Hot Sauce is kind of annoying because it lasts so long after the best by dates. Like it could just be kicking around in then fridge for a couple years and not grow anything on it, but it is probably time to toss it out eventually?
Many hot sauces are so acidic they’re pretty much a preservative!
I proudly store ketchup in the pantry. No amount of recently added "For best results, refrigerate after opening." on the label will convince me otherwise. Cold ketchup is in no way "best".
I get that washing off bacteria does something good. But it also makes the egg more vulnerable to any remaining bacteria. If both types are refrigerated, I wonder which effect dominates?
If you put European eggs in the fridge, it actually DIMINISHES shelf life because it can cause condensation that begins to erode the cuticle (the thing that allows the egg to be stored at room temp w/o bacterial penetration). Like I said, there's advantages and trade offs to BOTH, otherwise the move would just be to do one and not the other (similar to how there are advantages to the Imperial measuring system that ke…
Wow I had no idea about that first thing. Good to know!
I think my parents (in the UK) keep eggs in the fridge. They only buy a dozen at a time so it's probably not a big problem :)
in Europe it's forbidden to sell washed eggs, so you're literally buying eggs covered in chicken shit, it's an interesting regulatory divergence.
If you’re buying eggs covered in excrement, that’s on you. That’s what the law is for: for the seller and producer not being able to hide the awful conditions in which the eggs were produced. If you want clean eggs, buy clean eggs , which will then necessarily have been produced in a clean environment, more healthy for the chickens, and also with less risk of contaminated eggs.
As it turns out, the eggs covered in chicken excrement are those that haven't been power washed, so the actual edible part of the egg is safer...
Not sure whether it was the removal of best before dates or Brexit, but fresh food and veg in Britain is often already rotting in supermarkets. So now instead of the store throwing out loads of produce past its best, I have to do it when I get home and realise that yet again one in each pack of 3 onions is rotted.
> I have to do it when I get home and realise that yet again one in each pack of 3 onions is rotted. I have always been under the impression that the entire point of pre-packaging produce like avocados, apples, and garlic is to mix items that are bad which no one would buy in with some good items so you can still sell the bad ones. This seems to have always been the case in California - where you can generally get go…
Fair, although previously I’d buy the same three packs without issue.
Many foods are unregulated. It's strange that milk, for example, doesn't have any requirements for its expiration date. One brand widened their "best buy" date and I noticed their milk was souring 3 days before the "best buy" date. After contacting them several times, I told them that they gave me no option but to escalate this to authorities, they didn't seem concerned a bit, and after doing my research, I found out…
All the grocery stores in my area will full refund the purchase if it goes bad before the best by date. By returning it to the store you purchased it from, it gets marked as a defective return. When that rate hits a certain percentage they will stop carrying the product.
I think that's why they made this gimmick, because they had a lot of unsold milk. People buy their milk by half gallon as smaller packaging is extremely expensive. They have a pretty stupid policy - instead of having honest and reciprocal pricing, they make only 1/2-gallon best-price per volume, which leads to lots of unsold milk as who would be such big quantity a couple of days before expiration when it's probably already soured and unsuitable as fluid milk. And I suggested all these ina very friendly manner, but they didn't change. So, I switched to a more honest product, plus, I'd rather not us have raw milk when the bird flu is gaining grounds pretty quickly.
> To adhere with the requisite language outlined, any food products with a date label — with the exception of infant formula, eggs, beer, and malt beverages — must state “Best if Used By” to indicate peak quality, and “Use By” to designate food safety. Infant formula is required federally, so OK. Eggs are an oddly specific one, but I guess I can see it (although I'd wonder why some other products like milk, or meat m…
American eggs are incredibly sensitive due to the chlorine washing they go through before making it to the store. Not oddly specific. Here in Sweden (and I assume the rest of the EU) when I buy eggs they are not refrigerated and I keep them in the pantry at room temp for weeks or months without issues. The price I pay is that they sometimes come with a little bird poop on them from the store.
>Not oddly specific.
When I said "oddly specific," I didn't mean that there might not be reason to label eggs with an expiration, I meant that it was oddly specific to require eggs to be labelled while not requiring some food categories that spoil quickly (mentioning milk and meat as examples). Perhaps it has to do with spoilage in eggs perhaps being harder to detect by examining them?
Many foods are unregulated. It's strange that milk, for example, doesn't have any requirements for its expiration date. One brand widened their "best buy" date and I noticed their milk was souring 3 days before the "best buy" date. After contacting them several times, I told them that they gave me no option but to escalate this to authorities, they didn't seem concerned a bit, and after doing my research, I found out…
> It's strange that milk, for example, doesn't have any requirements for its expiration date. Why should it? It won't do you any harm. Just don't buy from suppliers who lie to you. But surely if it went sour before the Best before Date then the supplier has supplied goods that were not of merchantable quality and not in accordance with the implied contract and has failed to uphold their side of the contract. But sure…
I agree. It's a dishonest practice, which was a misguided reaction to their having a lot of unsold milk. I didn't mention it, but this is raw milk. Honestly, I never had their milk go bad, unlike pasteurized milk, but it just gets extremely smelly and sour, so it's far from "best"!
I pick the older one to make sure the supply chain still works well.
It's not incumbent on you to manage the supply chain. The people who are earning profits from servicing that chain have that responsibility. The entire system is best served if you operate with your _own_ best interests in mind.
Agree that one does not have an obligation (first sentence) but disagree that pure individual self interest is best for society.
If you’re buying eggs covered in excrement, that’s on you. That’s what the law is for: for the seller and producer not being able to hide the awful conditions in which the eggs were produced. If you want clean eggs, buy clean eggs , which will then necessarily have been produced in a clean environment, more healthy for the chickens, and also with less risk of contaminated eggs.
Exactly this. I have chickens and when I collect the eggs they are usually completely clean. Only if I start to slack on cleaning the coop or one of the chickens gets sick do the eggs get dirty. I can imagine most eggs sold in the United States would be horrifying if not washed.
The size of the nestbox can be a factor as well. If the nestbox is too large for the breed of chicken you keep, it encourages them to hang out inside it, and they walk on the eggs and get them dirty.
If a nestbox is the right size, it will only be used for laying eggs (and occasional brooding).
in Europe it's forbidden to sell washed eggs, so you're literally buying eggs covered in chicken shit, it's an interesting regulatory divergence.
My understanding is that unwashed eggs preserve a protective layer that inhibits bacterial growth, which is why washed eggs in the US must be refrigerated instead. I think they are both valid methods. https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/09/11/336330502/wh...
Unwashed eggs can also be refrigerated, and they last an absurdly long time that way — much, much longer than either refrigerated washed eggs or unrefrigerated unwashed eggs.
Once you refrigerate unwashed eggs, though, they need to stay refrigerated thereafter.