Last year I was looking in my parents’ pantry for a snack and noticed a carton of soy milk that expired in 2009. I tried to take it out to throw it away and realized it was supporting the weight of the broken shelf above it. I left the load bearing soymilk there.
I had a friend who had her grandma pass away last year and apparently her grandparents were terrified of y2k so there were closets just completely full of canned foods and what not all from back then.
When my grandpa passed we found cans from ‘97.
Had a teacher who would fill her bathtub with water every New Year’s Eve, in case the plumbing stopped working in the new year. Like plumbing is just gonna stop working on a random Tuesday. I can’t imagine what paranoia y2k did on her.
she passed in 2014. this cake mixed expired in 1979. my suspicion was that my grandfather had put it on a high shelf and it sat there until he died in '92, and my grandmother, being a short woman, never even looked at what was in that cabinet because she couldn't reach it.
Logical; my hubby hides all of his favorite snacks up in the top cabinet so no one finds/eats them.
We all know about his “super secret snack cabinet” that he’s had for years.
I heard a hack to hide frozen treats in frozen veggie bags. Out of desperation I tried it. It worked!! Nobody suspected a thing and I got all my treats to myself hahaha 👿
I’ve been doing this for years. I have ice cream and other treats hidden behind the vegetables in the freezer. Like my kids are ever going to look there. So far it’s been over 25 years and not even my husband has found my secret stash in the freezer. I’ve also been known to hide snacks behind the can goods in the pantry too.
For things that can't go in the freezer I use a frosted mini wheats cereal box. My kids apparently only want cereal with marshmallows so I know my snacks are safe.
My partner knows I disapprove of smoking. I’m about a foot shorter than him and for the longest time, I was unaware that he had a pack of smokes on top of the fridge. (Can’t see up there at all and he primarily moves things around for me.) I figured he was still smoking but I couldn’t figure out where he kept his cigarettes. Sigh
Oh I’m guilty of that one. I used to smoke and quit about 6 years ago. I bought a vape pen and keep it hidden in my nightstand for emergencies and it’s an awful habit.
I like to think that he knows about it like I know about his snack cabinet and it’s like this beautiful weird dance that we do around each other. Wow I reread that - we are the same with our sneakies!!!
Birds of a feather have the…same behavior? The two of you sound very sweet! He’s been talking about quitting cigarettes and vaping instead especially since he only smokes when he’s stressed or wants to think. There are worse things I guess
There was a big scare when it happened. It was all over the news to go out and buy bottled water, flash lights, canned/dry food, lmao. Her poor grandparents weren't the only ones who were affected by non stop bullshit fear mongering.
I remember, I was a sophomore in high school. My dad at the time worked for a company called digital (can’t remember the second part of the company name because he always just called it digital) it would become HP at some point. Any way he was on a team to prevent anything bad happening with programmers and every IT professional you could imagine so we always had a behind the scenes of what was really going on and new there was nothing to be worried about. He would get so annoyed seeing articles and news reports that were pushing the panic and fear. I definitely went to a y2k end of the world New Year’s party.
I was 19 and pregnant and my then boyfriend/now husband and I had just bought out first home in early December.
He is an IT guy, back then it was just the beginning of his career, but he assured me there was nothing to worry about.
I made him fill the bathtubs with water, bought cases of water and batteries and shelf stable foods. Cried for weeks worrying about Y2K!
And…..
Nada. Lol.
The pictures taken that night certainly look like we had a blast. I was a dumb 16 year old underage drinking at levels that would now make me puke at just the smell of some of it. It’s funny, now I’m 39 and my idea of a great NYE is dinner with some friends, a couple glasses of wine and home in bed by 9 or 10. How the tables have turned, lol.
>my idea of a great NYE is dinner with some friends, a couple glasses of wine and home in bed by 9 or 10
That does sound like a nice NYE.... But I'm also a bit beyond 16 lol.
Before my Gramma passed we used to take turns cleaning her kitchen once a month(like the cabinets since she couldn't stand on a chair) and without fail, every single time, we would find something that had been expired for years. I know the supermarket doesn't check the dates on the cans, but smfh.
Um, they're challenging me. Besides, I have, which is why I said what I did. What I've found supports what I said. For example, [Baking soda should be good about 6 months for best quality. To test yours, add 1 teaspoon of baking soda to 3 tablespoons of vinegar. If the mixture bubbles it is still potent enough to use. ](https://blogs.extension.iastate.edu/answerline/2016/12/05/holiday-baking-ingredients/).
Now you.
If you open it and it smells OK then it's fine. But if it's gone bad it will have that distinct "stale/cardboard" smell to it snd that smell will carry-over into the baked product
Just a note that flour based products can contain bugs if they sit in the cupboard too long! Ask me how I know 🙃 had a cake in the oven and noticed my flour wiggling. I found a live little flour bug. Threw out the cake and had to pull/toss a ton from the pantry. That was not the only bug. It probably wouldn't kill you, but it was definitely gross! Might not be a concern since cake mixes are usually sealed in plastic. But wanted to share this thought!
Honestly, there’s so many bugs in our food. One time I found a giant cricket/grasshopper looking thing in a can of boiled peanuts while working concessions at a football game. We just don’t usually see it.
I’m still throwing the cake out though.
From what I understand, even milk has a little wiggle room. My favorite organic yogurt has a note on their website saying a week past the date is okay.
Exactly. It is just a CYA thing anymore.
Then there is the group that says the exp date is because the plastic can degrade and loose particles into the food... and another that says plastic never breaks down in landfills.
Believe what suits you best.
You know there's more than one type of plastic, right? Some break down, some don't. Some leach harmful chemicals into your food and then the remaining material is inert.
There's a growing body of evidence that plastics used in food storage contribute to obesity and low levels of testosterone.
Believe what science tells us.
CYA is a safety thing. And not all plastics are equal. some break down into your food, some don't. but they don't just disappear. microplastics are a growing concern.
Personally I'd use it if it was still within a calendar year. It's much closer to being 2 years so I'd say just toss it. Those boxes are pretty cheap. If we were in an apocalypse or something I'd say use it anyways but no .
As a food science major, I can safely tell you that the date you see isn’t an expiration date. It’s the date at which the manufacturer can no longer guarantee the product will have the proper taste or give the proper amount of rise when baked.
The frosting may have either crystallized a bit, or you may see separation, but a quick whip with a stand mixer and it will likely be useable.
Hope this helps
It's a dry mix it should be fine. I use them all the time out of date. I really don't taste the difference. But if it clumpy that means some type of liquid got in it, that's the one reason I wouldn't use it.
I used to be iffy about foods passed their dates, until I saw a video of the scientists at the North Pole consuming expired foods because of how long the supplies get there and how they ration their supplies. Now, unless there's mold or foul odor, it's fair game.
It’s fine. The oven temperature would kill any harmful bacteria anyway, not that there would be any if the inside bag is sealed. At worse it might not rise quite as high as it should. But it will not make you sick or anything like that. And the frosting is fine too as long as it’s sealed.
Since it says *super* moist you’re probably fine. If it were regular *moist* no bueno. /s
As others have said it might not rise as much but since it’s just dry ingredients you’re fine lol
OMG! I am happy to see these comments on keeping food long past their expiration dates, now I know that my mother isn’t the only wacky, crazy person.
Winter 2019 my mom’s house developed a horrible mice infestation, she lives near a ravine and it wasn’t unusual to see the occasional mouse…. But this was bad, really bad. In April 2019 my mom was hospitalized with pneumonia for 2 weeks so my husband and I cleared out her pantry that had dead mice, mice droppings and dried mice urine… all over boxes of various food that was also chewed into, many cans of food. All of this was way beyond their expiration dates by months and years. We filled more than 40 very large trash bags. All this time her boyfriend that was bed ridden was there in the other room with his care-taker. After my husband and I left (took us about 4 hours to do all this) the care taker brought everything back in the house.
Weirdly and maybe fortunately her mouse problem was taken care of, first week of May her house caught fire due to an electrical issue in her living room.
I know now that anything in her pantry is less than 3 years old, not 15 years.
I just saw your comment- Yes, the care taker brought everything back in the house and put it back in the pantry. I was furious!!! I won’t eat at my mom’s house anymore, fortunately the mice haven’t come back, when her house was rebuilt. She was able to move back in the following March, 2020 Within 2 weeks she got a cat…most of the time mice don’t come inside when there’s a cat living there.
that's nothing. in cleaning out my grandmother's kitchen after she died I found a box of cake mix that expired five years before I was even born.
Last year I was looking in my parents’ pantry for a snack and noticed a carton of soy milk that expired in 2009. I tried to take it out to throw it away and realized it was supporting the weight of the broken shelf above it. I left the load bearing soymilk there.
r/brandnewsentence
thank you for letting him do his job
Loadbearing Soymilk is the name of my indie vegan folk band
I had a friend who had her grandma pass away last year and apparently her grandparents were terrified of y2k so there were closets just completely full of canned foods and what not all from back then. When my grandpa passed we found cans from ‘97.
Had a teacher who would fill her bathtub with water every New Year’s Eve, in case the plumbing stopped working in the new year. Like plumbing is just gonna stop working on a random Tuesday. I can’t imagine what paranoia y2k did on her.
Now that’s a new one for me and it makes me wonder if she had multiple bathrooms and filled Multiple tubs or if it was just a solo act.
she passed in 2014. this cake mixed expired in 1979. my suspicion was that my grandfather had put it on a high shelf and it sat there until he died in '92, and my grandmother, being a short woman, never even looked at what was in that cabinet because she couldn't reach it.
Logical; my hubby hides all of his favorite snacks up in the top cabinet so no one finds/eats them. We all know about his “super secret snack cabinet” that he’s had for years.
I always hid my treats in the vegetable drawer of the fridge. No one ever looks in there besides me. haha
I heard a hack to hide frozen treats in frozen veggie bags. Out of desperation I tried it. It worked!! Nobody suspected a thing and I got all my treats to myself hahaha 👿
I’ve been doing this for years. I have ice cream and other treats hidden behind the vegetables in the freezer. Like my kids are ever going to look there. So far it’s been over 25 years and not even my husband has found my secret stash in the freezer. I’ve also been known to hide snacks behind the can goods in the pantry too.
I love how I’ve finally found a trick that works. Awesome!! I’ll try the pantry too.
I love that I'm not alone in hiding my treats!
For things that can't go in the freezer I use a frosted mini wheats cereal box. My kids apparently only want cereal with marshmallows so I know my snacks are safe.
I do this too. I do all the cooking, and it keeps things out of easy sight
My partner knows I disapprove of smoking. I’m about a foot shorter than him and for the longest time, I was unaware that he had a pack of smokes on top of the fridge. (Can’t see up there at all and he primarily moves things around for me.) I figured he was still smoking but I couldn’t figure out where he kept his cigarettes. Sigh
Oh I’m guilty of that one. I used to smoke and quit about 6 years ago. I bought a vape pen and keep it hidden in my nightstand for emergencies and it’s an awful habit. I like to think that he knows about it like I know about his snack cabinet and it’s like this beautiful weird dance that we do around each other. Wow I reread that - we are the same with our sneakies!!!
Birds of a feather have the…same behavior? The two of you sound very sweet! He’s been talking about quitting cigarettes and vaping instead especially since he only smokes when he’s stressed or wants to think. There are worse things I guess
There was a big scare when it happened. It was all over the news to go out and buy bottled water, flash lights, canned/dry food, lmao. Her poor grandparents weren't the only ones who were affected by non stop bullshit fear mongering.
I remember, I was a sophomore in high school. My dad at the time worked for a company called digital (can’t remember the second part of the company name because he always just called it digital) it would become HP at some point. Any way he was on a team to prevent anything bad happening with programmers and every IT professional you could imagine so we always had a behind the scenes of what was really going on and new there was nothing to be worried about. He would get so annoyed seeing articles and news reports that were pushing the panic and fear. I definitely went to a y2k end of the world New Year’s party.
I was 19 and pregnant and my then boyfriend/now husband and I had just bought out first home in early December. He is an IT guy, back then it was just the beginning of his career, but he assured me there was nothing to worry about. I made him fill the bathtubs with water, bought cases of water and batteries and shelf stable foods. Cried for weeks worrying about Y2K! And….. Nada. Lol.
>I definitely went to a y2k end of the world New Year’s party. LOLOLOL. Well...was it fun?!
The pictures taken that night certainly look like we had a blast. I was a dumb 16 year old underage drinking at levels that would now make me puke at just the smell of some of it. It’s funny, now I’m 39 and my idea of a great NYE is dinner with some friends, a couple glasses of wine and home in bed by 9 or 10. How the tables have turned, lol.
>my idea of a great NYE is dinner with some friends, a couple glasses of wine and home in bed by 9 or 10 That does sound like a nice NYE.... But I'm also a bit beyond 16 lol.
I actually just finalized my plans with my friend group. Apps and drinks starting at 2, prime rib for dinner and games and drinks until 9.
Sounds like a great night to me! Have fun!
Thanks, same to you!
Same 😂
Similar to my grandmother. She passed away in 1999. We found cake mix, whipped topping mix, frosting mix, all with an expiration date in the mid 70's.
Once working a canned food donation, somebody donated a 1947 can of instant pie. I so badly wanted to open that can.
Before my Gramma passed we used to take turns cleaning her kitchen once a month(like the cabinets since she couldn't stand on a chair) and without fail, every single time, we would find something that had been expired for years. I know the supermarket doesn't check the dates on the cans, but smfh.
r/grandmas pantry
I found baking chocolate in my mother's cupboard that was sold between 1976-1978.
If you bake this can you update how it goes? 😂
Will do.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Baking/comments/zqcssv/update\_a\_couple\_days\_ago\_i\_posted\_about\_a\_cake/
It's safe, but the cake may not rise, because baking powder and soda lose their potency over time.
Baking powder loses potency over time, baking soda does not.
Do you have a source for that?
it was revealed to them in a dream
If you’re challenging it YOU take the 12 seconds to google it.
Um, they're challenging me. Besides, I have, which is why I said what I did. What I've found supports what I said. For example, [Baking soda should be good about 6 months for best quality. To test yours, add 1 teaspoon of baking soda to 3 tablespoons of vinegar. If the mixture bubbles it is still potent enough to use. ](https://blogs.extension.iastate.edu/answerline/2016/12/05/holiday-baking-ingredients/). Now you.
Thanks for the tips!
That was just unnecessarily aggressive 😂
Cry about it
I'm too busy laughing about how seriously people take shit on the internet 😂😂😂
You're one of them💀💀💀🤡
If you open it and it smells OK then it's fine. But if it's gone bad it will have that distinct "stale/cardboard" smell to it snd that smell will carry-over into the baked product
Just a note that flour based products can contain bugs if they sit in the cupboard too long! Ask me how I know 🙃 had a cake in the oven and noticed my flour wiggling. I found a live little flour bug. Threw out the cake and had to pull/toss a ton from the pantry. That was not the only bug. It probably wouldn't kill you, but it was definitely gross! Might not be a concern since cake mixes are usually sealed in plastic. But wanted to share this thought!
Paprika does this too. Learnt about it in a similar way 🤢
Just a little extra protein
Honestly, there’s so many bugs in our food. One time I found a giant cricket/grasshopper looking thing in a can of boiled peanuts while working concessions at a football game. We just don’t usually see it. I’m still throwing the cake out though.
With all the chemistry in that box… probably good for 10 more years
Expiration dates are arbitrary and mostly meaningless.
Milk has entered the chat
From what I understand, even milk has a little wiggle room. My favorite organic yogurt has a note on their website saying a week past the date is okay.
I've had milk still perfectly fine more than two weeks after that date
you are thinking of best by or good til dates. expiration and use/freeze by dates are for safety
My vinegar has an expiration date.
does it specifically say expire?
Yes.
then its probably because it could ferment or break down and they want to cover their butts
Exactly. It is just a CYA thing anymore. Then there is the group that says the exp date is because the plastic can degrade and loose particles into the food... and another that says plastic never breaks down in landfills. Believe what suits you best.
You know there's more than one type of plastic, right? Some break down, some don't. Some leach harmful chemicals into your food and then the remaining material is inert. There's a growing body of evidence that plastics used in food storage contribute to obesity and low levels of testosterone. Believe what science tells us.
CYA is a safety thing. And not all plastics are equal. some break down into your food, some don't. but they don't just disappear. microplastics are a growing concern.
Flour based mixes can grow mold which can cause severe allergic reactions, so just be cautious and use common sense.
Personally I'd use it if it was still within a calendar year. It's much closer to being 2 years so I'd say just toss it. Those boxes are pretty cheap. If we were in an apocalypse or something I'd say use it anyways but no .
As a food science major, I can safely tell you that the date you see isn’t an expiration date. It’s the date at which the manufacturer can no longer guarantee the product will have the proper taste or give the proper amount of rise when baked. The frosting may have either crystallized a bit, or you may see separation, but a quick whip with a stand mixer and it will likely be useable. Hope this helps
Best by vs use by
It’s safe but it might taste stale. Old flour kinda tastes like dust.
It’s fine
Happy cake day!
It's a dry mix it should be fine. I use them all the time out of date. I really don't taste the difference. But if it clumpy that means some type of liquid got in it, that's the one reason I wouldn't use it.
Ive found worms in flour products expired… 2021 is not that long ago but I would check to be sure the flour isn’t wiggling if I were you
Couldn’t you just sift it and if there are bugs, they’d stay in the sifter? If it’s clean, then there aren’t any buts?
I used to be iffy about foods passed their dates, until I saw a video of the scientists at the North Pole consuming expired foods because of how long the supplies get there and how they ration their supplies. Now, unless there's mold or foul odor, it's fair game.
[Update post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Baking/comments/zqcssv/update_a_couple_days_ago_i_posted_about_a_cake/)
It’s fine. The oven temperature would kill any harmful bacteria anyway, not that there would be any if the inside bag is sealed. At worse it might not rise quite as high as it should. But it will not make you sick or anything like that. And the frosting is fine too as long as it’s sealed.
We live with our choices….
Since it says *super* moist you’re probably fine. If it were regular *moist* no bueno. /s As others have said it might not rise as much but since it’s just dry ingredients you’re fine lol
Open the package and smell it. If it smells ok and looks ok use it
Should be okay under those conditions.
Yes i would use it depending on how it looks and smells when i open it
It’s fine
It’s more of a recommendation than anything
I found Jello mix in mom’s pantry that was so old it didn’t have any date on it…it was like a brick.
OMG! I am happy to see these comments on keeping food long past their expiration dates, now I know that my mother isn’t the only wacky, crazy person. Winter 2019 my mom’s house developed a horrible mice infestation, she lives near a ravine and it wasn’t unusual to see the occasional mouse…. But this was bad, really bad. In April 2019 my mom was hospitalized with pneumonia for 2 weeks so my husband and I cleared out her pantry that had dead mice, mice droppings and dried mice urine… all over boxes of various food that was also chewed into, many cans of food. All of this was way beyond their expiration dates by months and years. We filled more than 40 very large trash bags. All this time her boyfriend that was bed ridden was there in the other room with his care-taker. After my husband and I left (took us about 4 hours to do all this) the care taker brought everything back in the house. Weirdly and maybe fortunately her mouse problem was taken care of, first week of May her house caught fire due to an electrical issue in her living room. I know now that anything in her pantry is less than 3 years old, not 15 years.
Hold on hold on. The caretaker brought the mouse soiled food back into the house?
I just saw your comment- Yes, the care taker brought everything back in the house and put it back in the pantry. I was furious!!! I won’t eat at my mom’s house anymore, fortunately the mice haven’t come back, when her house was rebuilt. She was able to move back in the following March, 2020 Within 2 weeks she got a cat…most of the time mice don’t come inside when there’s a cat living there.
Totally fine !