Stating the obvious

Today

One of the problems with having the flat is managing the food store cupboard. While it's easy to decide what to do with perishables it's the "dry goods" that are more difficult to gauge. Just how long should we keep bags of nuts or crisps? We put everything into airtight containers but sometimes that's just not enough.

Fancying a few oat cakes with my cheese at lunchtime today, I pulled out an unopened pack. A rancid odour assailed my nostrils. The "use by" date on the base was December 2009 and it seemed clear that the fat used to make them had gone off. Into the bin with them!

In My Day

I think that "sell by" dates were introduced in the UK about thirty years ago. Before that we had to rely on judgement, old wives tales and the bleedin' obvious.

Judgement generally meant going by the look of something and how long we'd had it. Meat and fish had to be eaten quickly - they kept longer once cooked, from whence came the "joint on Sunday, cold on Monday, pie on Tuesday" kind of housekeeping. Bread went mouldy after a couple of days.

Old wives tales covered seafood being eaten immediately, regardless of whether it looked or smelled OK (they had a point there, those old wives), thunder "turning" the milk or cream and not eating rhubarb or pork  in a month with (or was it without) an "R" in it. (no summer months contain an "R")

But mostly, it's bleedin' obvious. If the milk has gone lumpy and smells funny, don't drink it! If the lettuce has gone sort of slimy and the cheese is covered in green mould then it's probably best to leave it alone. Meat with a strange rainbow sheen to it is likely to give you the runs and fish that should be white but looks kind of grey has probably passed the point where you should put it in your face.

So, while I think that the sell-by (now expanded to include "display by" and "use by") concept does afford some protection, it's really a way of letting food manufacturers off the hook as they often are vastly over-cautious with their dating. and nothing beats judgement and the bleedin' obvious.

I found some oatcakes in the cupboard with an even earlier date but they smelled just fine and I've had a couple with cheese and coleslaw.