Jar of sandwich piccalilli - best before Jan 2013. Safety button intact. Ingredients: cauliflower, onions, sugar, gherkins, spirit vinegar, maize starch, mustard seed, salt, turmeric, red peppers, flavouring (no egg, milk or animal products).
To eat or not to eat, that is the question.
If the lid is uncorroded (*) and it smells & tastes OK, I'd eat it.
(* Unlikely. IME, the vinegar attacks the lids on elderly jars of pickles.)
It's certainly worth tasting. It'll probably be fine.
If it was home-made then botulism might be a risk but a commercial product should have been properly sterilised during the bottling process.
Owain
Probaly safe to eat but will taste tired or stale I would think#
Is it definitely 'best before' rather than 'use by'? If so, it's probably ok. If it was off, the internal pressure would rise and the safety button would pop.
I've eaten far older stuff as long as I've been satisfied that it's ok.
I have never been that fond of piccalilli at the best of times so I would probably use it being out of date as an excuse to get rid.
OTOH If it was a pickle I would just eat it provided it smells OK and the pH is still good and acidic.
The big risk is botulism if the pH doesn't stay sufficiently acidic and that would be very dangerous. Home made herbs in oil are at risk of becoming dangerous this way but things with plenty of vinegar in should remain safe enough for a very long time. They may not taste as good as they would have done when kept long beyond their nominal use by date.
Most pickles in an excess of vinegar are safe enough. Lining the jar lid with cling film slows down the corrosion damage to the lids.
I'd say try it if this is your thing provided its not been in sunlight or something. Brian
Most canned or bottled stuff like that has an extremely long life before becoming dangerous. And would usually be obvious if it were when opening it.
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