If food is one day past its expiration date, can it still be eaten?

In the past two years, near-expiry foods have suddenly become popular. Walking in the mall, you can see them everywhere.

So-called near-expiry food, that is, food that is only a few months or days away from expiration, is much cheaper than similar products with a fresh date.

This also indirectly reflects that people's requirements for shelf life are often extremely high.

But is expiration really that scary? Is there any essential difference between eating a bag of potato chips before 24:00 on the expiration date and eating it after 24:00?

Copyright image, no permission to reprint

01

Shelf life, what is guaranteed?

Here, we need to make it clear that the "whether we can eat it after it expires" that we are worried about is often based on safety; that is, whether eating expired food will be harmful to the human body.

From this perspective, there are some foods that should never be eaten after they expire, such as fresh milk and fresh meat, which need to be refrigerated and have a very short shelf life.

Many people may have similar experiences: for the same meat, refrigerated meat is more expensive than frozen meat.

As for milk, fresh milk always tastes better than milk with a long shelf life.

This is because fresh food requires less intervention from preservation technology and is often easier to retain its original flavor, and therefore must be stored using more costly methods such as cold chain.

But this also means that they are far more likely to breed bacteria than other foods.

If you don't finish eating it as soon as possible, not only will the taste and nutrition be greatly reduced, but the safety factor will also be greatly reduced.

In fact, the concept of shelf life was originally set for safety reasons.

Copyright image, no permission to reprint

However, for many businesses, in order to avoid risks and for commercial interests, they usually raise the shelf life standards.

Puffed foods like potato chips, which have a shelf life of up to one year, actually use relatively strict preservation processes during the production process to reduce the possibility of bacterial invasion and growth.

The shelf life set by merchants not only ensures safety, but also the "flavor" and "taste".

After all, potato chips are a snack meant to be delicious and crunchy.

If the potato chips are soft when you buy them, even if there is no safety issue, you will probably block this brand.

In order to avoid damaging their reputation, merchants have gone to great lengths: they set multiple indicators for food, and constantly conduct experiments and improvements, and comprehensively determine a date. Before this date, they ensure that all food data - especially those related to flavor - meet the standards.

Therefore, the "shelf life" we usually talk about actually contains several meanings. Take Japan, for example, there are generally three different ways to label food dates: best before, safe use period, and shelf life. For foods with a longer shelf life, it is more appropriate to describe them using the best before.

Therefore, it is okay to eat this type of food even if it is "one day expired".

02

Shelf life is not only about the date, but also about storage

Some people would think that, for the sake of both taste and safety, there would be absolutely no problem as long as it is eaten before the expiration date.

In fact, this view is not comprehensive.

Generally speaking, the shelf life is often closely related to another indicator, which is the "storage method".

According to the definition in China's "Pre-packaged Food Labeling Standard" (GB7718-2011), shelf life refers to the period during which pre-packaged food maintains its quality under the storage conditions specified on the label .

For example, fresh milk that is pasteurized is often labeled to be stored in a refrigerator, and some even have specific temperature ranges marked on them.

If left in the sun, it may become inedible in two hours, rather than the three or four days stated in the shelf life.

The same is true for foods that are wrapped in smaller packages, such as seaweed; if you remove the outer packaging and store it in a relatively humid place, it is likely that it will have lost its crispy texture when you take it out.

Of course, there is one very important point that is easily overlooked: the shelf life of opened food needs to be recalculated compared to newly packaged food.

When you open the package, the original environment of the food will be destroyed, and the degree of destruction will vary depending on the type of food.

For example, fresh meat can be kept in a vacuum package for two or three days, but the moment the package is opened and exposed to outside air, bacteria have already begun to grow and multiply.

Copyright image, no permission to reprint

Even if you take measures such as re-refrigerating it or placing it in a sealed bag to keep it fresh, you cannot avoid the possibility of it going bad before the original shelf life.

For foods with a long shelf life, their taste is bound to plummet the moment the package is opened.

Many people have had this experience: at a family gathering, they bought a large bottle of carbonated beverage. When they drank it that night, it was still very stimulating, but when they opened the bottle cap and poured it out to drink the next day, there was almost only sweetness left.

03

How to judge whether it is edible based on the shelf life?

How can we make the right judgment on whether or not expired food can be eaten? Here is a guide for you.

1. Food with a short shelf life

For example, fresh meat, fresh milk, or ready-to-eat foods purchased in stores, such as cakes, sushi, and bento, it is recommended that these foods be stored according to the recommendations on the food packaging, and should not be consumed after the expiration date, even if the bag has not been opened.

If you don’t finish it in one go, it’s best to take measures to preserve it, such as sealing it in a fresh-keeping bag and storing it in the refrigerator, and eat it as soon as possible.

2. Food with a long shelf life

Relatively speaking, this type of food can be eaten even if it is a few days past its expiration date as long as it has no peculiar smell and no signs of mold on the surface, but the taste may not be as good as before.

But it should be noted that there is not much difference between eating it before 24:00 on the expiration date and eating it after 24:00, but there is a big difference between eating it one day after the expiration date and eating it one year after the expiration date.

After all, who knows whether Takeshi Kaneshiro, who only bought canned pineapples in "Chungking Express" vomited because he ate too many sour pineapples or because he ate too many expired pineapples.

3. Pay special attention

In addition to the foods mentioned above that may be eaten in a short period of time after purchase, there is another type of food in life that is so common that people ignore its shelf life. That is the seasoning that is indispensable for cooking every day.

Many people are accustomed to taking out the seasonings separately and putting them in nice-looking seasoning boxes, which makes it convenient to take them out every time. However, this actually shortens its shelf life. After all, the package has been opened and the storage location has been changed.

Moreover, many people don't pay much attention to how to store these seasonings.

This is not an exaggeration. If you go to the kitchen and pick up the bottle of oyster sauce and look closely, you will find that it is marked to be stored in the refrigeration.

But the solution is very simple: it is best to use a sealed seasoning bottle and write its storage time on it.

This guide may not be necessary in families who cook frequently, but it is extremely necessary for those workers who only cook occasionally and can use a box of salt for several months.

Author: Li Mi

Review｜Han Hongwei, Director and Researcher of Risk Communication Department, National Food Safety Risk Assessment Center

The cover image and the images in this article are from the copyright library

Reproduction of image content is not authorized