Is it still ok to eat
Food spoilage is one reason for food waste. But even more commonly
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Bread, muffins, cake, and other bakery stuff
The examples below are about bread, but they apply just as well to most other baked goods.
Stale dry bread: Safe
Bread hardens when it dries, as the starch molecules retrograde. Nutritionally it's similar to flour or dried pasta. As long as the bread has no mold, it can be used in recipes.
Recipes:
- Bread pudding [ELABORATION needed]
Moldy bread: Toxic
Dark spots are mold (usually grey or blue). Mold also has a particular smell that you can learn to recognize. When you notice mold on one part, the other parts are usually not safe either - the mold has likely taken root throughout the whole piece of bread (or whole loaf in the case of unsliced bread).
Note: This is different from fresh vegetables where you can cut off the moldy parts and eat the rest. You can't do that with bread.
Fries
Hard dried-out fries: Safe
Like bread, fries will dry out and become hard. Nutritionally it's the same as any other dried potatoes (for example "instant mashed potatoes").
Recipes:
- Soups: Add the dried fries to any soup, within the last few minutes of cooking.
- Poutine-style thing: Put the fries in a microwaveable bowl, add some seasonings
(...)( especially try garlic powder and either paprika or chili or pepper or herbs ) , add water (enough to cover the fries), and microwave for a few minutes. Be careful not to let it boil over. [ELABORATION needed]
Hard raw vegetables and fruits
With moldy spots: Still Recoverable
You can cut off the moldy parts and use the rest. Most vegetables have tough cell walls (biology), so even if mold takes over one part of the vegetable it doesn't necessarily take over the rest. One way to know if you've cut off all the mold, is to rinse what's remaining and make sure it smells ok.
If you plan to freeze the vegetables/fruits, be sure to cut off the bad parts before freezing.
- The freeze/thaw cycle tends to break down the cell walls of the plant. This changes the texture, making it harder to identify which parts are good or bad, harder to cut off the bad parts, and it can even cause the good and bad parts to mix.
Bananas
Bruised banana: Safe
Some people actually prefer bruised bananas because they tend to be sweeter.
Black peel: Usually Safe
Check the inside of the banana to see it it's still good. Firm is good. Slightly mushy is good too - and it even has a probiotic effect. Just don't eat the banana if it's moldy or completely liquefied.
Note: Freezing fresh bananas will also make the peel black, and the inside will liquefy when it unfreezes. This is a different case: It's safe, because the "liquefication" is caused by the freezing/thawing, not by rotting.
Chocolate
Bloom: Safe
When chocolate gets old, it develops a layer of grey or white on the outside. It may also become powdery. This is still safe to eat. It's called "bloom", and it happens because the fats start to separate from the rest of the chocolate. It's equivalent to the oil separation you see in peanut butter or other nut butters.
Chocolate doesn't grow mold, because it has no water content.
Spices
Old and losing flavor: Safe
Spices lose their flavor as they get older, but they retain most of their other nutrients. Use that to your advantage: If the spice is 3 times weaker, then just add 3 times as much to your recipes. That'll help finish it up faster anyway.
If you have a full spice rack with generous amounts of every spice, you probably won't go through everything in even a year. So if you throw out spices because "it's a year old", you'll probably throw out half the spices you buy, ultimately. This doesn't have to happen. Year-old spices are fine. Even 5-year-old spices are safe.
Dry foods
Examples: Snacks, dry pasta, rice, beans, lentils, spices.
Past the expiry date: Safe, with some exceptions
The flavor & texture may change, but most non-perishable dry foods are generally safe to eat even years past the expiry date!
Exceptions:
- Foods with high oil content (peanut butter, roasted nuts, chips): The oils will eventually oxidize (go rancid). Typically this becomes a problem a few months past the date, or in some cases a year past the date. You'll notice an unpleasant paint-like scent, and if you try to eat the food, it will taste bitter. Rancid oils are not healthy (may contribute to cancer and heart disease according to some studies).
- If you consume a bit of rancid food, don't panic. The body can handle it in small doses, especially if your diet is otherwise rich in antioxidants (fruits, vegetables, spices, vitamin C, vitamin E) which serve as a defense against the oxidative stress.
- If water gets in, then dry foods can grow mold.
Canned foods
Past the expiry date: Safe
The food may lose flavor slightly, but as long as the can isn't damaged, the food is safe.
Broken/cracked can: Toxic and possibly deadly
Botulism is a major risk if the can has any sort of hole or crack (no matter how small) that has been there that for awhile.[ELABORATION needed]
Frozen foods
Freezer burn: Safe
So-called "freezer burn" happens when foods stay in the freezer for a long time. The food becomes dried out; the moisture becomes ice crystals that build up outside the food.
Treat freezer-burned vegetables the way you'd treat any other dried vegetables. You can use them in soups.
Refrigerated perishable foods
Past the "best before" date: Safe
The "best before" date is highly conservative[QUANTIFICATION needed for each food] - it's not an expiry date, and only has to do with taste.
Past the expiry date: Unsafe
Food spoilage is likely to occur soon after the expiry date, even when the food is refrigerated properly.
Left unrefrigerated for too long: Unsafe
"Too long" depends on a lot of factors, of course. [ELABORATION needed]
External links
- http://canitgobad.net - a website dedicated to this kind of thing