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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