OT. 50% of food wasted?

[Sam Plusnet]

It smacks more of a 'pressure group' who wish to influence public policy deliberately fiddling the evidence in order to produce the 'right' result.

[Sam Plusnet]

We found the same. Fruit & veg now consistently lasts a lot longer than it did in our old fridge.

We also now have a much bigger fridge, since so many things which used to be kept in a cupboard now insist they have to be refrigerated.

[Sam Plusnet]

What exactly _is_ a micro meal?

Are you always still hungry afterwards?

Is it the supermarket's answer to homoeopathy?

[polygonum]

:-)

Glad you spell it in the old-fashioned quaint way.

[Dave Liquorice]

If you don't know, you don't need to know.

Another name is "ready meal" or "TV dinner". Currys are mentioned elsewhere, they are *always* better the next day. The flavours have time to mingle than the hour or so in the pot.

[Dave Liquorice]

Trouble is the machines that do the chopping can't handle mis-shapes very well.

[Dave Liquorice]

That's certainly what came across from the version of the regurgitated press release I read. Personally the only time I look at the use by date is to see if something has gone off early. Otherwise I use my eyes and nose and some vague memory of when the item was bought. The pot of single cream that I was asked to buy before Christmas may well get thrown out, I think it has a use by of 20 Dec.

Yep, though if the mould is more than an odd colony here and there it will get dumped (Cheese with a mould rind excluded!).

I'll scoop it out and a "decent" bit of the jam nearby(*). You don't know what toxins the mould may have produced and leached into the adjacent jam.

(*) So for a mould blob around 1/4" across it would be a teaspoon sized scoop around it.

[Dave Liquorice]

Or when you open it the can lining shows signs of corrosion or the food smells bad. But generally tinned stuff does keep for a considerable time, way past, as in many years past, the "best before" date.

[Huge]

This is certainly true for WRAP's nonsensical 30% figure.

[Frank Erskine]

I must say I've never come across mouldy jam, even though I use "no added sugar" stuff. I do store it in the fridge once opened. Cheese seems to be my "bête noir" regarding mould. For regular day-to-day cheesing I often buy ready-grated of divers species, which does seem to keep for a while in its resealable bag. More "exotic" cheeses I occasionally buy often live in Tupperware-type (other makes are available) small containers which I might forget at the back of the fridge for a month or two when it's only fit for the bin.

Things like bread rolls seem to keep for decades (well, a month or two!) in the freezer.

[polygonum]

I remember a cookbook in which was retold the story of the perplexed chef. He had just received complements from a diner on the grouse risotto. Of course, no risotto on the menu - but the grouse *had* been hanging around for a while, and maggots look ever so like...

[Owain]

Cheese freezes perfectly well from a taste point of view. It goes a bit harder and crumblier - but that actually turns cheap rubbery mousetrap into something that resembles cheddar.

Owain

[Sam Plusnet]

I don't think I've had one like that since I worked at a British Steel R&D centre in about 1971.

No wonder I've forgotten.

[Thomas Prufer]

And there's something called the "vinegar eel" that lives in vinegar -- small wiggly things.

Thomas Prufer

[Mark]

Waitrose is too pricy for us ;-)

They do. When I shop I always pick from the back of the shelf to get the longest dates.

[polygonum]

However all this discussion misses that much food varies in safety over its life in what appear to be unpredictable ways. (That is, if you read up and check out the individual foods, you might have some idea. But applying "older is worse" mantras, you could be way out.) One specific example is the level of biogenic amines to be found. These can go up or down over time.

[whisky-dave]

What aboyut the other dates.

best before Display until Do not exceed use by date (is that differnt from a use by date ?) If freezing use within one month and defrost for 24 hours before use.

I wouldn't drink slighty soured milk as it makes me feel ill, I do scrape the mould of the edge of bread and cheese but there are limits.

I dontl; exceed the dates by too much, especailly if I've left stuff out to defrost and forgotten about it.

[whisky-dave]

Yeah we should stop feeding them all they do is grow up to be students ;-)

[Tim Watts]

On Monday 14 January 2013 10:51 Mark wrote in uk.d-i-y:

I thought that until I priced my Sainsburys shop on Ocado. Turns out most of the stuff I buy is the same price (a lot is stamped Tescos Proce Match).

Sure, you can buy the fancy stuff and pay a fortune, but, unlike Tesco Value, "Waitrose Essential" is actually nice.

[Scion]

Bob Minchin spake thus:

Food poisoning? :-P