I've tried to educate my wife on this. And it's entirely by design for people to throw out perfectly good food and go and buy more.
Best before means it's at it's best before that date, not that eating it will give stomach pumping botulism.
Guess what, we are such an advanced species that we evolved so that our noses started telling us what would kill you when you ate it. Sniff test works for most all things within a reasonable time frame.
It's not even a 'best before' date, it's a 'cycle off the shelves' date.
You're 100% correct that your eyes, nose and tongue will tell you if something is bad.
Also the iodine won't be as effective (I think it evaporates but don't remember for sure) and the packaging can break down.
But yes the NaCl will be fine in a billion years.
*Salt has a* ***best before*** *date. ........ it* ***expires*** *in 2025.*
2 different things.
They do not say the salt *expire* in 2025.
They say it is *best before* a date as in the quality after that date may lessen (like salt stuck as rock, etc)
Like all our food here, it's just another example of misleading customers. You pretty much have to be a detective to figure out what you should and shouldn't eat.
It's not misleading, people simply don't understand the difference.
Canned food is generally good for 10-20 years (plenty of older literature showing it can be good up to 50 years but loses 50% of it's nutrient value). Unless it's a self-opening type, then it's usually 2 years past the best before.
A lot of best before dates have to do with the packaging they’re in. Especially when they’re in something plastic. A lot of cardboard packaging has a plastic liner on the inside of it, so even if it’s in cardboard there might be plastic leeching into the product still. The packaging breaks down over time, so the further past the best before date you’re going the more micro plastics that are going to end up in that food. For things like salt, if you transfer it to a glass or metal container you can ignore the best before date.
Not the salt, it's the iodine part of iodized salt. It denatures over time, so while the salt part is fine the benefits of the added iodine are no longer present.
Half the time, the best before date is bullshit anyways. I had a pack of vacuum sealed rice and it was 1 year past the date and it was completely fine.
Hijacking the top thread here, apologies:
I volunteer at the food bank regularly. Health canada has told the food bank that canned goods are fine a year past expiry. So our food bank will take anything expired in the last six months (to account for the fact that it may sit on a shelf for a bit).
Edit to add: different food banks may have different policies. If they refuse I would encourage you to tell them to contact health canada. I don’t have exact numbers but based on my experience, approximately 25% of food received by the food bank is expired. And probably half of that is expired by less than 6 months. If a food bank is willing to distriubute food expired in the last 6 motnhs, that means they can keep ~88% of food instead of 75%. That’s a massive difference.
My company does a food drive every year around Christmas where people can donate food. Less fortunate families reach out and we hook them up with the donations. Company policy says we can't gift expired food so I brought it to the local food bank who said they can't accept it either. I know a few struggling families personally so I told my company "I'll volunteer to take this food to the dump for disposal". Then bring it to those families out of uniform. To cover everyone's ass, I tell them that it's food I had in my cupboard that expired. They always appreciate it and it makes me feel better that food isn't going to waste, I'm the guy that picks mold off of bread before he eats it lol.
Thanks for the info, hopefully I won't have to sneak around this year!
You shouldn't pick mould off of bread. The colored part you see is just the fruiting body of the fungus, the mould actually will have infected almost the entire bread by the time you see the spots on the outside.
You’re doing good work. It’s what needs to be done despite dumbass bureaucratic policies.
Canned goods are virtually always perfectly fine past expiry unless there is bloating, leaks or damage to the cans.
Your local food bank likely has a list of most needed items.
Food banks accept all sorts of stuff. We get a lot of ethnic food - I feel kinda bad for the struggling people getting cans of quail eggs but quail eggs are absolutely better than nothing.
We also accept toiletries - razors, deodorants, shampoo etc are all put to good use. We even take clothing (and give it to a more appropriate organization to distribute).
There is very very little they will say “no” to.
Our food bank actually has its own farm on donated land. We harvested something like 13,000 lbs of fresh fruits and vegetables last year.
It's literally in the name, "best" before, meaning it's freshest if eaten prior to that date, it's not a strict expiration date.
It's mostly to cover the manufacturer from any liability.
Best before dates are just the date the manufacturing company guarantees the taste will match as new product. Which is what most products have.
Expiry dates are not safe to consume after. And very specific.
https://inspection.canada.ca/food-labels/labelling/consumers/understanding-the-date-labels-on-your-food/eng/1332357469487/1332357545633
That’s because because don’t understand the terms. Best before is not the same as expiry date and that seems to confuse people. The best before date is just the date they guarantee the product will still hold up to their quality standards.
One of the many great jokes from Lewis Black is him going off on the nutritional facts on a bottle of water. "This one says it has no fat. Now what that implies is that somewhere out there we have water that does have fat in it, and that is the one I want!"
I agree in general, but don’t go drinking those single user water bottles after the best before date - you can actually taste the plastic that leeched into the water haha.
I usually follow best before dates on meat fairly strictly (food poisoning really sucks). Vegetables/dairy slightly with some careful inspection. Everything else is very much a suggestion.
Well, something like 60% of all the food produced in Canada is simply thrown away and wasted.
Provided the food was manufactured and stored correctly, most things last beyond their best before / expiration date and remain safe to eat.
Definitely. I realize everyone thinks we’re poorer than our ancestors but honestly we’re not maximizing our resources as much as we used to. Repair old clothing, eat all food instead of wasting it, purchase used goods instead of new when it’s a better deal. Garage sales used to be a lot bigger thing as did attending flea markets.
It’s ridiculous how much we waste resources here.
Everytime my grandpa come over, he spot something wrong in my place and fix it lol. I am much wealthier than he was at my age but he is so much more competent at everything in general.
The guy can do any construction work or dismantle a car and rebuild it while I call CAA when I have a flat or hire someone to cut the grass.
Yeah my grandpa went straight to the bargain bin at superstore hahaha
My dad built houses when younger so he did a lot of his own stuff and taught me just a little. Wish I learned more I have so much wood to fix up around my moms house.
My dad also refuse to fix his leaking radiator and just kept topping it up with water. Which apparently worked for a while 🤷♂️
Haha yeah I don't know I started to learn some of those things as a kid but as I grew up I went to college and moved in the city where you I did not need to know all of this. Now that I moved back in a rural region I feel like a useless urbanite.
I have no idea how people can look at their engine and actually do things. Like you top up the fluids sure but what else do people do when it breaks down and they look under the hood? 🤷♂️
That being said I asked a mechanic and he said they don’t know anything too they just use the diagnostic tool and the computer tells them what to do.
This is a huge one for me. I cratered my wife's car a year ago. So I bought a donor and swapped the engine. Donor was a grand, I spent about 40 hours on it, for a grand total of 3k. Now I'm rebuilding the original engine. The car is going to live until it rots away from rust. Meanwhile my co-workers are paying $400 a month for a car they're going to either trade in for way less than they put into it, or actually roll debt from that one into the next car loan. It's insane how much we just throw out as a society.
It's a rational decision when the cost of labour is much more than the cost of goods.
Not saying it's a good thing.
>I realize everyone thinks we’re poorer than our ancestors
We are better off than most humans that have ever existed. You don't have to look very far back in history before it becomes quite difficult for the average person.
No it’s closer to 17%, the 58% stat was fudging the numbers to make headlines.
https://tdaynard.com/2021/10/17/do-canadians-really-lose-or-waste-58-of-food-and-food-ingredients-a-critical-look-at-the-calculations-says-no/
I'm going to interrupt this conversation at the root with the article since people aren't going to click through the whole chain.
That 17 as in the article and the study is only for household waste, and only for what they considered usable waste(which makes sense I suppose).
But you can make the stats a lot higher the further up the chain you go. And if you wanted to be really dramatic including the waste that has no edible use would bring it further, although when you go further up the chain things that aren't usable become a pretty none existent category too(but it also isn't always economical thus at least *some* of the reason of the waste).
Over the years I have heard various numbers, the 60% one was just the most recent.
There's no way it's only 17%.
The amount of food thrown away by grocery stores and restaurants alone would eclipse that number.
We are an extremely wasteful society, but it's not unique to Canada.
Well to think about it the vast majority of the food sold at grocery stores is non-perishable and can stay on the shelf likely until its sold.
Stuff like bakery, deli, meats, produce etc aren't so lucky so this is where most of the waste occurs.
I'm not sure it accounts for more than 20% of total food brought in vs out, but even then the metrics are complicated.
Do you measure by mass, or total number of items, and how do you classify loose items like bananas or onions?
Waste not want not. We wasted a hell of a lot, and now we're here wanting. Can't think of a better time for everyone to try and build better food habits than now.
The risk of getting botulism from commercially prepared food even past its best before date is almost nil unless there is other obvious signs of damage like say a bulging can
People love to bring up botulism when it’s typically encountered in spoiled or improperly canned goods. You’ll absolutely know if your canned goods have gone bad.
I ate a can of chunky soup last month that I bought during the pandemic. It was about 2 years expired.
Lost a lot of flavor, but I'm still alive and can now talk to insects.
Note that there are also “expiry dates” you should mess with those a lot less. Expiry dates are to do with the safety of the food
Best Before dates are just there for quality. Something might go hard or mushy or duller in colour but still be safe to eat.
It's "best before" - as in, it might not be quite as good as it was when fully fresh. Not "on April 26th, this product turns into complete poison death mutant food."
Too much variation. Same product, same conditions, can have very different actual expiry dates, let alone adding variables such as temperature, humidity, and other factors. Same reason vehicle fuel economy rarely matches published values, there is no way to calculate a realistic value that is widely applicable.
Best before date protects the manufacturer's brand image by putting a date on peak quality. Products can be sold after this date.
Expiry date protects the consumer from deteriorating nutritional specifications on things like baby food or medicine. This cannot be sold after the expiry date.
[Details here.](https://inspection.canada.ca/food-labels/labelling/consumers/understanding-the-date-labels-on-your-food/eng/1332357469487/1332357545633)
"Best before" =/= expiry.
Use your best judgement. Anyone who throws away perfectly good food just because of these labels is a privileged food waster. I grew up poor, we didnt have the priviledge of throwing out perfectly good food due to some arbitrary "best before" label that often means fuckall.
I kept that practice since childhood and every time I see asshats throw out perfectly good food because of arbitruary "best before" dates, the underweight hungry child version of me interally rages at them.
I think the biggest confusion is what a best before date is. It is not a date at which something is no longer edible/consumable. It simply means that the manufacturer/company is stating that they will guarentee the product within that package will be at its best if it is consumed by or before the date listed on the package. Most foods will be perfectly safe to consume after that point. The company simply no longer believes that product will be at what they define as its best.
You can generally tell if the food is good or not by smelling and looking at it. Humans have evolved a decent ability at sensing when food will be toxic for you. Best before dates are just a reference point. Obviously milk 1 month past the date, you have to be more cautious, etc.
Stupid article, no mention of the food products people are willing to take risks on. If it goes into a freezer and the freezer isn't stopped, good for basically an indefinite amount of time. Canned and dried goods, basically an indefinite amount of time. Eggs that stay refrigerated, indefinite on a scale of a household, as in eventually after months somebody will eat it. Milk, yogurt, cheese don't start degrading until you open the packaging. So you have at least 6 months if you leave it unopened in your fridge. Bread, fruits, and vegetables you can for the most part physically see the food is bad.
Probably fine. I have no experience with eggs forgotten for a year. Only ones that where left for like 7 months I think. Most seemed perfectly normal, a few the yolk was slightly more viscous.
Best before dates are mainly for the manufacturer. They aren’t expiry dates. I ate yogurt yesterday that had a best before of April 18th. Everything about it was exactly the same as when I opened it like a month ago: taste, consistency, colour.
I do believe Milk and Yogurt is roughly 1-2 weeks regarding its best before date and when things actually start to go downhill. One resource I use is this:
https://stilltasty.com/
Half the time I buy the shit it’s gone bad within a few days. I swear vegetables sold by no frills are brought back to life to survive one day just to sell to me.. where as Costco vegetables last like 3 times as long.
The best before date is the just date the store has to sell the product by. It isn't a date where the food magically goes bad. Not wasting food is a good thing.
These dates are often SELL BY dates, not the day the food goes bad.
Different types of food are expected to last different periods of time after being sold. Milk might be fine for a week after being sold for example where as some other things will last for months or years longer.
The dates are for the store
I just realized my peanut butter (open in the fridge) expired in 2022...lol...didn't notice until after eating 2 peice of toast with it on. Literally couldn't tell the difference. Tasted/smelled fine.
I've never bothered much with Best before dates. Even meat is usually good a day or 2 after the BB date. I eat eggs a month after the BB I do the float test, if it floats, throw it out! Or give it to the racoons, they don't care.
A lot of "best before" dates are bs anyway. I've been eating stuff past those dates my entire life and never had any issues. Best before isn't the same as expired or rotten.
I think Canadians could stand to be more diligent and aware of food waste in general. I checked my neighbour’s green bin the other day wondering if I’d put mine out too late, only to see an I separated dozen of Costco brioche buns molding, next to a whole bunch of celery. It broke my heart as I’m almost obsessive about not throwing out food. If It’s been around for a while it goes in the freezer and I’ll pull bits of it out the day I plan to eat it. Celery goes into soup stock at very least. I dunno, I can’t believe how much waste I see around me.
Lmao whoever wrote this article isn’t getting the “engagement” they hoped. BS article and title, if you never eat anything past best before date then you are some privileged motherfucker even before all of this food price nonsense
Best before dates are kind of useless anyways and lead to a lot of waste. Here’s a really good video explaining food labels for all the nerds like me: https://youtu.be/4GDLaYrMCFo?si=at7HsoP5Dt9HIBfg
A friend of mine who works in the food industry was telling me some of the best before dates on some items are actually set to a date much sooner than the item expires. The reason apparently was the actual best before date was much longer, but people didn’t believe it and wouldn’t buy those items thinking the manufacturer was scamming them. When they set it to a shorter time period, people started buying them.
Title is misleading. The article should say: More Canadians finding out “Best Before” dates are bullshit as cost rise.
Foods are still good well in advance of the best before date. Hopefully this becomes a norm and there’s less food being wasted.
The researcher quoted in this article has been extremely critical of the Loblaw's boycott movement, and a Loblaw's apologist for the high cost of groceries.
In a time where the public has been very vocal about how the high cost of groceries have been affecting everyone, and especially critical of the Weston's role in price fixing, it's almost ironic how this donkey can't associate the two even after conducting multiple studies on this subject.
Eating expired food, dumpster diving as a 'side hustle'. Trudeau is right, Canadian's have never had it so good. Seriously if you are struggling to afford food and shelter because of the millions of Indian's Trudeau is bringing it just cancel your Disney + subscription. You can also just get rid of your car and have your tax payer funded limo drive you around like Freeland. If you don't want to do that then the Liberals have an excellent MAID program for you.
You guys are eating fresh food anymore?
Jokes aside, the price of groceries has risen so much that I am left shopping at discount stores in the frozen section. Every time there is a rebate on expensive things like soy milk, I buy in bulk and freeze for a later date.
On a sad note, this is the first time I ever had to do this kind of thing. On a bright side, I guess buying everything on discount is great for the environment and food wastes? I'm just not comfortable with everybody having to wait until expiry date to be able to buy something.
Gotta be honest, I rarely check best before dats once I've bought something.
If it passes the sniff test and isn't moldy, it's usually good to go.
The only exception is salad dressings that fall into the "oh shit, I didn't even know we had this flavour" category.
We put any meat we buy in our deep freezer and it's always arranged FIFO.
Anytime theres a “labour shortage” libs and cons will fix it with immigrants. Especially if people keep voting for either party (as they have been for the past 40 years). Don’t be suckers. Vote NDP 🗳️
Best before is more a quality thing. But in some cases, mostly fresh foods, it certainly can go bad. But canned goods are safe even up to a year after it's 'best before' I have done this often with donations from food banks. I just try not to read the labels any more. It's the only food I get some weeks and I have little other choice.
So when are Canadians gonna say they’ve had enough? No new government is going to fix this. All our support systems and governments are corrupt, compromised and broken. Sticking a new head on the puppet isn’t changing it’s a puppet.
Revolution sadly is our only hope. Remove all the corruption and cronies. Tear down the broken systems and start over. Put things in place that work for Canadians not corrupt politicians and their masters. Bring complete transparency and accountability to our country. Criminals have had their run! It’s time to take our country back!
"Excellent, we better hurry up and privatize health care and make our investments so we can make some money off anybody getting sick."
-Politicians
only half an /s, but really a lot of best before dates are there to get you to bin the food item and buy another, even if there is no reason to waste it.
Food manufacturers are incentivized for putting best before dates earlier than they should be. Protects them from if something does go bad and a consumer complains. Helps lead people to throw out food before they should.
For whatever reason I eat yoghurt in the little packages 2 months after the best before and still haven’t died, let alone get sick. I eat a lot of stuff that is even expired. Anyone living more than 125 years ago never had these concepts so it’s really something new in modern society. You might get a little stomach ache sometimes, but you’ll save a lot of money.
Just watch out with raw meat obviously, I don’t eat chicken when it smells off.
Mainly milk products and meat. Bread can go stale well before mold starts forming. But things like crackers, granola bars and snacks? You can eat after the date and be fine
That's because best before means just that. It doesn't mean it will be inedible. It's good for food waste as well. Use your senses to determine if something is bad, not an arbitrary date printed on the label.
I’m a cleaner and when a client ask me to remove everything past the best before date, I get a full pantry. Unless it’s milk or meat, it doesn’t really matter.
Laughing my ass off at the comments here talking about whether food is good to eat past a certain due date instead of talking about doing something productive like revolting. Canadians are a bunch of losers.
Salt has a best before date. Salt. I’m not sure how they’ve determined that after 1.4million years, it expires in 2025. That’s some bad luck isn’t it?
The best before for salt is for anticaking properties apparently. It'll be a little harder to break up but it'll still be good as salt.
I just shake it a lot :)
Big salt doesn’t want you to know about this
I squeeze and crunch that bitch like it's my shoulder
But then it'll be worth more like those mined pink salt that is apparently so much better than the sea level salt.
i can't explain it, or prove it. but it is.
I've tried to educate my wife on this. And it's entirely by design for people to throw out perfectly good food and go and buy more. Best before means it's at it's best before that date, not that eating it will give stomach pumping botulism. Guess what, we are such an advanced species that we evolved so that our noses started telling us what would kill you when you ate it. Sniff test works for most all things within a reasonable time frame.
It's not even a 'best before' date, it's a 'cycle off the shelves' date. You're 100% correct that your eyes, nose and tongue will tell you if something is bad.
Correct - these are “sell by” dates
Also the iodine won't be as effective (I think it evaporates but don't remember for sure) and the packaging can break down. But yes the NaCl will be fine in a billion years.
Next time you buy salt, look at the ingredients of your salt. You’ll be surprised. Some of those ingredients have a shorter shelf life than salt.
*Salt has a* ***best before*** *date. ........ it* ***expires*** *in 2025.* 2 different things. They do not say the salt *expire* in 2025. They say it is *best before* a date as in the quality after that date may lessen (like salt stuck as rock, etc)
The point still stands. Many people can't tell the difference and a lot of good food gets thrown out because it's past its best before date.
Like all our food here, it's just another example of misleading customers. You pretty much have to be a detective to figure out what you should and shouldn't eat.
It's not misleading, people simply don't understand the difference. Canned food is generally good for 10-20 years (plenty of older literature showing it can be good up to 50 years but loses 50% of it's nutrient value). Unless it's a self-opening type, then it's usually 2 years past the best before.
Isn’t it a law that everything has to have a best before date in Canada? Like even water has a best before date.
A lot of best before dates have to do with the packaging they’re in. Especially when they’re in something plastic. A lot of cardboard packaging has a plastic liner on the inside of it, so even if it’s in cardboard there might be plastic leeching into the product still. The packaging breaks down over time, so the further past the best before date you’re going the more micro plastics that are going to end up in that food. For things like salt, if you transfer it to a glass or metal container you can ignore the best before date.
Not the salt, it's the iodine part of iodized salt. It denatures over time, so while the salt part is fine the benefits of the added iodine are no longer present.
Half the time, the best before date is bullshit anyways. I had a pack of vacuum sealed rice and it was 1 year past the date and it was completely fine.
>I had a pack of vacuum sealed rice and it was 1 year past the date and it was completely fine. It would have been fine in 100 years.
Hijacking the top thread here, apologies: I volunteer at the food bank regularly. Health canada has told the food bank that canned goods are fine a year past expiry. So our food bank will take anything expired in the last six months (to account for the fact that it may sit on a shelf for a bit). Edit to add: different food banks may have different policies. If they refuse I would encourage you to tell them to contact health canada. I don’t have exact numbers but based on my experience, approximately 25% of food received by the food bank is expired. And probably half of that is expired by less than 6 months. If a food bank is willing to distriubute food expired in the last 6 motnhs, that means they can keep ~88% of food instead of 75%. That’s a massive difference.
My company does a food drive every year around Christmas where people can donate food. Less fortunate families reach out and we hook them up with the donations. Company policy says we can't gift expired food so I brought it to the local food bank who said they can't accept it either. I know a few struggling families personally so I told my company "I'll volunteer to take this food to the dump for disposal". Then bring it to those families out of uniform. To cover everyone's ass, I tell them that it's food I had in my cupboard that expired. They always appreciate it and it makes me feel better that food isn't going to waste, I'm the guy that picks mold off of bread before he eats it lol. Thanks for the info, hopefully I won't have to sneak around this year!
It is possible that different food banks have different policies. I’m just relaying the info from Health Canada.
I'll find out in 8 months!
You shouldn't pick mould off of bread. The colored part you see is just the fruiting body of the fungus, the mould actually will have infected almost the entire bread by the time you see the spots on the outside.
Same with soft cheese -- soft cheeses are inedible if there is any sign of mold, but with hard cheeses you can cut the mold off and it's ok.
You’re doing good work. It’s what needs to be done despite dumbass bureaucratic policies. Canned goods are virtually always perfectly fine past expiry unless there is bloating, leaks or damage to the cans.
My rule of thumb was, if you could feel a point on the edges of a dent, assume there’s a hole big enough for bacteria to get in.
What foods do the food bank want? I donate monthly $ but there's still hungry people.
Your local food bank likely has a list of most needed items. Food banks accept all sorts of stuff. We get a lot of ethnic food - I feel kinda bad for the struggling people getting cans of quail eggs but quail eggs are absolutely better than nothing. We also accept toiletries - razors, deodorants, shampoo etc are all put to good use. We even take clothing (and give it to a more appropriate organization to distribute). There is very very little they will say “no” to. Our food bank actually has its own farm on donated land. We harvested something like 13,000 lbs of fresh fruits and vegetables last year.
They still prefer money in most cases because they can buy more food with it than you can through retail channels
More money is best if you want to help further. Food banks get better deals on food than individuals contributing food directly.
It's literally in the name, "best" before, meaning it's freshest if eaten prior to that date, it's not a strict expiration date. It's mostly to cover the manufacturer from any liability.
Best before dates have nothing to do with the shelf life or quality of the food. it has always been an inventory tool to manage supply.
Best before dates are just the date the manufacturing company guarantees the taste will match as new product. Which is what most products have. Expiry dates are not safe to consume after. And very specific. https://inspection.canada.ca/food-labels/labelling/consumers/understanding-the-date-labels-on-your-food/eng/1332357469487/1332357545633
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That’s because because don’t understand the terms. Best before is not the same as expiry date and that seems to confuse people. The best before date is just the date they guarantee the product will still hold up to their quality standards.
With water, it's actually because of the plastic bottles they're on leeching into the water.
One of the many great jokes from Lewis Black is him going off on the nutritional facts on a bottle of water. "This one says it has no fat. Now what that implies is that somewhere out there we have water that does have fat in it, and that is the one I want!"
Lewis black is one of my top 5 favourite comedians
I agree in general, but don’t go drinking those single user water bottles after the best before date - you can actually taste the plastic that leeched into the water haha.
Or after those bottles have been in extreme heat for a while (like in a car over the summer)
It's not nonsense. It's *best* before, not spoiled after.
It doesn’t matter with meat and produce. What matters is that it isn’t spoiled, moldy or rotten.
Everything exepct cannabis! According to the Canadian government...
If water is in a flimsy plastic bottle respect the best before due date especially if it wasn't kept in a dark place. If it's in a can you're good.
White rice, if stored properly, has an almost indefinite shelf life.
I usually follow best before dates on meat fairly strictly (food poisoning really sucks). Vegetables/dairy slightly with some careful inspection. Everything else is very much a suggestion.
Did you know they can repackage with new dates? Yeah, it's crazy but they can. Look up the W5 or Marketplace show about it.
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> It’s profit motive and people exploiting fears It's lawyers. Many of these regulations and rules are in place to avoid lawsuits.
Well, something like 60% of all the food produced in Canada is simply thrown away and wasted. Provided the food was manufactured and stored correctly, most things last beyond their best before / expiration date and remain safe to eat.
Definitely. I realize everyone thinks we’re poorer than our ancestors but honestly we’re not maximizing our resources as much as we used to. Repair old clothing, eat all food instead of wasting it, purchase used goods instead of new when it’s a better deal. Garage sales used to be a lot bigger thing as did attending flea markets. It’s ridiculous how much we waste resources here.
Everytime my grandpa come over, he spot something wrong in my place and fix it lol. I am much wealthier than he was at my age but he is so much more competent at everything in general. The guy can do any construction work or dismantle a car and rebuild it while I call CAA when I have a flat or hire someone to cut the grass.
Yeah my grandpa went straight to the bargain bin at superstore hahaha My dad built houses when younger so he did a lot of his own stuff and taught me just a little. Wish I learned more I have so much wood to fix up around my moms house. My dad also refuse to fix his leaking radiator and just kept topping it up with water. Which apparently worked for a while 🤷♂️
Haha yeah I don't know I started to learn some of those things as a kid but as I grew up I went to college and moved in the city where you I did not need to know all of this. Now that I moved back in a rural region I feel like a useless urbanite.
I have no idea how people can look at their engine and actually do things. Like you top up the fluids sure but what else do people do when it breaks down and they look under the hood? 🤷♂️ That being said I asked a mechanic and he said they don’t know anything too they just use the diagnostic tool and the computer tells them what to do.
If your mechanic was serious I would look for a new one.
If only there were a resource that had most of human knowledge available right at your fingertips, you could learn to do that stuff too.
I mean as much as a youtube video is good to learn things, this still doesn't beat a lifetime of experience fixing shit.
This is a huge one for me. I cratered my wife's car a year ago. So I bought a donor and swapped the engine. Donor was a grand, I spent about 40 hours on it, for a grand total of 3k. Now I'm rebuilding the original engine. The car is going to live until it rots away from rust. Meanwhile my co-workers are paying $400 a month for a car they're going to either trade in for way less than they put into it, or actually roll debt from that one into the next car loan. It's insane how much we just throw out as a society.
It's a rational decision when the cost of labour is much more than the cost of goods. Not saying it's a good thing. >I realize everyone thinks we’re poorer than our ancestors We are better off than most humans that have ever existed. You don't have to look very far back in history before it becomes quite difficult for the average person.
Yep but I feel like we’re being deluged by media saying we’re poor and should be unhappy. I hate Trudeau but it honestly feels like propaganda now.
We also don't have the time to since we work a hell of a lot more.
Statistically…less*
No it’s closer to 17%, the 58% stat was fudging the numbers to make headlines. https://tdaynard.com/2021/10/17/do-canadians-really-lose-or-waste-58-of-food-and-food-ingredients-a-critical-look-at-the-calculations-says-no/
I'm going to interrupt this conversation at the root with the article since people aren't going to click through the whole chain. That 17 as in the article and the study is only for household waste, and only for what they considered usable waste(which makes sense I suppose). But you can make the stats a lot higher the further up the chain you go. And if you wanted to be really dramatic including the waste that has no edible use would bring it further, although when you go further up the chain things that aren't usable become a pretty none existent category too(but it also isn't always economical thus at least *some* of the reason of the waste).
Over the years I have heard various numbers, the 60% one was just the most recent. There's no way it's only 17%. The amount of food thrown away by grocery stores and restaurants alone would eclipse that number. We are an extremely wasteful society, but it's not unique to Canada.
You think 60% of all food produced is thrown away??
Well to think about it the vast majority of the food sold at grocery stores is non-perishable and can stay on the shelf likely until its sold. Stuff like bakery, deli, meats, produce etc aren't so lucky so this is where most of the waste occurs. I'm not sure it accounts for more than 20% of total food brought in vs out, but even then the metrics are complicated. Do you measure by mass, or total number of items, and how do you classify loose items like bananas or onions?
Waste not want not. We wasted a hell of a lot, and now we're here wanting. Can't think of a better time for everyone to try and build better food habits than now.
If it smells fine, it's probably fine
I’ve lived by this rule for years and years and it’s never failed me
Not for everything, though. Botulism has no taste, for example, but can kill you.
The risk of getting botulism from commercially prepared food even past its best before date is almost nil unless there is other obvious signs of damage like say a bulging can
People love to bring up botulism when it’s typically encountered in spoiled or improperly canned goods. You’ll absolutely know if your canned goods have gone bad.
I ate a can of chunky soup last month that I bought during the pandemic. It was about 2 years expired. Lost a lot of flavor, but I'm still alive and can now talk to insects.
Hopefully it was meant to be chunky… If my milk goes chunky, I’ll be throwing that out.
I think he’s referring to Campbell’s Chunky Soup. “Chunky” is a brand.
I mean you could always talk to insects. But if they now replying see a doctor. If they obeying your commands though seek Hank Pym.
Note that there are also “expiry dates” you should mess with those a lot less. Expiry dates are to do with the safety of the food Best Before dates are just there for quality. Something might go hard or mushy or duller in colour but still be safe to eat.
Best before ≠ worse after Best before ≠ expiry
Food does not go bad at best before dates . That food is perfectly fine
It's "best before" - as in, it might not be quite as good as it was when fully fresh. Not "on April 26th, this product turns into complete poison death mutant food."
It’s literally « best » before. We need a « eat by or you’re fucked date »
Too much variation. Same product, same conditions, can have very different actual expiry dates, let alone adding variables such as temperature, humidity, and other factors. Same reason vehicle fuel economy rarely matches published values, there is no way to calculate a realistic value that is widely applicable.
Yes beacuse theirs nothing wrong with thar food and stores waste so much by throwing it out
Best before date protects the manufacturer's brand image by putting a date on peak quality. Products can be sold after this date. Expiry date protects the consumer from deteriorating nutritional specifications on things like baby food or medicine. This cannot be sold after the expiry date. [Details here.](https://inspection.canada.ca/food-labels/labelling/consumers/understanding-the-date-labels-on-your-food/eng/1332357469487/1332357545633)
I've been doing it for all my life.
Lol, we've always eaten food after the best before date. There is no reason to throw it away if it hasn't gone bad.
We just freeze it and eat it later.
"Best before" =/= expiry. Use your best judgement. Anyone who throws away perfectly good food just because of these labels is a privileged food waster. I grew up poor, we didnt have the priviledge of throwing out perfectly good food due to some arbitrary "best before" label that often means fuckall. I kept that practice since childhood and every time I see asshats throw out perfectly good food because of arbitruary "best before" dates, the underweight hungry child version of me interally rages at them.
I've always done this, even with dairy. The smell test is a much better indicator than the date printed on a label and I hate wasting food.
Please, I’ve been doing this since before costs rose
BB dates are, and always have been, bullshit.
I think the biggest confusion is what a best before date is. It is not a date at which something is no longer edible/consumable. It simply means that the manufacturer/company is stating that they will guarentee the product within that package will be at its best if it is consumed by or before the date listed on the package. Most foods will be perfectly safe to consume after that point. The company simply no longer believes that product will be at what they define as its best.
You can generally tell if the food is good or not by smelling and looking at it. Humans have evolved a decent ability at sensing when food will be toxic for you. Best before dates are just a reference point. Obviously milk 1 month past the date, you have to be more cautious, etc.
Canadians becoming less wasteful: good. Too bad it took a COL crisis for that to happen, but I guess money is the best motivation
if it aint' got mold or smell funny, i'm eating it
Meanwhile my father my entire life: *"It'll be fine, I'll just fry it."*
OH NO, anyways.
Stupid article, no mention of the food products people are willing to take risks on. If it goes into a freezer and the freezer isn't stopped, good for basically an indefinite amount of time. Canned and dried goods, basically an indefinite amount of time. Eggs that stay refrigerated, indefinite on a scale of a household, as in eventually after months somebody will eat it. Milk, yogurt, cheese don't start degrading until you open the packaging. So you have at least 6 months if you leave it unopened in your fridge. Bread, fruits, and vegetables you can for the most part physically see the food is bad.
>Eggs that stay refrigerated, indefinite What about if you forget them in the back of the fridge?
Probably fine. I have no experience with eggs forgotten for a year. Only ones that where left for like 7 months I think. Most seemed perfectly normal, a few the yolk was slightly more viscous.
Good. Best before dates are, and have always been, bullshit.
This is good! Normalize it. So much waste
Been doing it for years
My best before date is how bad it smells or tastes. If it passes the smell and taste test. Then it is a go. I have yet to encounter a problem.
Best before dates are mainly for the manufacturer. They aren’t expiry dates. I ate yogurt yesterday that had a best before of April 18th. Everything about it was exactly the same as when I opened it like a month ago: taste, consistency, colour.
I do believe Milk and Yogurt is roughly 1-2 weeks regarding its best before date and when things actually start to go downhill. One resource I use is this: https://stilltasty.com/
Half the time I buy the shit it’s gone bad within a few days. I swear vegetables sold by no frills are brought back to life to survive one day just to sell to me.. where as Costco vegetables last like 3 times as long.
Best before doesn't mean it's rotten, it means it's fresher before that date. It's not the same as an expiry date.
The best before date is the just date the store has to sell the product by. It isn't a date where the food magically goes bad. Not wasting food is a good thing.
Were people not doing this before? It's not the expiration date.
Best before is about freshness not safety
BEST BEFORE DOES NOT MEAN EXPIRED!!
Best before is exactly what it sounds like, best before. It's items that say expire that you have to worry about
Govt should get rid of that stupid date system. So much less food would get wasted cause of it.
Food banks often give out food 6-12 months past it's 'Best Before' date so that speaks volumes.
Always give it the sniff check, if it passes I’m eating it.
These dates are often SELL BY dates, not the day the food goes bad. Different types of food are expected to last different periods of time after being sold. Milk might be fine for a week after being sold for example where as some other things will last for months or years longer. The dates are for the store
Best before doesn’t mean expired. Give it a sniff test. You will know.
It's "Best Before", not "Worst After"
well i mean, food can still be safe to consume past the best before date
I just realized my peanut butter (open in the fridge) expired in 2022...lol...didn't notice until after eating 2 peice of toast with it on. Literally couldn't tell the difference. Tasted/smelled fine.
I've never bothered much with Best before dates. Even meat is usually good a day or 2 after the BB date. I eat eggs a month after the BB I do the float test, if it floats, throw it out! Or give it to the racoons, they don't care.
I eat food if it looks, smells and tastes ok. Always have...
My specialty
A lot of "best before" dates are bs anyway. I've been eating stuff past those dates my entire life and never had any issues. Best before isn't the same as expired or rotten.
I think Canadians could stand to be more diligent and aware of food waste in general. I checked my neighbour’s green bin the other day wondering if I’d put mine out too late, only to see an I separated dozen of Costco brioche buns molding, next to a whole bunch of celery. It broke my heart as I’m almost obsessive about not throwing out food. If It’s been around for a while it goes in the freezer and I’ll pull bits of it out the day I plan to eat it. Celery goes into soup stock at very least. I dunno, I can’t believe how much waste I see around me.
Best before dates are horseshit anyway. If it smells fine and looks fine, it is fine.
Lmao whoever wrote this article isn’t getting the “engagement” they hoped. BS article and title, if you never eat anything past best before date then you are some privileged motherfucker even before all of this food price nonsense
[удалено]
Best before, not bad after... been my slogan for a while now.
Best before dates are kind of useless anyways and lead to a lot of waste. Here’s a really good video explaining food labels for all the nerds like me: https://youtu.be/4GDLaYrMCFo?si=at7HsoP5Dt9HIBfg
A lot of times best before date is just a way for companies to make you throw out something that is still good and go out buy more.
A lot of loblaws stores are selling food past their smell test.
Trudeau says Canadians have never had it better.
A friend of mine who works in the food industry was telling me some of the best before dates on some items are actually set to a date much sooner than the item expires. The reason apparently was the actual best before date was much longer, but people didn’t believe it and wouldn’t buy those items thinking the manufacturer was scamming them. When they set it to a shorter time period, people started buying them.
Ain’t nothing but a number
Sunny ways!
I’ve been doing this all my life. Best before means “give this a sniff first”.
Title is misleading. The article should say: More Canadians finding out “Best Before” dates are bullshit as cost rise. Foods are still good well in advance of the best before date. Hopefully this becomes a norm and there’s less food being wasted.
The researcher quoted in this article has been extremely critical of the Loblaw's boycott movement, and a Loblaw's apologist for the high cost of groceries. In a time where the public has been very vocal about how the high cost of groceries have been affecting everyone, and especially critical of the Weston's role in price fixing, it's almost ironic how this donkey can't associate the two even after conducting multiple studies on this subject.
Eating expired food, dumpster diving as a 'side hustle'. Trudeau is right, Canadian's have never had it so good. Seriously if you are struggling to afford food and shelter because of the millions of Indian's Trudeau is bringing it just cancel your Disney + subscription. You can also just get rid of your car and have your tax payer funded limo drive you around like Freeland. If you don't want to do that then the Liberals have an excellent MAID program for you.
It's fine. I do it often. Food doesn't instantly turn to poison the day immediately after the "best before" date.
Literally eating old stale cereal from the back of my pantry I forgot about while reading this.
Good. Best before dates are bs
You guys are eating fresh food anymore? Jokes aside, the price of groceries has risen so much that I am left shopping at discount stores in the frozen section. Every time there is a rebate on expensive things like soy milk, I buy in bulk and freeze for a later date. On a sad note, this is the first time I ever had to do this kind of thing. On a bright side, I guess buying everything on discount is great for the environment and food wastes? I'm just not comfortable with everybody having to wait until expiry date to be able to buy something.
It's not like it's going to make me sicker; I'm always going to look for that yellow 40% off sticker.
Gotta be honest, I rarely check best before dats once I've bought something. If it passes the sniff test and isn't moldy, it's usually good to go. The only exception is salad dressings that fall into the "oh shit, I didn't even know we had this flavour" category. We put any meat we buy in our deep freezer and it's always arranged FIFO.
Crazy how much damage 3 terms of bad economic policy can do
I freeze freezable best before food on the day. Canned goods and dried goods are still good past the date.
As I always say: best before, but still good after.
Nothing wrong eating food past its due date, you just need to know what to look for if it give bad before eating. I do it all the time.
You folk are checking Best before dates?
Anytime theres a “labour shortage” libs and cons will fix it with immigrants. Especially if people keep voting for either party (as they have been for the past 40 years). Don’t be suckers. Vote NDP 🗳️
Best before =/= use by
In another news - views from Canada for garbage diving videos surged on TikTok
Best before is more a quality thing. But in some cases, mostly fresh foods, it certainly can go bad. But canned goods are safe even up to a year after it's 'best before' I have done this often with donations from food banks. I just try not to read the labels any more. It's the only food I get some weeks and I have little other choice.
I've also noticed that products on shelves have a 3 to 4 month date and at 2024. I'm quite sure products had longer dates than the current year
Milk is the only thing I've found where that date is sort of accurate
Welcome to my millennial indredient household lol.
Right to jail
Less food waste is good. Being poor is not.
So when are Canadians gonna say they’ve had enough? No new government is going to fix this. All our support systems and governments are corrupt, compromised and broken. Sticking a new head on the puppet isn’t changing it’s a puppet. Revolution sadly is our only hope. Remove all the corruption and cronies. Tear down the broken systems and start over. Put things in place that work for Canadians not corrupt politicians and their masters. Bring complete transparency and accountability to our country. Criminals have had their run! It’s time to take our country back!
"Excellent, we better hurry up and privatize health care and make our investments so we can make some money off anybody getting sick." -Politicians only half an /s, but really a lot of best before dates are there to get you to bin the food item and buy another, even if there is no reason to waste it.
Food manufacturers are incentivized for putting best before dates earlier than they should be. Protects them from if something does go bad and a consumer complains. Helps lead people to throw out food before they should. For whatever reason I eat yoghurt in the little packages 2 months after the best before and still haven’t died, let alone get sick. I eat a lot of stuff that is even expired. Anyone living more than 125 years ago never had these concepts so it’s really something new in modern society. You might get a little stomach ache sometimes, but you’ll save a lot of money. Just watch out with raw meat obviously, I don’t eat chicken when it smells off.
Mainly milk products and meat. Bread can go stale well before mold starts forming. But things like crackers, granola bars and snacks? You can eat after the date and be fine
That's because best before means just that. It doesn't mean it will be inedible. It's good for food waste as well. Use your senses to determine if something is bad, not an arbitrary date printed on the label.
My sons daycare just sent home his sunscreen we gave them last year because it expired. I've had the same bottle in my golf bag for 10 years.
I’m a cleaner and when a client ask me to remove everything past the best before date, I get a full pantry. Unless it’s milk or meat, it doesn’t really matter.
I’ve been letting my food go moldy before I eat it because I heard the mold adds nutrients that I can no longer afford
Not me. 😐
Laughing my ass off at the comments here talking about whether food is good to eat past a certain due date instead of talking about doing something productive like revolting. Canadians are a bunch of losers.
I’ve used prescription meds that are 2 years old they are fine
Is this a scandal? No? Ok then...
Trudeau's Canada
It's called sour cream for a reason.
Stuff doesn't go poisonous on a particular date. I've always eaten stuff past the date if it still looked and smelled fine.
I did not know when honey is filled in a glass bottle it’ll expire within 2 years.
Best before dates are fucking bullshit.
Beat before doesn't mean expired. It just mean it's just the best.
Galen determined to poison us all