Best if used by date

[bert304]

If C rations will have a 20 year shelf life, then why do Knorr rice packets have a 1 year best if used by date on them? How long do the rice packets actually last? I would think they would last for many years as long as they are stored properly. I am trying to strech out the purchasing for my thru hike, so I am buying a little every week and storing it in the big plastic bins.

[Enic]

Most food is safe to eat past an expiration date. A "best by" date is just that, best by that date. The major difference in rice sides vs c rations and MREs is the packaging. Vacuum packed, freeze dried food last longer than the rice sides because they are less likely to be punctured or "harmed."
If you plan on eating rice sides on your thru though, just buy them while on the trail. No point in mailing what you can easily buy on the trail.

[Mrs Baggins]

I'd like a definitive answer to this. Grocery stores often have "buy 10 for $10" on the Knorr packs so I'd buy 10....many times. In our gear room we probably have 30 of them, and many of them were bought 2 - 3 years ago. Why would they spoil? They're air tight and dried.

[bert304]

Well what about cans of chicken? They have a 2 year date code

[kayak karl]

why not put the money in a can and buy food right before you go?

[Rasty]

Well what about cans of chicken? They have a 2 year date code

I think all canned goods are labeled for two years.

[scree]

Most things didn't have dates on them at all up until fairly recently. If you open it and it still smells and tastes ok, it's fine to eat. If it's bulging, toss it regardless of the date. There is no magical food fairy that flies around making things go bad when the calendar rolls over to the date printed on the lid.

[gunner76]

Nutreients willd degrade over time, flavors may change ect but most of it is good for long after the dates on the cans or packages. Look are the bottle water on the grocery store shelves, it has and expirtation date, I did not know that water went bad.

[kayak karl]

If you open it and it still smells and tastes ok, it's fine to eat.
but he's going to find this out on the trail. like you said, no magic date. if miss handled by the customer or the seller it could go bad on date stamped. i would not buy a year in advance and hope for the best. also if you buy all at once in bulk you will save money. maybe enough to cover shipping,.. maybe ;)

[FarmerChef]

Check this out: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/08/23/159601015/willing-to-play-the-dating-game-with-your-food-try-a-grocery-auction

Here's a pertinent snippet..."the USDA encourages manufacturers (http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Factsheets/Food_Product_dating/) to put expiration dates on meat and dairy products, but that's only to indicate quality, not safety. The dates are only required on infant formula."

What the article goes on to say is that marketing agencies and food producers realized that consumers wouldn't want to buy "expired" food or even food that was close to "expiring." So they began moving the dates up in a sort of expiration date arms race. The article cites vinegar as an example. It has a shelf life of 7 years but manufacturers shortened it to 1 year to make it appear "fresher."

Conclusion: best if used by dates are a marketing ploy that has much more to do with your perception of "freshness" rather than actual food safety.

[Stir Fry]

I understand wanting to spred the cost. Somtimes its cheeper to just buy as you go. If if a good sale I'd get it as FarmerChef said most things will last a lot longer the the best by date. When I was in the Navy 1977, we were still eating sea rats from WW2. So anything in a can will last a long time.
If you are going to do mail drops then I would say you would be OK to start buying most thing 2 years out. Some will say not much saving but thats not true. When sectioning I have seen $1.89 pack of Korr going for $3 + and $.13 pack of Romain go for $1 +. When in a smaller town they charge what the market will bear.
There are some things that you just can not get on the trail and these are the things I plan to sent in mail drops. Examples are freezdried vegitables, corn and peas, freezedried meats ,like chicken and hamburger. I buy a #10 can from Mountainhouse about once every three months. I have also sugested to family that they make a good gift. I'm 18 mo. out from my start date and hope to have most of the freezeddried things I need by then.

[lemon b]

Have to agree with Farmerchef on this one. Freeze dried I do not even look at the date. My nose and taste buds work just fine> If something is bad I know.

[SouthMark]

"Best by dates" are not a safety issue but only for taste of product. After said date product starts loosing it's taste. The Army ran an ad campaign on their bases to explain this to the wives shopping on base. Out of date just simply means that it may not be as good as it was before the date not that you may get sick and die.

[Different Socks]

Well what about cans of chicken? They have a 2 year date code

Dehydrate the cans of meat. I do that with chicken, turkey, salmon, clams, pollack, tuna, etc.

[Different Socks]

I understand wanting to spred the cost. Somtimes its cheeper to just buy as you go. If if a good sale I'd get it as FarmerChef said most things will last a lot longer the the best by date. When I was in the Navy 1977, we were still eating sea rats from WW2. So anything in a can will last a long time.
If you are going to do mail drops then I would say you would be OK to start buying most thing 2 years out. Some will say not much saving but thats not true. When sectioning I have seen $1.89 pack of Korr going for $3 + and $.13 pack of Romain go for $1 +. When in a smaller town they charge what the market will bear.

There are some things that you just can not get on the trail and these are the things I plan to sent in mail drops. Examples are freezdried vegitables, corn and peas, freezedried meats ,like chicken and hamburger. I buy a #10 can from Mountainhouse about once every three months. I have also sugested to family that they make a good gift. I'm 18 mo. out from my start date and hope to have most of the freezeddried things I need by then.


Thank you for bringing this to light. This is the reason I will still do mail drops on the AT. I mean $3.00 for a Knorr?! Wow! For that much, at home I can add veggies, a meat and even a bagel and still have some money left over. No wonder why so many of the WB people think it costs $4000 plus to do the trail.

[mamamiapdx]

I always ignore expiration dates on meds and most foods.

[GoldenBear]

One of our absolute rules is that we do NOT give out food that is past the posted expiration date. Since people often donate food to us based solely on what is in their shelves that they have no intention of using, we often get food WAY past that date. Our record was a can 25 years past!

A problem we ran into (until a few years ago) was the mysterious labeling on a lot of cans. How could we tell if a can was past its date if we couldn't even decipher what the date on the can WAS? So I started doing research on the matter, and this is what I found out.

Food that has been properly canned or vacuum sealed is 100% safe to eat until it is opened. Cans have been found that were buried 150 years ago, opened, and tested for toxic contaminants -- no trace was found in any of them.
It is EXTREMELY rare that such foods are not properly sterilized and sealed. Unless the container is punctured or is bulging from the inside (a sign of bacterial growth, due to the release of gases in bacteria life cycle), you can be almost completely certain that any food, canned or sealed in North America or Europe, is safe.
It is not SAFETY that causes manufacturers to put expiration dates on their products, but concerns over degradation in color, texture, taste, and nutritional value. So, if you can stand to eat it, it's always safe to eat.

As noted previously, consumers do not want to buy a product that is "almost" at its expiration date. For that reason, manufacturers devised a code on their products that tells THEM when a product should be removed from the shelves, but does not reveal that info to the CONSUMER. Worse, there was no uniformity in this code -- one company MIGHT use the system of another company, but was just as likely not to do so. With literally scores of brands of products with codes that were designed to be incomprehensible, and no consistency between companies on these codes, it quickly became impossible for me to make out a list on how to read them.

Fortunately, cans have recently (not sure if it's regs or not) had a date that is readable and understandable. My congratulations to Campbells Corporation, the first company to do this.

[Bronk]

I'd like a definitive answer to this. Grocery stores often have "buy 10 for $10" on the Knorr packs so I'd buy 10....many times. In our gear room we probably have 30 of them, and many of them were bought 2 - 3 years ago. Why would they spoil? They're air tight and dried.

Anything that contains any kind of oil will go rancid after a period of time, so viabiltiy will vary based on what flavor they are and what ingredients are in them. Beans and white rice will last forever as long as it is kept dry.

I know people that have home canned food that is over 20 years old and still good. Expiration dates are largely about quality and not safety.