Food Safety Continued......

[Juggy D Beerman]

I live by myself and the condiment items in my refrigerator are all marked with the date I open them and place them in the refrigerator. Some items that are acidic such as mustard have a longer shelf life than say mayonnaise. I called the Miracle Whip people about the shelf life of their product. They advised me that they recommend that once the jar is opened, it is good for only 90 days, regardless of what the use by date stated on the jar. Some products have a best used by date on them and some list an expiration date. They are not the same descriptor. The expiration date over rides the use by date. And yes, these are conservative guidelines that can be fudged when using common sense.



Which leads me to my mistake. I assembled five pounds of twice baked potatoes using the recipe I am going to use for the side dish competition at the American Royal. The recipe calls for one stick of butter. I did not notice any irregularities to the butter when I added it to the potatoes. I spent over an hour prepping the potatoes for cooking today for the football game party I am attending today. When I placed the tray in the fridge last night, I decided to remove the last stick of butter from the box. I decided to check the use by date on the box. The date read: May 23, 2022. Guess I am bringing potato chips to the party. I am glad I read that date on that box of butter. The potatoes might be okay to eat, but I am not taking that chance of making my friends sick. Guess I need to start writing that date in big numbers on the butter box. It took me a while to find that date that was in little print, but I am glad I did.


Lager,


Juggy

 

[frayedend]

Was it wrapped, refrigerate, salted butter? I doubt you have anything to worry about. You'd probably notice a smell or color issue if it was bad.

 

[Shadowdog500]

I would not take the chance on serving the food to other people.
Is there anything else you can whip up quickly, or buy on the way?

 

[Shadowdog500]

Here is my Salsa recipe. You can make this quickly and buy some nachos. Multiply the recipe by 4 for more people and to use a whole onion and jalapeño pepper.

2 cloves of garlic

1/4 medium onion

1 teaspoon of garlic salt

4 sprigs celantro

2 medium plum tomato

juce from 1/2 lemon

1/4 jalapeno pepper

 

[Juggy D Beerman]

Jim, The salted butter was still wrapped in the original wrapper and was refrigerated the entire time.



I talked to the deli manager at the local grocery store. Although I have had food handling training and am somewhat knowledgeable in food safety, she has more training in this area than I have. She said she would have no problem eating the potatoes as long as they were heated to an internal temperature above 165F. There was a 85 year-old lady listening in on the conversation and she said she would not be afraid to eat the potatoes either.


I checked the remaining stick of unopened butter that was still in the fridge. It appears to be fine in color and I tasted a thin slice off the stick. It tasted just fine. I did sample the mix of potatoes before placing them back in their skins to see if they needed more spices and did not notice an off taste. After consulting a few of my lady friends who do a lot of baking and use butter in the cooking process, they affirmed that the potatoes should be okay to eat. I still don't feel good about serving these spuds. Some people call me paranoid about food safety, I prefer the term, overly cautious.



Lager,


Juggy

 

[Juggy D Beerman]

Shadowdog, Thanks for the salsa recipe. I will try that some other time. I also prepped a broccoli slaw that I will be submitting in the side dish contest at the AR for the vegetable category. I will at least have something to bring to the party. I am feeling in a generous mood today so here is the recipe:


Melody's Broccoli Cole Slaw:


4 Cups of chopped broccoli - tops only, no seeds or stems
2 - 12 ounce packages of broccoli slaw containing carrots and cabbage
1/2 Cup each: sliced cherry smoked bacon, sunflower seeds, golden raisins, and dried cranberries

1 - 16 oz bottle of Kraft Cole Slaw Dressing. I add one ounce of sugar to the dressing.


Mix all the ingredients and serve. I only add the entire amount of dressing to the slaw if I know in advance the majority of the slaw will be consumed that day. If this is not the case, I let the person in the serving line add their own dressing to their portion. I have found that after two days after serving slaw that has dressing on it, the slaw is not nearly as crisp as it once was. If you do allow people to add their own dressing, you may need more than one bottle of dressing in the serving line.


This recipe has done pretty good at the Royal and my friends like it too. I guess I am taking a chance with someone reading this and using the recipe at the Royal. If they do, more power to them. If this does by chance happen, please let me know you beat me with my own recipe.......


Lager,


Juggy

 

[Shadowdog500]

Thanks for the Cole slaw recipe! I’m glad everything worked out.

 

[SmokinAussie]

Some people call me paranoid about food safety, I prefer the term, overly cautious.

Lager,
Juggy

I would call you paranoid. We are talking about BUTTER! Stored the way you did, honestly it's fine. Serve it up. Such use by / expiry dates are no indication of true shelf life in any way. Eventually you might find a degradation in taste and quality of such an item, which is the only true consideration as to weather you should use something "fresh".

Serve it up. Otherwise it is a terrible waste for no good reason.

Cheers!

Bill

 

[LYU370]

I just checked some dates on things. Two packs of butter have a 10/3/22 date, but one has a 3/12/22 date, must have missed that one I guess. And I have half a stick sitting on my countertop for the last two weeks, can't beat room temperature butter, YUM! Made myself a mater, raw garlic & butter sammich, was delicious.

Mustard, ketchup & BBQ sauce never see the inside of a fridge in my house. Yellow mustard date is 2/2/21, Ketchup is 3/26/22. Stone ground mustard doesn't last long enough to get close to the date printed. Things don't magically go bad on a specific printed date. Never gotten anyone sick with my food in over 35 years, don't see that changing and don't plan on changing my ways. YMMV. Use your nose.

 

[bowhnter]

Dates don’t mean a whole lot to me except for milk!

My wife pays much more attention.

 

[Juggy D Beerman]

And now the rest of the story...........


I told the crowd at the football party why there were no twice baked potatoes that I had promised to bring. Everyone there said the potatoes should be fine to eat and they appreciated my honesty and concern for their health. Those spuds are still in the fridge and I will cook them tomorrow and sample them after cooking. If all is fine with me on Tuesday, I will serve them on Wednesday when I host cards.



I guess I won't be giving any twice baked taters to the nursing students who live across the street. I took that remaining stick of butter to their house for them to examine. It passed their smell and visual test, but all of them refused to sample a slice of butter. They all agreed that they would decline eating this batch of twice baked, but would love to have some from a new batch that contained newly purchased butter.


Okay, call me paranoid. I try to use common sense when fudging on the expiration dates, and in this case it was a "best by" date. I thought almost four months was a little excessive. The few Google searches I did were not easing my concerns. That is why I started this thread. I trust this audience more than I do the internet experts on goggle. If nothing else, you got my broccoli cole slaw recipe out of me.............



Thanks to all who replied!


Juggy

 

[IamMadMan]

Salted butter has a longer shelf-life than unsalted butter. The butter has added salt as a preservative to prevent bacterial growth. In addition to adding salt the ingredients have been pasteurized. Growing up on a farm, I can tell you that butter has a distinct smell and taste as it begins even the smallest colony of bacterial growth, (it smells like cheese).

In Europe, most artisan, handcrafted, or homemade butter, the cream is left out to develop a culture or "bloom" like yogurt to develop a bolder flavor to the product. It has a tang and nuttiness that is not found in American Butters.

You can buy the cultured butter at some artisan shops, but it could possibly cost up to $15.00 a pound. Knowing what product you are buying will keep you from getting gouged.

 

[bowhnter]

I kid about dates and milk.
That’s a good idea to write the opened date on containers.
Luckily we go through most items without having to worry about it.
In this case I doubt we would have served them either.
Just because it doesn’t make us sick with a taste test, doesn’t mean it wouldn’t someone else.
4 months past is quite a while.

 

[16Adams]

And now the rest of the story...........


I told the crowd at the football party why there were no twice baked potatoes that I had promised to bring. Everyone there said the potatoes should be fine to eat and they appreciated my honesty and concern for their health. Those spuds are still in the fridge and I will cook them tomorrow and sample them after cooking. If all is fine with me on Tuesday, I will serve them on Wednesday when I host cards.



I guess I won't be giving any twice baked taters to the nursing students who live across the street. I took that remaining stick of butter to their house for them to examine. It passed their smell and visual test, but all of them refused to sample a slice of butter. They all agreed that they would decline eating this batch of twice baked, but would love to have some from a new batch that contained newly purchased butter.


Okay, call me paranoid. I try to use common sense when fudging on the expiration dates, and in this case it was a "best by" date. I thought almost four months was a little excessive. The few Google searches I did were not easing my concerns. That is why I started this thread. I trust this audience more than I do the internet experts on goggle. If nothing else, you got my broccoli cole slaw recipe out of me.............



Thanks to all who replied!


Juggy

Risk is everywhere. Freaking everywhere. As a bonofide day in the ER food poison survivor in 2011 hooked up to fat bags, two antibiotics, cbc smac tests, poked- prodded and cognitive tests, urinary catheter measuring output and color was specifically a blast. I have really good insurance even still 2600$ out of pocket later, I am a firm believer in "when in doubt throw it out."

Just not worth it, to me. Comfort level and risk. Decisions we make every day all day about life. The gift of fear is very individual, what bothers you may be fun to me.

Food poisoning was no fun. And somewhat expensive

 

[cholloway]

There is some common sense to be used here.
Keep in mind these manufacturers want us to replace their items as much as possible.
Hence the shampoo bottle instructs us to "Wash, Rinse & Repeat".
Repeat hell... Once is enough.

 

[Juggy D Beerman]

Risk is everywhere. Freaking everywhere. As a bonofide day in the ER food poison survivor in 2011 hooked up to fat bags, two antibiotics, cbc sma tests, poked- prodded and cognitive tests, urinary catheter measuring output and color was specifically a blast. I have really good insurance even still 2600$ out of pocket later, I am a firm believer in "when in doubt throw it out."

Just not worth it, to me. Comfort level and risk. Decisions we make every day all day about life. The gift of fear is very individual, what bothers you may be fun to me.

Food poisoning was no fun. And somewhat expensive

In an earlier thread about food poisoning, I stated my bout diagnosed food poisoning was caused by chicken. It was ten years later that I finally ate chicken again whether that bird be boiled, grilled, smoked or fried. I remember telling this to my dad at a BBQ contest when I explained to him on why I always declined sampling his chicken entries. He said he understood where I was coming from as when he was in the Coast Guard, half his ship came down with food poisoning from eating a prepared product that contained rancid butter. He had that he had an aversion to butter for years.


My paranoia about food poisoning comes honestly. After my recovery from food poisoning, I began to suffer from stomach ulcers. I dealt with these ulcers for several years and I was hospitalized when they became bleeding ulcers. I changed doctors and the new doctor said my ulcers were caused by a bacteria that was eating my stomach wall. He prescribed a newly developed antibiotic that cleared things up. The doctor said the food poisoning may have been the reason I developed ulcers, but he could not be certain. Coincidentally, my ulcers also disappeared after my divorce became final.


A little more background on me being over cautious. My job vending beer at Chiefs and Royals games required me to have a food handlers certification. I have passed that test at least ten times and I could probably pass that test again without studying. To compound my paranoia, I have a degree in safety and we know what a pain safety professionals can be.


Over and out,


Juggy

 

[SmokinAussie]

Juggy,

You'll never feel safe in my house, but I can assure you, you won't die or get sick.

Cheers!

B

 

[Juggy D Beerman]

SmokinAussie, I am sure I would feel safe in your house. To be honest, I would be more worried about the traveling across the different waters to get to your house. I am a nervous Nelly when it comes to flying.

 

[pjtexas1]

There is some common sense to be used here.
Keep in mind these manufacturers want us to replace their items as much as possible.
Hence the shampoo bottle instructs us to "Wash, Rinse & Repeat".
Repeat hell... Once is enough.

Not if you have oily hair...[emoji2357]

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

 

[cholloway]

Not if you have oily hair...[emoji2357]

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

Wash longer... not again. :loco: :heh: