How much food does your family waste?

[BranTheScooterMan]

Unfortunately, I'm the "expiry date police." I make sure to throw away all goods that are past the expiry date already. So can I ask just how long beyond the best before dates can we consume foods? I most certainly throw away bread, biscuits and yogurt that are beyond the expiration dates. So is it safe to consume these a day after or a week after the date it's labeled to expire?

Well I m just some guy on the internet... so I highly suggest that you do your own research because there are a few different variables.
First off it depends on where you live. In Canada and the USA typically the best before date is always set before the product is no longer safe. They do this because it can be a liability issue if you didn't store something correctly or what ever they don't want a lawsuit on their hands so they are just set the best before day way earlier then it needs to be and because the more food we toss and have to purchase again is more money for them.
I am not sure if this is the same where you live (Philippines right?) Hey how come everyFilipino I meet is always SO HAPPY, I swear I can spot one of you guys a mile away by the giant smile on your faces and happy attitude, same with people from Thailand.

Anyways

Then it depends on the item itself, I have eaten a bag of potato chips that was a YEAR past it's date. A little stale but perfectly safe. I have also froze meat and eaten it 6 months past the date, the quality wasn't great but it was fine. I wouldn't suggest doing that with meat that was not frozen... or with any other perishables.

My opinion is yogurt is already "bad" (it's MADE with bacteria...) and that aslong as it smells fine and doesn't have mold it's safe to eat. When I was a broke college student once I actually took off the mold from the top of a tub of yogurt and ate what was under it....
I would not do that now and would not suggest others do it, but I did it before and I didn't get sick.

Just use your judgement, take a look at the food and do a little online research for the item in question.
Every house needs an expiry date police! But perhaps start developing strategies to use up items before they go bad or finding other things to do with them. For example when our bread starts to get stale and gets close/past it's date we chop it and freeze it and use it to make either salad croutons, french onion soup topping or stuffing for turkey. Fruit freezes well too, like we'll take banana's that are getting brown, peel them chop them and freeze them for making fruit drinks in the blender.
Google is your BEST FRIEND. Seroiusly people WAY smarter then myself have figured out all kinds of cool ways to save food and reuse it.

[Briannagodess]

Well I m just some guy on the internet... so I highly suggest that you do your own research because there are a few different variables.
First off it depends on where you live. In Canada and the USA typically the best before date is always set before the product is no longer safe. They do this because it can be a liability issue if you didn't store something correctly or what ever they don't want a lawsuit on their hands so they are just set the best before day way earlier then it needs to be and because the more food we toss and have to purchase again is more money for them.
I am not sure if this is the same where you live (Philippines right?) Hey how come everyFilipino I meet is always SO HAPPY, I swear I can spot one of you guys a mile away by the giant smile on your faces and happy attitude, same with people from Thailand.

Anyways

Then it depends on the item itself, I have eaten a bag of potato chips that was a YEAR past it's date. A little stale but perfectly safe. I have also froze meat and eaten it 6 months past the date, the quality wasn't great but it was fine. I wouldn't suggest doing that with meat that was not frozen... or with any other perishables.

My opinion is yogurt is already "bad" (it's MADE with bacteria...) and that aslong as it smells fine and doesn't have mold it's safe to eat. When I was a broke college student once I actually took off the mold from the top of a tub of yogurt and ate what was under it....
I would not do that now and would not suggest others do it, but I did it before and I didn't get sick.

Just use your judgement, take a look at the food and do a little online research for the item in question.
Every house needs an expiry date police! But perhaps start developing strategies to use up items before they go bad or finding other things to do with them. For example when our bread starts to get stale and gets close/past it's date we chop it and freeze it and use it to make either salad croutons, french onion soup topping or stuffing for turkey. Fruit freezes well too, like we'll take banana's that are getting brown, peel them chop them and freeze them for making fruit drinks in the blender.
Google is your BEST FRIEND. Seroiusly people WAY smarter then myself have figured out all kinds of cool ways to save food and reuse it.

Thank you! I'll research more on this topic because it's certainly relevant to my life. Yes, I'm from the Philippines, I better check what our laws are regarding expiry dates. Oh, we are always happy, that's for sure, even in times of financial crisis and disasters. I don't know why though, haha! Maybe we're just nurtured this way, lol.

Anyway, it's crazy because milk cartons state that we should consume the milk three to four days after opening it. My son doesn't finish the milk in that amount of days. And even after a week, the milk still smells okay. I don't make him drink it though, I just either drink it or give it to our pets as long as it smells fine.

Hmm...we usually buy meat everyday from the market so that's not a big deal. I guess with yogurt, that makes sense. I didn't even think of using stale bread as croutons, that's a good idea. I'm guilty of throwing fruits away that are too soft or has spots in it. We have a baby bullet and I think it's time I start making shakes out of those fruits.

I'll get back to you after I Google some of this stuff.

[BranTheScooterMan]

Thank you! I'll research more on this topic because it's certainly relevant to my life. Yes, I'm from the Philippines, I better check what our laws are regarding expiry dates. Oh, we are always happy, that's for sure, even in times of financial crisis and disasters. I don't know why though, haha! Maybe we're just nurtured this way, lol.

Anyway, it's crazy because milk cartons state that we should consume the milk three to four days after opening it. My son doesn't finish the milk in that amount of days. And even after a week, the milk still smells okay. I don't make him drink it though, I just either drink it or give it to our pets as long as it smells fine.

Hmm...we usually buy meat everyday from the market so that's not a big deal. I guess with yogurt, that makes sense. I didn't even think of using stale bread as croutons, that's a good idea. I'm guilty of throwing fruits away that are too soft or has spots in it. We have a baby bullet and I think it's time I start making shakes out of those fruits.

I'll get back to you after I Google some of this stuff.

Please do get back to me!
With milk I am a big fan of the "sniff test."
I am sure your milks the same, it's treated and pasteurized right?
When my grand parents were yopung they told me that milk got delivered door to door... a milk man would drop it off every few days on your porch. It could sit there for an hour or two and still be fine.
This really tells me that as long as I keep it in the fridge it should be just fine, as long as it smells okay and isn't going solid I will drink it.
BUT milk NEVER lasts that long in my house lol

[Briannagodess]

Please do get back to me!
With milk I am a big fan of the "sniff test."
I am sure your milks the same, it's treated and pasteurized right?
When my grand parents were yopung they told me that milk got delivered door to door... a milk man would drop it off every few days on your porch. It could sit there for an hour or two and still be fine.
This really tells me that as long as I keep it in the fridge it should be just fine, as long as it smells okay and isn't going solid I will drink it.
BUT milk NEVER lasts that long in my house lol

Yeah, I will, I'm just finishing some deadlines first, lol. Anyway, yes, our milk is treated and pasteurised as well. I usually sniff the milk before giving it to my son or taste a bit of it. But he can never finish a whole carton in a week so we just resorted to those small cartons sometimes.

Oh, yeah! We still have that milk as well. But it's not delivered, it's found at local markets and it's packaged in a bottle with no labelling. Haha. I don't see any fridge that they put it to. And the milk is even warm when we buy it.

[srofltank]

I'm in the same boat as you, OP. My family is not POOR poor, but we just try to relish and save everything we can. It's a good habit if you ask me. If there's any left overs we'd just eat it soon.

[Rosyrain]

We are trying to do a much better job of wasting less food at home. I am really careful about making meals I know my family will enjoy and will eat a couple of days in a row if there are leftovers. I have also stopped making dinner the next night when I know there are enough leftovers in the fridge for another meal. I used to get sick thinking about the amount of food we wasted at home. If you really pay attention, you can monitor what your family will chow down on and what ends up getting wasted.

[SashaS]

I live alone, so not a single thing is wasted. I buy only what I need because I can't afford to buy any more than that. I don't buy things I know I will not consume or make use of. I guess it's a lot more difficult when it's more than just yourself but I live as efficiently and cleanly as possible. When I used to live with my parents as a teenager, they wasted food excessively. It made me go insane and that's why I moved out as soon as financially possible.
My mother would cook way more food than anyone could eat and because nobody liked leftovers, we would end up throwing plates of food every day like idiots. My mother would make a jar of ice-tea and end up pouring half of it down the drain because we couldn't drink so much tea and home made tea goes bad quite fast.

The day I left home I vowed to live as sparingly as possible. Wastage is the unnecessary result of people being ignorant and not considering what they have - taking it for granted. Restaurants waste tons of food every month, especially the buffets where any leftovers are thrown away. I know that in Las Vegas the buffets give their food to the local pig farm, which is a great way of recycling what would otherwise be an extremely large amount of food being thrown away.