Eating 3 Year Expired Tostada Shells and Other Food Storage Calamities

We recently relocated back to Missouri and moved in with our in-laws, in part to get back on our feet after out relocation, but to also help them get their house ready to sell in the next month.

And, while it’s funny now, the other day I ended up eating three year expired tostada shells out of my in-laws food storage…and I wasn’t happy about it. Sure, it tasted funny, but I didn’t think much of it at the time because sometimes they purchase off-brand food which isn’t always the best tasting. Fortunately, nothing bad happened to me, but my ever-growing hypochondria wasn’t so sure at the time.

In any case, my inadvertently eating a seriously expired tostada shell led me to going through my mother-in-law’s entire food storage looking for expired or questionable foods. I found a few, including salad dressings, chicken broth, applesauce, canned gravy, cooking spray, cake mixes, and more:

And that’s only the beginning of foods I need to look through since I haven’t gone through any of their store-bought cans of food or the kitchen pantry, and then there’s all the home-canned foods, like salsa, peaches, and jams, none of which have dates or labels of any sort:

And, no, I don’t need a lecture about what sorts of foods may still be good past their expiration or best by dates. I get it. But when foods are several years or a decade past their dates, that’s when I say “enough is enough” and toss it.

Like I said, I’ve got a lot more to work thought and, sadly, will end up throwing out a lot of food that could’ve been eaten at some point. To make matters worse, I’m afraid inflation is going to make purchasing replacements an expensive venture as the months grind on. Ultimately, it’s a decision I felt needed made regardless of rising food prices.

The moral of the story: don’t ignore your food storage dates, rotate, rotate, rotate, and most important: always check the expiration date on tostada shells when you eat at your in-laws house. 🙂


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Comments

4 responses to “Eating 3 Year Expired Tostada Shells and Other Food Storage Calamities”

  1. Robin

    Pantry check app has been an absolute lifesaver for my stockpile

  2. tolik

    Uhhhhh yeah , been there . I ate a can of expired corned beef …………I paid the price .

  3. Frank

    I think that your family would benefit from some kind of record keeping system be it notebooks, loose leaf paper and 3-ring binders or page protectors and so on. What ever you like and works for you is what you should use naturally.

    I’d suggest using a computer to organize what you already have by the expiration date. You’ll have lots of dates even for the same products. Using a computer and any software that produces documents will make things easier. Then I’d print out the documents or records.

    You could begin with or change to hand written records as well so you’re not dependent on any hardware. Then it’s a simple matter of writing down the new additions and the expiration date. You will know how long the food will last, how much you have and what you have which is important for replenishing your supply. And many people suggest writing the expiration yourself on the can, bag or box with a magic marker like a Sharpie.

  4. Robert Falls

    “Use by date” and “Best by date” are different. I’ve seen “Use by date” on salt that will last forever.

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