If you don't think we have some hard times coming in the not-too-distant future, you've got another think comin'! It's going to be a hell of a lot tougher on some of you than others. A whole bunch of that food you're throwing away every so often now would have come in real handy for you a little later on. Now, right now, today, would be a great time to start looking at your long-term food storage options. The time to find what you can't eat is now, I said CAN'T, not won't. Some of you are going to find out that your tastes will change dramatically when you haven't eaten for a while!
There's a little bit of redundancy in this installment. I have taken 5 or 6 Facebook posts that I posted over a period of 3 or 4 years and stuck them all in one. In the interest of time, I didn't separate them all out as well as I could have, so this post doesn't look like my writing usually does. So sue me!
The more I delve into this preparedness stuff, specifically the different advertised "best-by" dates of various foods, the more I am appalled at the amount of food that Americans waste every day. It is astonishing! I am 100% convinced that "best-by" dates are on many food containers for no other reason than to make consumers buy more food, and you know what? It works! I know people right here in our community that throw out perfectly good food that is one day past its mythical "best-by" date, or even close to it. Did you bother to check it out before you tossed it or did you just look at the arbitrary date on it declare it to be "expired"?
We have all been lied to, and have accepted that lie, our entire lives. We were all led to believe that the government, government inspectors and big corporations have always had our best interests in mind and maybe, once upon a time they did, but that dog doesn't hunt anymore.
We are all guilty, to some degree, of putting perfectly good food in the dumpster when it may be only a day or week past its date like it somehow turns to poison on that day. And then we hear of people all over the world and even right here in AZ that are literally dying of starvation! When organizations ask for donations, they are generally adamant about not accepting "expired" foods.
I have written much concerning shelf-lives of different foods. My conclusion, after much, much research and testing (and tasting) is... best-by dates are largely a farce. Expiration dates are different. You have to use your own judgment for that.
One of my installments in the continuing saga of food salvage is this one, from 1 Sept 2024:
Pillsbury Grands, one of the best canned biscuits on the market (and this most likely applies to any other canned biscuits or croissants or whatever) are good at least a year past their fictitious best-by date.
I don't know how this particular can of biscuits escaped being cast into the fiery furnace for such a long time, but there they were, minding their own business, just sitting in one of the shelves in the fridge. I glanced at the date, 27 December of 2023 and thought, perfect time for another experiment, so into the fiery furnace they went!
They were perfect! Fluffy and delicious and not one iota different than right out off the store shelf!
Or this one from 3 September 2023:
I've written a lot about shelve lives of certain foods. Very few packaged food items have an expiration date. Nearly all have a "best-by" date. Overwhelmingly, most foods are good WAY, WAY past their best-by date.
For example, during the process of rearranging things and consolidating boxes in preparation of our upcoming move, we ran across a couple of packages of pancake mix, one of which was dated 2017 . We happened to be in mood for pancakes yesterday so we decided to check it out...
The pancakes were thick and fluffy and as good any other pancakes! (6 years past its best-by date!
"Best-by dates"... Phfffftt! That date means virtually nothing in many cases!
We here at Casa de Reynolds mucho ignore "best-by" dates. I have experimented with this best-by nonsense many times and have decided that thousands of tons of perfectly good food gets wasted every year because of this arbitrary date. Who benefits from this? Well, the manufacturers of course!
We have used some things that were literally YEARS past the date printed on the box/can/bag. I once made a stew using canned corn and green beans that were 6 years past their best-by date. Admittedly, it was very slightly tinny to the taste but not really disagreeable. Yes, I know that it had lost much of it's nutritional value but the point is, it was not dangerous. My family of 6 ate it and not one of us died. So, if you have something to make up for some of the lost nutrients, a lot of this old stuff will still fill your tummy for the day. Add some peanut butter or a couple of Survival Tabs to each meal and you'll do just fine.
Got milk? From 19 March 2022...
A couple of days ago, we were packing up some of our stored foods and found a carton of Gossner milk that had a "best-by" date of over a year ago, 6 April 2021 so I put it in the fridge to run a little test. This morning, I opened it, smelled it, carefully tasted it and poured it on my cereal. It was just fine. I plan to get much more of this milk to store!
And here's some supporting information regarding packaged milk from 6 March 2024...
First, some of you may be familiar with the milk comes in the little cartons that does not need refrigeration. I am a huge milk drinker so this is a great resource to me. I keep a few in the pantry so if my refrigerated milk gets low and I can't make it to the store for whatever reason, I just pour one of these in the existing carton to hold me over until I can make it to the store. I routinely drink this milk even when it is a couple months past the BB date.
As some of you know, Amy and I used to be hired often to clean out homes or apartments of people that have passed away or moved into assisted living. There was almost always food of all types and ages. I recently got 2 small, single-serving cartons of that packaged milk that was almost 7 months past its BB date. I drank it last night and couldn't tell the difference in that and a fresh jug from Walmart!
If you're scared of it, give it to me!
How about this one from 17 April 2022?
I opened an old B ration marble cake last night that I have had for 22 years. If memory serves, they quit making them around 1995.
The cake was still slightly moist and tasted fine. Amy and our granddaughter both tried it as well. It was much better with milk.
One of the most frequently asked questions concerning food storage is, "How long does such and such last?" or "How long is something good past it's expiration date?". People get all wrapped around the axle over that dumb date.
First off, very few products have expiration dates anyway. Most of them are "best-by" dates. Most canned stuff is still safe to eat LONG after it's "best-by" date has passed. They may lose most or all of their nutritional value over time but few, if any, become dangerous except maybe tomato products and a few others.
Meat, such as Spam, potted meat, Vienna sausages, corned beef, etc; is particularly long lasting and retains its taste and protein content longer than many other foods. Such is the case in the following example from 15 April 2022:
Call me a savage but I love potted meat. It makes pretty decent sandwiches and is VERY good with crackers and sometimes some cheese. Yeah, I know what it is reportedly made of. I don't care. I've eaten much worse over the years. I still like it and I have always had a pretty good bit of it in storage.
So... I just found about 40-50 cans of it while packing to move. Their best-by date was 2012, 10 years ago. Well, I almost threw it out but due to upcoming problems that I see happening, I decided to pop one open and check it out. You may be surprised to hear that it was absolutely fine. Smelled good, tasted good... no problem.
You may think that was a little extreme. Well, hold my beer...
Later the same day, I found some dated 2006. SIXTEEN YEARS PAST THE DREADED "BEST-BY" DATE! Same thing. Perfectly fine!
So... this may not have any effect on your food wasting habits, but just know that in times of need, MOST of the stuff we are throwing away is absolutely, perfectly safe to eat. I'm sure that there is a limit, especially to certain types of food, but for the most part, just eat it!
Even if you're afraid to eat it, save it for barter material! Someone else may be glad to take it off your hands.
OK, last example. This one from today, 12 April 2026. Some of you remember when Dave Peelman and I distributed nearly 400,000 pounds of food to about a dozen communities, most of them out on the Navajo reservation. We would often wind up with a few boxes that weren't claimed and if we couldn't find them a new home, we would take them home with us because much of it was perishable. A few times, we had different boxes that had non-perishable stuff and lots of cheese. I couldn't bear to see any of that stuff go to waste, so I wound up with a bunch of cheese. We have one bin in our extra fridge packed with it and have largely forgotten about it. Well, today after church, Amy asked if I wanted a grilled cheese sandwich and then said, “Nevermind, we don't have any cheese.” She had forgotten about all that extra stuff we had in the back. She made the sandwiches and I promise they were the very best I've ever had!
The cheese? Packaged 10/20/23, sell by 11/19/2024...
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