Don’t Throw That Food Out Yet!

Nadia Arumugam wrote a very interesting piece on Slate.com about how expiration dates are often so conservative that they mean very little.

So if you ever reach into the fridge and grab some milk or yogurt a week past its expiration date, Arumugam says, it may be fine to drink or eat.

Part of the problem is that there are no uniform standards. Many expiration dates, Arumugam, says, are chosen by individual manufacturers, and sometimes they are at least somewhat arbitrary.

A much better way to determine whether a food is still good, she says, is the old-fashioned way: Look, touch and smell.

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