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Eating out-of-date stuff

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Eating out-of-date stuff

Postby Sakkarin » Fri Jul 03, 2020 8:20 pm

How about this as an idea for a telly programme - a couple of blokes eating really old out-of-date stuff?

Sample programme content:
1. Eating a 72-year-old pack of Wheeties infested with weevils.
3. Eating a freeze-dried soldier's ration from the Vietnam war.
3. Eating a 40 year-old bottle of Tabasco Sauce.
4. Eating a packet of E.T. (the film) candy from the 80s.

Too late, it's already been done. I watched it earlier on the "History"* Channel, and it actually held my attention for longer than the Jamie programme the other day!

https://www.history.co.uk/shows/videos/eating-history

*"History" in quotes because most of the programmes on there are complete nonsense. Example: "Ancient Aliens". Now in it's 15th season, 190 episodes, 190 hours of cobblers. The ideas that aliens will ever visit earth is only marginally more likely than the possibility of a visit by Santa.

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Re: Eating out-of-date stuff

Postby Suelle » Fri Jul 03, 2020 8:55 pm

I'd only be worried about the Wheeties! :lol:
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Re: Eating out-of-date stuff

Postby WWordsworth » Fri Jul 03, 2020 10:25 pm

Urgh

I'm generally quite blase about dates but there are limits.

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Re: Eating out-of-date stuff

Postby smitch » Fri Jul 03, 2020 10:30 pm

There is a guy on YouTube who amongst other things eats all kinds of weird and/or out of date food. My OH watches his videos but they make me feel a bit queasy
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuXVJtG6oNtG8ViYjazh_oLw8Km8yWYDY
Last edited by smitch on Fri Jul 03, 2020 11:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Eating out-of-date stuff

Postby Earthmaiden » Fri Jul 03, 2020 11:02 pm

I'm sure a lot of them would be fine apart from flavour and texture loss maybe. I doubt there were many Wheeties left! :?

I'd rather watch someone else try them than try them myself though.

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Re: Eating out-of-date stuff

Postby spangle » Fri Jul 03, 2020 11:16 pm

My mum would have loved that programme. She saw use-by dates as part insult, part challenge. I did once kind of wrestle a pot of coronation chicken off her and into the bin because I could *hear* it hissing, but generally just considered it her business. She had a pretty strong constitution. A whole programme of people eating old weevilly things might be a bit much though.

Ancient Aliens as a history programme - that made me laugh! Although now they'll probably punish my mirth by abducting me... Sorry, aliens.

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Re: Eating out-of-date stuff

Postby jeral » Sat Jul 04, 2020 12:04 am

There was a famous one recently where a chap had deliberately kept a beefsteak for 12 years or something and said it still tasted good as new.

None of the items are garbled processed mixtures though. I wouldn't fancy an additive enhanced ready meal composite pack even one day out of date.

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Re: Eating out-of-date stuff

Postby karadekoolaid » Sat Jul 04, 2020 12:47 am

Well I suppose that, if we can watch Andrew Zimmern eating monkey brains, balut and wichity grubs, and the Mexicans eat all manner of dried scorpions, grashoppers, centipedes and worms - why not?
It might finally put to rest the myth that the "best before" date is just an over-reaction of elf n safely? :gonzo :gonzo

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Re: Eating out-of-date stuff

Postby scullion » Sat Jul 04, 2020 3:12 am

the oldest thing i have eaten was getting on for 450 years old... well past its best before date.

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Re: Eating out-of-date stuff

Postby Suelle » Sat Jul 04, 2020 9:35 am

scullion wrote:the oldest thing i have eaten was getting on for 450 years old... well past its best before date.


All matter was present on Earth from the day of the Big Bang (or whatever the current theory is). Therefore any atom we eat, however recently the food was produced, is as old as time, but I'd still like to know what you ate that was 450 years old! :)
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Re: Eating out-of-date stuff

Postby Sakkarin » Sat Jul 04, 2020 9:50 am

A couple of guesses at that 450-year-old, I know Chinese stockpots can be kept going for years (maybe centuries) eternally being topped up, and also there are yeasty things like sourdough cultures that are kept festering forever...

Only just got up so my brain isn't in gear yet so can't think of any others.

Fruit off a very old tree?

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Re: Eating out-of-date stuff

Postby scullion » Sat Jul 04, 2020 12:13 pm

Suelle wrote:All matter was present on Earth from the day of the Big Bang (or whatever the current theory is). Therefore any atom we eat, however recently the food was produced, is as old as time

i assumed that that was a given - we are all stardust.

Sakkarin wrote:Only just got up so my brain isn't in gear yet so can't think of any others.

i'm not sure you would have got there for quite a while, it was one of these. a friend who was (is) an archeobotanist on the dig had a jar of them.
i can't say they stood the test of time - you wouldn't have bothered making rice and peas with them!

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Re: Eating out-of-date stuff

Postby Seatallan » Sat Jul 04, 2020 12:28 pm

i assumed that that was a given - we are all stardust.

Isn't that a Joni Mitchell song? :D
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Re: Eating out-of-date stuff

Postby Earthmaiden » Sat Jul 04, 2020 12:35 pm

What a great opportunity!

You see things in museums from that kind of thing to WW1 rations etc. which it would be great to try - but if we all did there'd be none left :cry:. Not to mention some bottles of wine or spirits which are too old/valuable to open.

Hooray for the research opportunities such things provide. I love the way we have determined how and what people cooked and ate thousands of years ago by examining remains and the residue in pots etc. Even the iron age cookery day I went on threw up some surprises re what was and wasn't available and that is relatively recent.

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Re: Eating out-of-date stuff

Postby Sakkarin » Sat Jul 04, 2020 12:38 pm

Seatallan wrote:Isn't that a Joni Mitchell song?
Yes but no but...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIHfuihoz70

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Re: Eating out-of-date stuff

Postby scullion » Sat Jul 04, 2020 12:51 pm

Seatallan wrote:
Isn't that a Joni Mitchell song? :D

woodstock. i have the mathew's southern comfort version.
but i think many astronomers have used the similar phrase with star-stuff rather than stardust.
i think joni's version may have been more to do with being spaced out and sparkly!

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Re: Eating out-of-date stuff

Postby KeenCook2 » Mon Aug 17, 2020 11:52 pm

I've just seen this in Lidl's latest email: https://www.lidl.co.uk/en/about-us/lidl ... ate-labels

Not really anything there that we haven't talked about on here but I'm glad to see that Lidl is doing something to help people avoid throwing away good food.

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Re: Eating out-of-date stuff

Postby karadekoolaid » Tue Aug 18, 2020 4:24 am

Finally!
Someone with a bit of common sense!

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Re: Eating out-of-date stuff

Postby halfateabag » Tue Aug 18, 2020 8:04 am

Hear Hear !

The frozen food picture also shows food frozen out of the shop containers - I do this as they take up far too much room in the DF I use the shop label to show me what the frozen stuff is !

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Re: Eating out-of-date stuff

Postby Earthmaiden » Tue Aug 18, 2020 9:11 am

Good common sense stuff (though perhaps the big question is how BBF dates are chosen given that so many things are fine for a good while afterwards?). I'd keep eggs longer than suggested too but always check them. Let's hope this is rolled out further.

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