Growing up, my mom would wrinkle up her nose any throw out anything that was overripe, bruised, discolored, or past the sell-by date. She never expressly said it, but I always assumed the stuff she was throwing away was legitimately dangerous to our health.
Over the years I've learned just how wasteful that is, and started to evolve my own "use or toss" criteria. I feel like I have a lot to learn in this area, but I'm off to a good start. Here are some of the things I've started using rather than throwing away; I'd love to hear some of yours! I also welcome any feedback on what I've listed!
- Bruised fruit is fine.
- Wilted veggies are almost always fine to cook with as long as they aren't rotten.
- Slightly moldy cheese is fine, just cut the mold off.
- Most refrigerated items are ok for a few days after the sell-by date (not chicken or fish, I don't mess around with those).
- Most non-perishable items are fine weeks or months after the sell-by date (probably longer but it feels kind of reckless to recommend that).
- Your potatoes aren't spoiled if they've started to sprout. Just use them sooner rather than later once you've noticed.
- Discoloration on beef isn't necessarily a sign of spoilage. Sniff it, touch it, and if it seems otherwise normal and isn't more than a couple of days past "sell-by", you're probably okay.
- If dairy doesn't smell "off" it's probably fine.
- Mushy tomatoes are still fine for cooking as long as they're not rotten or moldy
Learning to trust my common sense and basic knowledge of food safety/science went a long way toward building this list, along with some probably ill-advised trial and error. I definitely ate 10 year old pasta once and was fine, but maybe don't try that.
Edit:added the thing about tomatos
Submitted December 18, 2016 at 02:44AM by chemicalvelma http://ift.tt/2hI1Dko
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