How do you tell when food has gone bad?
When you purchase food, you assume it’s fresh. (Or that it’s so filled with chemicals that nothing – save the chemicals themselves – will hurt you.) Then there’s food that’s gone bad: it either smells or has stuff growing on it – and unless we’re talking about expensive cheese, these are pretty good indications it shouldn’t be consumed.
What we’re concerned with, however, is the stuff you’re just not sure about; like the chinese food that’s been in the fridge four days – or the half a Gatorade that sat out a few hours. (And let’s not forget the salad dressing you remember purchasing during the Bush administration.)
Have YOU ever experienced the difficulties associated with “food gone bad”?
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I tend to shop more frequently for my meats and fruits vs cereal and dry goods. Lesson learned from having to throw out food that went bad, or was deemed questionable for consumption. Saves me money, and gives me piece of mind. Rule of thumb, when in doubt…throw it out!!!!!
If fruit, veggies and certain cheeses, even breads, are sitting in the fridge with extended mold on them, out they go! However, I do NOT tell my spouse, as he believes that mold is perfectly fine – eeek! – “just cut the mold off, the cucumber will be perfectly good to eat.” He has no sense of smell, either. I have a keen sense of smell which can prove to be both good and bad. If the meat/fish smells bad, it gets tossed right away. But, ya’ know, as a consumer advocate, I will once in a blue moon return the smelly product to the store if it was purchased within a day or two and get my money back or another package. There’s never an argument when I say to the meat man, “Here. You take it home and eat it, then.”
I have trouble with shelf-stable stuff that’s been opened. There’s always a “use by” date for the unopened product, but rarely is there any info about how long the product is good after use. Salsa, condiments, etc.