|
ESL Forum:
Techniques and methods
in Language Teaching
Games, activities
and teaching ideas
Grammar and
Linguistics
Teaching material
Concerning
worksheets
Concerning
powerpoints
Concerning online
exercises
Make suggestions,
report errors
Ask for help
Message board
|
ESL forum >
Message board > Debate Topic: Best Before Dates on Foods II
Debate Topic: Best Before Dates on Foods II
|
Zora
|
Debate Topic: Best Before Dates on Foods II
|
First of all, I �d like to thank Sophia, Nancy, Maryse, Jayho, Manon, Cheezels and Les (and our ever witty Ed) for participaticing in this morning �s debate.
And for the people who aren �t around during the "European hours", here is a chance to participate and give us your opinion on the following topic.
http://www.eslprintables.com/forum/topic.asp?id=29870
Thanks again to everybody who took the time to participate in this little exchange of opinions and ideas.
|
16 Aug 2011
|
|
|
|
gloriawpai
|
Since my parents had educated me to not waste food at all because they �d been to a war and because there are too many people dying of hunger, etc, etc, I myself try to smell, look, check and then I decide to consume it after all. Never had any food poisoning or stomachache that I can remember of. Maybe I have lots of antibodies, who knows? I �m not paranoid but I always check the bb dates before buying products such as yoghurts, milk, dairy products and canned foods. BTW, Linda, thanks for such topic. I �ll use it tomorrow with my student.
|
16 Aug 2011
|
|
|
juliag
|
Interesting topic, thank you dear Linda for starting it.
Personally I �m not so careful.
Being a vegetarian I �m lucky I don �t need to be, as I agree with the others who have pointed out that meat and fish are usually the worst culprits and the foods you need to be safest around.
I try to be a bit careful round my students though, maybe they can somehow sense that I don �t really bother about these things as on the few occasions I give them candies or cookies some of them have tried to check the bb dates  . Of course I wouldn �t want any of them to get ill and for it to be my responsibility (fault), so I only give them things that are within the bb date limit anyway.
With fruit and veg like you say you can see when it has gone off. I will eat wrinkles tomatoes or soft cucumbers, knowing they won �t taste as good as when I first bought them, but I �d rather do that than waste them.
I also eat eggs, milk, tofu, yoghurt and natto past their best before dates, though I am usually careful not to eat them more than a couple of days past in the summer. In the winter I eat them anything up to a week past the date and natto and eggs even longer probably, though after reading the article I may be more careful with eggs in the future.
Dried foods like pasta, nuts, flour, sugar etc. I eat even when they are several years out of date as long as they look and smell fine (which they almost always do). It �s bit of a running joke between me and my boyfriend what will come out of my cupboards. As I �m not a very good cook and don �t do it so often things often go way past their bb dates even though I don �t actually buy that much in the first place as I know I �m not likely to use it.
As l don �t like to cook when I do I make it in big batches and more often than not my boyfriend cooks a load (he is a kind of chef running his own delicatessen) and gives me a lot in one go, and when it doesn �t fit in my tiny freezer I just keep it in the fridge and eat it for far longer than any of my Japanese friends can believe. If it starts to smell or taste vinegary, or grow mold obviously, then I regrettably bin things, but if not then I will eat them. Usually they are okay for 2-3 days in the summer and a week in the winter, maybe even longer if things have been fried.
It �s funny because my brothers are exactly the opposite and will bin things the day after the bb date even though we had the same upbringing. I guess I �m not so fussy is one big reason, and because I don �t have any children I only have myself to worry about and I know the worst I �m likely to get is a bad case of diarrhea (which I have given myself on just a very few occasions), and also I just don �t believe in wasting things. Not just food, I keep my jeans and trousers with holes in them for walking Pimo and practicing pottery and so on. So for those of you who want a trip to Japan and are thinking of coming to stay with me, make sure warn me that you don �t like to eat things past the bb date first . No need really, of course I �m much more careful around guests.
|
16 Aug 2011
|
|
|
|
|
almaz
|
|
Linda, re toothpastes, cosmetics, lotions etc, you �d be better off looking for the Period-after-opening (PAO) symbol. It looks like this:
It usually has a number, followed by M. My tube of toothpaste, for example, has the symbol with 12M on it, which would mean that the product should be OK for 12 months after I first opened it. I suppose the only problem would be remembering when you opened it (not that a tube of toothpaste is likely to last a year - unless you either open a dozen at a time or you �re a real cheeseparing git). |
16 Aug 2011
|
|
|
