Expired ingredients

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I have heard that you can use up expired ingredients by baking with them. The reason behind this that once you cook something it is no longer harmful. I for one don't believe this and I would never take that chance. Does anyone here bake with expired ingredients?
 
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No, I'm not willing to take the risk because I read a story about a woman whose son had a horrible allergic reaction to some old pancake mix because it had some mold spores growing in it. The kid's lips turned blue and he couldn't breathe. No thanks.
 
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I've never heard of such a thing. I take ingredients like food. If it's expired, it's not healthy to eat. I wouldn't put expired cheese in my omelets why would I use expired cheese in baking?
 
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I would never take a chance in using expired ingriedients. I care too much for my family to even think about tempting expired ingriedients. Sometimes I throw away them when its like a day or two before expiration.
 
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I don't pay too much attention to "Use Before" dates - if it looks ok, smells ok and tastes ok, then it's probably fine. Companies are forced to put 'use before' dates on their goods by law, but that doesn't mean the product becomes poisonous on that date ;) There is an astonishing amount of food wastage in the developed world, I would never throw away good food because of a date printed on the pack.

However if I found something at the back of a cupboard with a long expired date, and it wasn't easy to check it (eg flour) then I'd chuck it!
 
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I'll use certain things a little bit past the expiration date, but not usually more than a couple of weeks. I'm pretty sure that most boxed mixes and things won't make you sick, but I don't like to risk it. I'm not the type to just throw it away the day after the date, though.
 
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It depends totally on the ingredient. The FDA says they must put a use by or sell by date on everything, but some things keep much longer. It also depends on how it is stored.

I have about 2 lbs of yeast that expired about 8 years ago in my freezer. I take it out about 1/4 lb at a time and keep that in my fridge. The bread rises fine.

Not to long ago I opened a can of tomatoes that wasn't even close to the use by date and the second I punctured the can, it hissed and spewed tomato bits all over.:eek: There are things to look for that are much more important than dates.

The FDA also says it's ok to sell NutraSweet and GMO's so I don't think they are a reliable source anymore. The ok whatever they get paid to ok, and don't ok what nobody is willing to put big bucks into.
 
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Isn't there a difference between expiration date and "use before" dates? My fiance and I always argue about this. Haha! Me being the girl, of course I am always on the pre cautious side.
 
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I don't worry about the expiration date unless it is something that has been out of date for a long, long time. I actually look for the items in the grocery that are being marked down because they are going out of date. I have never had any problem as long as i used them up fairly soon after buying the item.
Everything that is sold has to have an expiration date on it. if you look at plain old bottled water, even that has an expiration date on it. It is a requirement; but that doesn't automatically mean that the item is no good after that date.
it also depends on the conditions where the food is kept. I live in a humid climate, so anything with flour in it will spoil sooner than if I lived someplace with dry air.
 
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To a certain extent, yes.

For example, sometimes milk is still technically "good," but if it's not going to taste as fresh as I want it to, I'll use it to bake with instead.

Bananas are a good example of a food that might be a little 'too far gone' but are perfect for baking with. And crackers that are stale or bread that's crusty, etc, can still be used in baked goods instead.
 
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Yeah, that's true. Slightly overripe bananas are perfect for banana nut bread! Stale crackers are also good for making meatloaf and stuff.
 
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Bananas are something that can easily get too ripe, and then they are usually only good for baking, or something besides just eating them.
However, my Kroger grocery puts their brownish-speckled bananas on sale, so i buy them. We eat a few of them before they get bad,so i leave a few, and the rest i slice thinly and put in the freezer. Once they have frozen, I place them in the freezer bags, and they can be used a bit at a time for either cooking, or in smoothies or milkshakes. When they are frozen, they also chill the smoothie, so they are perfect for this.
 
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I agree with the others, if it is "expired" then you should just throw it out and not try to use it. You can get very sick if you have something that has been contaminated by a bad ingredient. As far as "Best if used by" I have used ingredients that are outside of this date by a couple of days, but I would not recommend pushing it out any further.
 
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My mom attended a seminar that tells them about expired food products or ingredients. She told me that food or ingredients can stay fresh after the expiry date as long as it is inside the fridge. It can lost to almost a year after expiring. Not really sure on baking ingredients that aren't supposed to be refrigerated. But it's best to stick to the expiration date for me!
 
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It really depends on what food item it is. I once used flour that was two years old, and it was way over the expiration date, but I thought, it's flour it doesn't go stale, right? WRONG. It makes my cupcake taste disgusting! I had to throw the entire batch out. There are things that even if it says "expired" it'll be fine for a while longer, like Guar Gum powder. It supposedly expired last year, yet it still thickens up a sauce just fine. I think it really honestly depends on what the food is.
 
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I was going to use expired cream cheese for a cheesecake not too long ago. Online said it's good a month or so past the date. I tasted it, before using it, and it was nasty; so, I threw it out. I ate 6 month past-the-date Laughing Cow cheese once, too. It didn't make me sick but the texture was a bit off; so, I ended up throwing the rest of them out.

However, for dried goods like flour, I don't even pay attention to the date. We store all that kind of stuff in the freezer (or bugs are into it within days) so it doesn't really go bad.
 
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I think that it really depends on the kind of ingredient that it is. There are some things that are fine to use if they are expired and other things that you should never use.

When it comes to the dates on packages though, those are typically sell by dates and the ingredient should still be good to use for about a month (non perishable items) or a week (perishable items) after the sell by date.
 

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