sell by dates

[Mortblanc]

The only foods I have had a direct experience with failing when past date was a can of cheap soup. It was one of the "store brands" that is supposed to be the same as major brand but really is not. It was a year past its date and had been on the shelf of my pantry for two years.

The can was fine, no rust or swelling, but on opening I discovered the plastic liner of the can itself had come lose from the metal and shreds of plastic can liner were floating in the contents.

This was a can of chicken noodle soup, so no excessive acid was present in the contents. The can simply failed with age.

Were I starving I would probably have eaten it anyway, picking out the plastic as I chewed, but that not being the case I decided I could afford to throw away a half dollar can of soup for safety sake.

Other than that I have a simple rule that if something is green, brown, yellow or red and is not supposed to be, has maggots or stinks I pass it up.

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Come to think of it I just described my second wife's normal table fare!

But I survived that too!