Community Chat

[Sooner]

My view is fresh is always best.  So use up things before their use by date and keep up with it.  It's just a cleaning routine now for us.  Not much goes past, but what does either is tossed if it's really old, used, or tossed if it is just a tad out of date.

Just don't let things get old and you have less stuff and better stuff.  Saying from experience in the last few years.  It really is doable but you have to make it a priority.

[SactoSue]

I know that suncreen degrades with time and with storage in hot conditions, so I am careful about buying it new yearly and storing it carefully.

Liquid primers, or makeup bases also get old and I'm very careful about discaring them yearly.  

Makeup that has multiple-entry containers, like mascara, bottles of liquid or creme foundation or color, lipsticks get bacterial contamination fairly easily.   Especially mascara.  As  I wear contact lenses, the last thing I want is contaminated mascara, so I change mine for a fresh tube at least every 3-6 months, depending on how frequently I am using it.   I was using a lash building product but stopped that after a couple of eye infections. 

I also just got rid of old formulations of makeup.  I don't wear eyeshadow or liner any more, so those will be the next to get culled.  

[occasionalrain]

@cindyNC 

When possible I buy eggs directly from the farm or backyard producer. I like seeing the chickens running free. Because an egg can be missed and older than expected, I always test them in water. Really fresh lie on the bottom. As they age one end tips up. By the time they float, they are too old for me, get boiled and put outside for the farals, raccoon and possum.

[occasionalrain]

There is a website called Still Tasty. Before discarding food, check it on the Still Tasty site. 

[shoekitty]

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@occasionalrain wrote:

@cindyNC 

When possible I buy eggs directly from the farm or backyard producer. I like seeing the chickens running free. Because an egg can be missed and older than expected, I always test them in water. Really fresh lie on the bottom. As they age one end tips up. By the time they float, they are too old for me, get boiled and put outside for the farals, raccoon and possum.

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@occasionalraint Thanks!  Great info, I didn't know that about testing eggs!

[RedTop]

For me it makes sense that every product a human will eat or use, has an expiration date.  I don't see any food or personal care item being packaged in a factory and able to sit on a shelf for extended lengths of time.  

Hospitals toss many thousands of dollars in simple medical supplies like gauze bandages, tongue depressors, cotton swabs and bandaids, not to mention saline  and medications, etc.  

As for me and dates, I try to use common sense based on the item itself.  Generally, I will not automatically throw food out based solely on the date stamped on the package.  My exception to that has been with some of the canned and packaged food trucker daughter has had with her on the road that she grows tired of, and stashes here until "the mood strikes her again", which usually doesn't.  

[Shelbelle]

My feeling is if something smells fine, looks fine, consistency not changed and no change in color use it !!

I once spoke to a rep from Colgate Palmolive, she said their toothpaste is guaranteed to be potent 18 months beyond the exp date, said the date is for legal purposes only. 

[Zhills]

Expiration dates on food, as we know them today, weren't mandated by the government, but rather adopted by manufacturers in the 1970s to address consumer concerns about freshness. 

While these dates, often labeled as "sell-by" or "use-by", are now commonplace, they primarily indicate the manufacturer's estimate of when the product will be at its peak quality, not necessarily when it becomes unsafe. 

[ROMARY]

Just yesterday I opened a can of cut green beans.......Best by: 2023.  Still excellent flavor, and the can was in perfect condition.

I still have a few more that I'll be eating.

[bargainsgirl]

I go by smell and taste and if something has mold obviously out it goes.  For the most part I ignore expiration dates.  I have used canned goods that expired 3 years before I used them.  I'm still here...