Just picked up a bag of stuffing croutons and...it was expired. Smelled it the second the bag was open. Didn't even think to check beforehand. And I'm exactly the same -- check the next trip and then whoosh! forgotten. And yes, total pain to have to go back and complain about it.

I always check! And I look for the furthest-out date whether it's croutons or cabbage.

I do for milk products, trying to get the freshest because I don't use them quickly. I've gotten some things that were close to the "best by" or "use by" date and didn't notice, then by the time I want to use them, they are older than I want. One was chicken sausage, I hadn't kept my slip, so I just had to throw them away. Now I ALWAYS check the date on that product.

Seems once I've been burned I remember, but then I forget on a different product. I don't worry too much except for meat products. Dairy you can tell if it's bad. Yogurt seems to last much past the date (I buy minimally processed brands), same with the cottage cheese I buy.

Recently I bought something frozen that had a pull date from 6 months previous. It was still safe of course but it was poor quality. Ugh...

I went through the same thing, but now I always look at expiration dates. Especially salad dressings!

Always. I am typically digging through bags of kale for the farthest out or reaching way in the back for the best half and half.

Depends on the store...the regular grocery store, yeah I check. They have a bad record. Target? I check because it's Target but they are always current. Trader Joe's? Don't need to check.

Also depends on the product. Some produce I do try to get the freshest so it has more of a chance of being eaten before spoiling....

I always look too. I look at expiry dates, packaged on dates etc. There are only 2 of us so I want the longest shelf life whether dairy, packaged fresh, meats, eggs etc. Stores here seem pretty good at taking out products by the expiry dates.

For dairy products, absolutely. Other items are more hit or miss.

Yes, too many times I've gotten bad items. I usually only check on perishables, but some shelf stable items I'll check if I don't think I'm going to use them soon or if they're very flavorful. On non-perishables the date is generally a 'best by' date, but I still check. If it's close to the sell by/best buy date and I'll use it that day, I ask for a discount and always get one.

Always. As a single I need as long as possible. Also, when buying sliced meats from the deli, I ask when was it opened. If greater than 1 day, I pass since is has a short shelf life.

I do check dates because I'm always looking for the longest shelf life.

Bottled (not refrigerated) salad dressings? Packaged stuffing mix? Sorry, those dates are not ecpiration dates, but "Best used by..." dates. The product is probably perfectly good.

Still tasty?

I check all dates, especially for dairy at our Safeway - use by, best by, it doesn't matter to me, I don't want the older things even if the product may be perfectly good. I never just grab and buy, not even ketchup, mayo, crackers.

If I wanted things past their best by date, I could shop at Grocery Outlet. I don't.

I try to be diligent too, but things fall between the cracks. The same thing happened just recently with tartare sauce.

Like mentioned above, I am usually good with milk, yogurt and cottage cheese. Also, the boxed salad greens. If I am buying rye bread, I automatically pull from the back, for the longest expiration date.

Side stories: we still sometimes laugh about our late BIL. He would often buy dressing in bulk, and the dates we found were 10 years old.

I once ran out of bread crumbs. My MIL gave me a store brand can of crumbs. The store had been out of business for years! I didn't even look for the expiration date, I just laughed as I tossed it.

Oly, most supermarkets will exchange without a receipt.

I find with yogurts especially I find I have to watch the dates at my supermarket, even though they seem to do high volumes of sales with Chobani, Fage, Oikos, etc.

Yes, I always check the dates on food and dig way in the back for the freshest. Why not? Sometimes the milk in the front expires two or three days before the milk in the back. I don't use it up that fast, so I want the one that will last the longerst.

Yes I do! We live in a town with ONE grocery store. It's a regional chain. Since there is no competition here, we're the low man on the totem pole and apparently get the hand me downs. Example, I got a couple of expired CANNED goods! Now that's bad :( After being unhappy with that store for years and having to spend more time in the store due to checking all food items (and higher prices) I finally gave in and started driving 20 minutes to Walmart. It was awful having to get used to a different layout and product placement but I finally got used to it. And of course, since I'm there and there's so much more to offer, I end up shopping other departments and spending more money...surprise! lol Now I just check dates on fresh/refrigerated foods to get the freshest product. I used to get so mad at (Brookshires) for trying to sell out of date food (a lot of it was WAY out of date) that I'd purposely throw it to the side so that others wouldn't pick it up or if they did maybe they'd look first wondering why it's laying on it's side or upside down with different items.

I do on highly perishable items and also on nuts because I've gotten some bad nuts lately. But I do forget to look on other items such as boxed goods.

I think it's a real problem now that stores don't have reliable help or are so short handed that the employees just don't have time to rotate the merchandise. Often times, they will just send any breathing person over and tell them to put out the merchandise. That is the way that stores operate these days. Not enough employees that are needed to do all the work that needs to be done so that the CEO can make 30 million a year! UGH!

I always check dates on fresh food. If it is something that I don't use often, like vanilla or hot sauce, I make sure it isn't going to expire in a month or two. Also if something is on mega sale, I try to check the date. It seems like stores put things on clearance just before they expire.

I think my inlaws have a secret treasure trove of expired items in their basement. Before we visit, they bring up things like five year old cereal to entertain my children. "Grandma, your cereal expired in 2011!!!"

I check over the counter medicines because I have gotten burned on those and they are expensive. I usually check meat. Not so much other stuff. And I get mad at my 13 year old because he refuses to accept that the date on the milk and oj is a purchase by date and if it smells fine, it is fine.

"Oly, most supermarkets will exchange without a receipt."

Thanks, Eld...my food coop requires a receipt and sometimes for other stores it's just not worth the drive back into town to return things. I seldom am going directly to store and back home again, so hauling things around to return (especially something that's been frozen) is just too inconvenient.

I haven't gotten outdated things at Trader Joe's, but things that were either awful ( a specialty cheese) or didn't last as long as they should (flowers) and they just cheerfully give you your money back....oh, I think I returned a bag of lemons once, too, that had spoiled way too fast. You don't even have to take the product back to TJ's...I took a pic of a sad bouquet and the empty bag from the lemons back and they had no problem with either.

I get mad at my 13 year old because he refuses to accept that the date on the milk and oj is a purchase by date and if it smells fine, it is fine.

CRL, you are right. But considering the pitfalls of the teenage years, if your teen is showing some respect for boundaries and warnings, you are to be commended on your parenting.

Exp. dates are bunk. Americans waste food due to hyper paranoia on this each day that could feed VILLAGES for months. Actually spoiled food is one thing.."dated" give me a break.

I was surprised but the outdated stuffing was definitely turned. Cooked with it once (yes happened to me twice) and nothing more wasteful than throwing good food after bad, it was not edible.

I check fresh food, especially dairy. Packaged food, no. We go through things fast enough that it rarely goes bad. And most of those dates don't mean much.

My nephew will not consume anything beyond its date, even if it was fine yesterday. He throws it out. I expect that tune to change soon when he moves out of his parents' house and is buying his own groceries!

I was a department manager in a large upscale grocery store for a few years so I always check. It really comes down to the store and department managers. My produce manager and his employees went through all of the produce constantly checking for spoiled food especially since it can make the rest of the produce spoil faster. I never had to worry when I shopped there.

Other stores do not have the same high standards, and it bothers me. I'll be honest I will not buy food past the sell by date at the grocery store, but I will use it at home if it hasn't spoiled. Expired things at the store usually mean they do not rotate or do not check dates when they face which is very lazy. A responsible manager or stocker should watch for dates and pull them to be marked down as the sell by date is approaching otherwise it just gets tossed.

I spent my childhood summers with my depression/dust bowl era grandparents so nothing went to waste there. My grandma is 93 now and asked me why her biscuits are so flat. I checked her cream of tartar and baking powder...both from the 80s.

I always check dates on fresh meat, produce, and dairy. Not so much on dry, packaged goods. I do trust my local grocer to keep fresh food on the shelves. They are good about this.

I do try to go through my own pantry and refrigerator periodically to weed out expired items though, and yes I find some that need to go.

A few times when my BIL was visiting he needed a pain relief product or Neosporin type cream. Each time whatever I offered him had expired. Whoops. Don't be such a baby, just take twice as much. It got to be running joke, so I now check to see if anything needs to be replaced before he gets here. Without him, I'd never update my medicine cabinet. Or maybe he should pack his own if he's so worried about efficacy.

The good news is that means we hardly ever need these products. I buy the smallest amount, even though it's not economical, because we never use it up before it expires.

I try to check dates, but am not religious about it. Most things don't automatically turn into compost when they hit the date :)

Pretty much always for perishable items but not so much for other things. I also now check my receipt before I leave the store after being over charged multiple times.

Yogurt is good a long time after its best before date (at least the stuff with live yogurt cultures). Cream cheese is good for about 6 months past its best before date. Milk, in my experience, tends to sour within a couple days of its best before date. It takes me at least a week to get through a gallon, so I don't want to buy something that is going to sour in two days.

I always check best before dates on milk, but not so much other stuff. If I'm buying eggs to make hard-boiled eggs (say deviled eggs for a party), I check dates for the opposite reason. Older eggs are easier to peel, and I usually don't plan ahead far enough to have a week-old dozen at home. So I scour the store shelves for the eggs closest to (or past) their best-before date.

As others have said above, read carefully because not all dates are 'expiration' dates. They may say 'Best By' or 'Best Before'.

If it says 'Use By', that can be considered an actual expiration date, tho even that's often not the case. Storage conditions are crucial.

I do check the dates on refrigerated/frozen items, but unless it's a discount store, I usually don't bother w/ dry packaged, bottled & canned goods - unless I spy dust on them. If I bought fresh or frozen bakery items, I'd check those as well.

I seem to recall a thorough discussion of this on the Cooking forum w/ good info. 99% Invisible did story about this awhile back & it was very enlightening.

http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/best-enjoyed-by/

MY Dr said...that meds can last years after the expiration :o I'm a stickler for expired medication so I'm not sure I beleive him. He said the army discovered a large quantity of expired medications, including prescriptions (their own supply) and did a quality test. I don't recall just how old it all was but it was OLD, maybe decades. He said all of it tested perfectly fine except for the Tylenol. I don't want to beleive him lol

There are a couple of medicines that are actually dangerous if you use them past expiration.

In my experience inhalers are ineffective after their expiration date so I don't chance it like I used to.

In response to the thread title: always. Even then produce items in particular often go bad well before the date on the package.

As others have said above, read carefully because not all dates are 'expiration' dates. They may say 'Best By' or 'Best Before'.

Actually, none of them are truly expiration dates, and I really wish that people would stop using that term. :-)

I recently saw this story about a guy that ate a bunch of stuff - even chicken! after it's best buy date. I would definitely draw the line at fresh or cooked meats!

I also remember seeing the story about the Army testing the out of date medications and finding that most of them were still good. The issue with medications, is that you just don't know. I certainly wouldn't take twice as much of something because it was past its date!

For the record, I was joking about upping the dose on out of date meds. I wouldn't bother to take OOD meds since you don't know if they are still effective. If I'm at the point I'm taking a medication, I want to know it will work.

I check the dates on everything, been burned too often and with just the two of us it needs to last until I'm ready to use it, I do wish I could get my hub to check them. lol I find I have to be especially careful at Kroger, if it's on sale it's possible it may be close to expiring (or maybe already expired) as I've found on occasion.

I doubt age was the problem but a week or so ago I opened a Kroger brand can of diced tomatoes that had only been in my pantry a couple weeks (all the beans and tomatoes had been on sale when I bought it), when I pulled the pop-off top I thought I'd mistakenly opened a can of something else as what I glanced at when the top came off wasn't red in the slightest.

I usually check cans for dents or other defects before putting in my cart and this one had nothing visible wrong with it but it was a botulism factory inside, furry dark green/brown tomatoes. I carefully wrapped it well and put it in the outside trash container to be sure nothing in the kitchen got contaminated, thank goodness I didn't have to use the can opener on it, that would have eeked me out (and been thrown out with it).

I try but do forget. I have also purchased items that were not out of date where they had gone bad. I don't live around the corner from where we purchase our fresh and other non bulk purchases. It is a chain grocery(not national). If I get something spoiled I call and let them know. They have told me twice to throw out the food and they will refund my money at the next trip. They do it no questions asked and with a smile. I asked my most regular checkout lady once if people take advantage of and she said she thought it was rare because customers appreciate their service.

I have also noticed they don't do price checks if something won't scan. They ask if you know what it was and will take whatever you say unless they thinks it is too high.

Another experience where I was supposed to get a free ham ( points program) they computer system was not programmed correctly and I swiped my cc before the cashier realized. I had to spend some time at customer service to get it refunded because it was busy. I was given a 25 dollar gift card for my trouble. (I wasn't complaining even in my head, it was a mistake) I was able to bless an acquaintance with card who could very much use it. They have captured the idea that I will drive a little extra and be very patient because I know they are focused on the customer.