Though we all feel guilty for doing it, most of us waste food on a weekly basis. Whether we only need half of an ingredient for a recipe, we overestimate how much we’re going to eat or we simply forget all about what’s in our fridge, it’s common to have to throw things out far too regularly.
But according to one expert, we might actually be wasting our food unnecessarily. Chef Lauren Van Liew thinks that we’re throwing things out because we panic when we see the expiration date.
Don’t take your foods’ sell-by date too seriously, says chef Liew, who says that even milk will last for 5 to 7 days after the sell-by date when it’s been properly stored in your fridge.
Apparently, you should pour the milk into a clean glass and sniffing it to see if it’s still fresh.
When it comes to eggs, chef Liew says they’re good for up to 5 weeks past the date in the packaging. A tip from us when it comes to eggs: check they’re in date by shaking an egg in your hand. You shouldn’t be able to feel the yolk hitting the eggshell – if you can, it’s out of date.
To double-check this, place an egg in a tall glass of water. If the egg sinks to the bottom, it’s still fresh. If it rises to the top and floats on the surface, it’s time to get rid of it.
Even frozen meat can last for up to 6 to 8 months, according to chef Liew, though it needs to be properly stored in the freezer.
Chef Liew demonstrated how meat frozen in June 15th still looked as fresh as if it had just been bought, and said she planned to use it to make lunch for her kids.
Though Chef Liew says you need to use fresh chicken within 2 days, she says that if you can’t do that, simply clean it, plastic wrap it, put it in a bag, write today’s date on the outside of the bag, and use it within 6 to 8 months.
Salad greens are a particularly difficult food to keep fresh – or perhaps we’ve been doing it all wrong. Chef Liew says she never keeps her salad leaves in the containers they’re sold in. Instead, she rolls them in paper towels to reduce the moisture, which is what causes the greens to go limp. She then puts them into a Ziploc bag, which she says triples their shelf life.
But are there any foods that you should always throw away past their sell-buy date no matter what? According to the Preparedness Mama blog, fresh fruit that has begun to break down is a big no. So are soft cheeses with mold – though if your hard cheese gets mold, you can simply cut that bit off.
If you have trouble deciding whether a food is spoiled or not, Sana Mujahid, Ph.D., manager of food-safety research at Consumer Reports, said that the wisest thing to do is simply “trust your taste buds and sense of smell.”
Food that’s spoiled will most likely look different to when it’s fresh. It may also have developed mold, bacteria, or yeast, which will give it a unique (and unpleasant) smell.
Would you keep your frozen meat for up to 8 months? You can check out the video with chef Liew just below.
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