics without ice packs. I don �t recall ever having had food poisioning. This is something I would not dare do today. Is it that I am being brain washed or is it because of all the chemicals that are now being used? It �s a pity how much food is wasted today. Some companies will not give out freely food which is near expiration, while others do. We have food banks near my home and often are given food close to expiration to give to the needy. If the article is true why not give foods such as pasta etc. to people who could use it instead of this needless waste.? By the way if olive oil doesn �t smell bad, does anyone know how long it is good before it goes rancid? I think a question like this is what we have become used to asking.
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15 Aug 2011
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Jayho
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I have a large bottle of Jif cream cleanser with a use by date of 1998 clearly printed on it. It �s only half full (empty) and I am not about to toss it yet as I use it for those stubborn jobs. I can �t believe a cleanser has a use by date.
But back to food, I have a packet of smoked salmon sitting in my fridge. I LOVE smoked salmon and usually buy Australian SS which usually has a 3 month use by date. But I recently bought a Nowegian brand. It has a three year window. It was packed two years before I bought it and had another year to go. What I can �t work out is how it can stay fresh for three years when the Australian brand is three months. Will it actually taste like SS once I finally get the courage to consume it? To be honest, I �m not sure I actually want to eat it now. |
15 Aug 2011
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manonski (f)
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I think a "Best before" is just a way companies have given themselves protection.
But....
I always check the dates of food before buying them. When I go in the fridge or pantry, if it �s past the best before date, it goes in the trash even if it still looks good to eat. Call me paranoid, I don �t care. I have a memory of my mom being
carried to the hospital by my grandpa because of food poisoning. I don �t want that happening to me.
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15 Aug 2011
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maryse pey�
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Dear Manon,
you are not at all paranoid ! Nothing is all black or all white !
Accidents may occur as well as poisoning !
But there is a great difference between some poisoning with fresh mortal mushrooms eaten by �mistake � and food become uneatable !
We must be careful about what we are eating but I DO understand your reaction : it is logical ! Don �t worry ! |
15 Aug 2011
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edrodmedina
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And here I thought this topic was about best food to eat before a date! |
15 Aug 2011
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manonski (f)
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@ed, about your understanding of the topic: I �d certainly avoid garlic. 
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15 Aug 2011
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Zora
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Ed! "Best Not Eaten Before Dates" Food is anything that causes flatulence - unless it �s an outdoor event and it �s gonna be windy that day - raw onions or garlic.
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15 Aug 2011
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But there is no date on the bottle.. so I am guessing that olive oil lasts quite a while. I know my grandmother buys it by the 5 litre can and it takes her a long time to use it all.