Tofu OK past it's sell by date? Need advice.

[Tiny]

I'm cleaning out the fridge and I 'discovered' two containers of tofu with "sell by dates" of Nov 30 and Dec 3. ::sigh::  

I'm reading conflicting opinions about wether the tofu is still useable or not.  Some say it's only 'good' 3 to 5 days after the sell by date and others are saying up to 2 months past the date.  

I've got one brick being 'pressed' right now. It has no odor and it's not discolored in any way. My plans are to marinate and then bake it.  Am I heading down a perilous path to food poisoning/death by tofu?      (and yeah I know Tofu is yucky. I agree. Plain tofu is unpleasant tasteless stuff.   I like my tofu soaked in ginger/soy sauce goodness and then baked til golden brown.)  

 

What say the posters here who use tofu? I'm gonna give you guy's opinions a higher likely hood of 'good opinion' than the general internet on this...

[Deleted]

I throw out. $5 cost not worth getting food poisoning. It is painful and some bacteria don't get out of your system.

[Value Buy]

    tofu is like a Twinkie

There is no actual expiration date that it can't be eaten

[Deleted]

My vote is to use them if there's no off color, smell or taste.  

[Timberwolf]

I really think tofu is one of those foods that can be used well beyond the "sell by" date as long as it's in a sealed package and doesn't smell any different than usual when you open it.  I'm eating a Greek yogurt right now that has a "best by" date of 10/25/14    and it's just fine (I ate one yesterday, too).

I vote that you can eat it.

[Peace Of Mind]

Need advice.

If it says "Tofu" it should be thrown out regardless of the date on the packaging.   

[Tennesseer]

Jan 1, 2015 18:29:38 GMT -5 Peace Of Mind said:

Need advice.

If it says "Tofu" it should be thrown out regardless of the date on the packaging.   

Would anyone even eat that stuff if it was pronounced backwards?

[Peace Of Mind]

Jan 1, 2015 18:35:40 GMT -5 @tbird said:

Jan 1, 2015 18:29:38 GMT -5 Peace Of Mind said:

If it says "Tofu" it should be thrown out regardless of the date on the packaging.   

oh the veggie jokes.....they never get old?

LOL!  It might be my first time with Tofu but thank you for noticing.  And Happy New Year!  <<slides expired white globby "veggie" over to Rukh>> Would you like some Lima Beans to go with that?  

[Spellbound454]

There is a different between "best before" and "use by" dates

High protein foods have a "use by". If you use them after that date, they can cause food poisoning.

There is no good smelling.... because some of the food poisoning micro-organisms give no smell.

Best before.... have a longer shelf life and can be eaten after.


If the package of tofu is compromised in any way, it will go off within days....even in the fridge.


Personally I'd throw it out... as I don't give my family anything with a question mark.

[Tiny]

I've decided to live dangerously and am using the Tofu. I've added a 2015 goal of keeping better track of what's in my fridge/not buying so much food. I guess it's a goal as long as I survive.

[Deleted]

Jan 2, 2015 13:32:17 GMT -5 Tiny said:

I've decided to live dangerously and am using the Tofu. I've added a 2015 goal of keeping better track of what's in my fridge/not buying so much food. I guess it's a goal as long as I survive.

please come back and post hours after you've eaten so we know if you survived or not

[Deleted]

I honestly don't understand why anyone eats food that he/she is suspicious of. I go through this all the time with my husband. We will have something in the fridge for a week, and he will ask if it is still "good." If I have to wonder, I throw it out.

There is nothing that I have ever bought that is worth getting food poisoning over. NOTHING.

[Tiny]

Well, my lunch was pretty tasty - and quite abit of time has passed. I seem to still be alive. I haven't developed any Super Powers yet either. There's always tomorrow.

[Tiny]

These do not spontaneously erupt in food just because it was in the fridge for an extra week or two. It is either in there or not, however with botulism, I know it can increase in the canned food and then be a problem when it was not before canning storage. Non acidic foods are more suspect, such as green beans. so - I for one, would never home can non acetic foods.

Just an FYI - stuff in a can OR a jar is 'canned'. You can get 'botulism' from a canned jar of sauce or green beans (pickled and then 'canned' with a hot water bath OR plain and pressure canned).

For the manufactured store bought cans or jars of stuff - there's not much worry - just avoid cans with dents that might have broken the seal - so dents/crimps at the bottom/top of the can OR really big impressive dents or crimps in the middle of the cans.

With jars of stuff - if the button on the top flexes it's not sealed (or is no longer sealed.

Generally, if the person doing the home canning is using good practices and following a recipe to the T (and doing water bath or pressure canning) it's all good.


So, yeah, you could get sick from a store bought jar of sauce - but I suspect you're more likely to get hit by lightning and you are a home body and not a Super Soccer Mom spending lots of time on the side lines of playing fields).

[Spellbound454]

These do not spontaneously erupt in food just because it was in the fridge for an extra week or two.

Food poisoning bacteria need, air, food, warmth and water to start multiplying
Putting it in the fridge doesn't stop it happening.....it just slows it down.

Its not the presence of the microbes itself.....its the presence of them in numbers which will give you food poisoning (about a pin-heads worth, is enough)

Some high protein foods such as prawns, chicken, and cream go off very quickly.... and at room temperature the bacteria can double in amount every couple of hours.
Some of the microbes give off a smell and some don't.

Most of the food poisoning, on this side of the pond.. is campylobacter....from under-cooked chicken.
Doesn't mean you can't eat chicken because heat will destroy it....it just has to be cooked though.... taken off the bone to eat the next day,
and stored/handled properly.

A bit of food hygiene knowledge, is so simple......and it can prevent families getting a nasty illness.

[Spellbound454]

You can get E Coli from hamburgers which aren't cooked in the middle......animals can also carry it (a friend of mines child lost a kidney to this)
Listeria can be in soft cheeses....ie camembert or brie....and pate
Salmonella...chicken eggs poultry.....not cooked properly...terrapins also carry it.
Campylobacter...chickens, birds beaks.. animals, soil, dirty water.
Botulism is rare....its a spore which on occasion can get into the food chain. Its has toxins which can be fatal.
Rice also can cause food poisoning.... because it can grow a fungus within a few hours of cooking.
Dish cloths and T Towels can also harbour bacteria and need to be washed and dried frequently.

...and the kitchen and hands need to be clean....and keep pets off the work surfaces

[Tiny]

I was off googling food mold and illness... It sounds like what would make me sick with my past it's 'use by date' tofu  would be a mold of some sort versus the things Spellbound outlined.

For the record I did toss out the older of the 2 bricks. There's no way I'm eating that much tofu in a timely manner - It would just get older and older.

[milee]

Jan 3, 2015 13:23:48 GMT -5 Spellbound454 said:

Totally agree. But you must live in a very different part of England than all my English in-laws do because their ideas of "food hygiene" are interesting to say the least.  Granted, their homes have a much colder average room temperature than we have here and they have a lot less fridge space with their tiny fridges, but I'm always shocked at what is stored on the kitchen counter or on a shelf.... meats, eggs, butter.  And all the summer English weddings with all the cream based dishes and things sitting out for hours seem like an attempt to kill off entire families at once. 

The aggressively disgusting public loos with their bar of grimy hand soap and single moldering community hand towel don't help matters, either.

I used to joke that our trips to England were as likely to give us a mystery illness as the trips to Africa.

[Spellbound454]

That's a bit uncalled for milee.
You make it sound like England is some sort of unsophisticated backwater.... It isn't.

Food hygiene is taught in School. There is an inspectorate and all food handlers and venues have to be licenced and inspected.
Food poisoning is notifiable... and an outbreak will be investigated by environmental health officers to trace the source.

Sounds like you have a chip on your shoulder....(prejudice)....

[imanangel]

Many parts of Europe leave things out on the counter.  When you go to the grocery stores, eggs are not in coolers.  It is because the eggs are fresh here.  The protective coating is not washed off them like it is in the states.  We have been eating the eggs for almost 3 years and never once got sick.  

We store butter out on the counter, and always have.  It isn't something we picked up from living in Europe, it was something that our grandparents did, our parents did...etc.  Maybe some people find that gross.  I do not.  We do not store any meats on the counter.  

  

[marvholly]

"and at room temperature the bacteria can double in amount every couple of hours"

As a migrobiologist let me tell you bacteria (and viruses) can and DO double about every 20 minutes. Studies have been done particularly using E. coli.

[milee]

Jan 4, 2015 4:25:34 GMT -5 Spellbound454 said:

That's a bit uncalled for milee.
You make it sound like England is some sort of unsophisticated backwater.... It isn't.

No, it isn't an unsophisticated backwater and that's why I've always found the unsanitary conditions to be odd.  And as in America, practices probably vary widely not only by region but with individuals as well. 

As for prejudice... My MIL is a very traditional Englishwoman.  Never learned to drive a car, horrified that two of her sons married non-English heathens.  For a while, a favorite topic of conversation was about how tacky Americans were ("oh, but not YOU dear") and she'd regularly talk with great longing about the proper Englishwoman that she kept hoping DH would marry.  But then I got lucky and one of DH's brothers married... wait for it... a Greek/Italian girl [CLUTCH YOUR PEARLS NOW!!!!]  MIL is even more horrified by her than me since that heathen's genes are responsible for her grandchild's "horrid dark hair".  The funniest part is that many of these talks about the ignorance of foreigners were given while she was clearing up after dinner by putting the ham or quiche on the kitchen counter or in an unrefrigerated kitchen cabinet.  

[milee]

Jan 4, 2015 5:14:02 GMT -5 imanangel said:

We store butter out on the counter 
  

I've always lived in places where it's hot, so butter left out would not only attract bugs (keeping a clean kitchen with no food out is one of the best ways to deter bugs) but would be partially melted. I wish we could leave butter out because it's so much nicer to be able to spread it on things. No idea on how quickly it goes rancid, so maybe it's more shelf stable since it's got such a high fat content. We just don't have the option here, unfortunately. Heck, even in winter the tap water here is warmer than 70 degrees.

[Spellbound454]

I don't think a few ill-received, mother-in-law anecdotes is enough to condemn a Nation with.... though milee
and you have got a strange idea of what a "traditional" English woman is.

But hey, if you don't like MIL, then go for it.

Meat goes in the fridge, covered and at the bottom, (So it doesn't drip) if uncooked.
Eggs aren't sold in the cooler but people do usually keep them in the fridge. (Its only using uncooked eggs for mayonnaise or ice cream that can be a problem)
Butter is kept in a butter dish....left out of the fridge to soften... used, then put back.

I do have a small fridge... but we just have in it what we are eating. There isn't anything lurking at the back.
Plus I regularly put the shelves and compartments in the dishwasher... so its nice and clean.

let me tell you

I've taught food hygiene....not now but in the past.
If you have anything to add, you are more than welcome.

[milee]

Jan 4, 2015 9:52:10 GMT -5 Spellbound454 said:

I don't think a few ill-received, mother-in-law anecdotes is enough to condemn a Nation with.... though milee

I didn't condemn a nation.  Just told some stories about my experiences with my in-laws and the events around that.  But maybe you're sensitive about this for some reason.  It is a little funny that you'd assume that simply because a certain concept was taught at a (or even more than one) school, that 100% of the population follows those guidelines.  

And I have no idea who you're quoting with the "let me tell you" thing, but that's not from anything I wrote here. 

[Deleted]

Actually, I grew up (in the hot, humid south) with margarine being kept out of the refrigerator all day. That's probably because it is vegetable oil. Back then, there weren't spreadable versions. I'm not sure if it was put back at the end of the day.

What I called "food poisoning" probably isn't technically that. It is a gastro-intestinal "upset." Some of us have more sensitive stomachs. Maybe something ferments or whatever.

I'm just suspicious of food that has sat in my refrigerator for more than a week. I'll take a second look at fresh stuff that was in the crisper, but it's probably past its prime.  Cooked stuff . . . I'll pass.  Of course, I don't throw out opened jars of mayo, etc.

I did read that cake mixes, etc. can develop mold spores that can be life-threatening to those with weakened immune systems.  You can check that out at Snopes.com.  However, I lived life on the edge today and made Belgian waffles from a mix that was "best used" by July 2014.  I threw the rest out, though.  We usually only make them when my sister is here, and she won't be back until June 2015.

[Tiny]

Even with a 'clean' fridge you've got various mold spores floating around... mold spores are pretty much every where.

It's best not to think too much about the bacteria, viruses, mold spores and what not that are encountered every day... really, it's kinda gross... or if you're like me you might start anthropomorphizing them and then feel the need to give the gazillions of them names. LOL! Go google Giant Plush Microbes... they are sooo cute!! I can't figure out how to post of picture of them. Think Geek has them.

[marvholly]

Voice of actual tofu experience here:

I made a tofu veggie stir fry last evening. Tofu was dated 12/5/14. Yesterday was 1/5/15 so expired 1 month.
Tasted fine. No gastto issues. Texture was a bit off but that was prob because it froze.

[Sam_2.0]

I actually JUST read an article about Brits leaving eggs out. It had to do with 1) not rinsing the eggs, and 2) vaccinating their chickens to prevent infection/contamination in the first place.

My mom leaves our butter out and it drives me batty. She does the same at her house too. I know it's easier to spread that way but I HATE anything being left out on the counters. Our fridge looks like some college kids live here - beer, wine, condiments and some deli items. We very rarely have leftovers, and most of them are eaten the next day by me or DD for lunch. Now the freezer is another story.

[Bob Ross]

You know that in the time that it's taken you to post here, the tofu has evolved into a higher life form.

Translation:  just eat the f*&kin' tofu.