Today, my mother decided to inform me that she doesn't believe canned food can have an expiry date and that the food is still okay to eat years after the 'supposed' expiry date. She's probably been cooking my dinner with expired food for over 17 years. FML
Collection
Fall
Dead leaves, the first cold of the season and an umbrella flipped inside out: fall, the season of grace.
Today, I opened up a can of tomato soup I'd taken from my parents' house recently. After eating the whole can, I started feeling a little off, so I checked the expiration date. It expired 12 years ago. FML
Today, I threw out all the food in the freezer that my mom had been keeping since 2013. When she found out, she said, "frozen food doesn't go bad." FML
Today, I saw my mom changing the expiry date on milk. She genuinely thought this would make the milk sour later. FML
Today, I cleaned out the fridge for my mother. I didn't throw out a single thing that was less than a month past its expiration. Instead of thanks, she complained about everything that I threw away being still good, including a tub of butter that had been expired for two years. FML
Today, I found out that my boyfriend's mom doesn't believe you can get food poisoning from food that is cooked. She gave us food that had sat out all day/night and then got angry when I said we could get sick. FML
Today, a friend invited me over for dinner. She presented me with a "gourmet" homemade meal. As I started eating, I realized it tasted… off. She looked at me expectantly, so I politely ate it all. Afterwards, she told me it was a new recipe she was trying "tuna casserole" made with canned tuna… which we found out later expired in 2015. FML
Today, while tidying up my grandmother's fridge, I got to play expiration-date-bingo. The winner was some type of concentrated apple sauce supposed to be used for salad dressings. It expired in 1986. FML
Today, surprisingly, my roommate made a nice meal. Within an hour, I started throwing up. When I confronted her, she confessed that she'd used long expired ingredients, including meat, because she didn't want the garbage men to think she's "the type that wastes food." FML
Today, while my mom was out, my family agreed upon the assumption that she has a "shopping problem." I argued against it for quite a while, until she pulled up minutes later with a what seemed like a life-time supply of canned condensed milk. FML
Today, I'm worried my mother might have the early onset of senility. She started making gumbo, only to lose the plot halfway through, and then began throwing in the ingredients for chili. The result was an inedible mess, and she insisted we've had this for years. Then she tasted it, and yelled, "What the hell is this?" FML
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Top comments
adrianh1090 12
You've made it this far.
Welshite 40
Canned food is good for a long time after the expiration date. Just sayin'. Manufactures print the "best by" date, but that doesn't mean it's spoiled even months later.
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Comments (126)
tiffbwood 3
My dad feels the same way. When my daughter and I moved in with him for a little while a few years ago, I cleaned out his pantry to get rid of the many items that had been expired for years. He actually dug several items out of the trash can claiming they were still good because they were unopened. I had to just keep his groceries and mine on separate shelves and avoid eating anything he cooked.
Madrias 36
I've eaten canned food a year out of date before. Yeah, it might not taste 100% the same as a brand new can, but it didn't kill me. Heck, I can't even recall throwing up, so it must not have been too harmful. Worst thing was the can of chili a year out of date that gave me the worst farts I'd ever had.
firechicky 12
In all fairness, its canned chili. Even *fresh* canned chili can give you some vicious gas.
amisenho 11
Beans, beans, the magical fruit...
firechicky 12
The more you eat the more you toot!
kyu_Q 19
process her point though. You have not gotten food poisoning or anything
stewpididiot 11
Rule of "thumb".. No.. Not that one...(boondocks saints) ... If you can pop the lid up & down with you're thumb(or finger) it's bad prolly with botulism...
cryssycakesx3 23
"prolly"
justtheotherguy 12
"Canned food" contains dangerous preservatives which alter the human genomic sequence leading to an increased incidence of cancer, neurotic syndromes and neural pain by regular consumption. However, its use maybe few times per week is still safe. "Study at Howard medical"
onyxsmiles 4
In zombie apocalypse movies/shows that's the safest food to eat. You just have a head start for if one starts in real life :D
yerawizardlizzy 27
I don't typically eat canned food because it's not really my thing, but in general there are ways to tell if food has spoiled, the most obvious being smell. Weren't there recently some articles in the US that basically said expiration dates aren't all they are cracked up to be? Plus dates on cans can't be too strict or we wouldn't have canned food drives.
Masonjar13 10
If you're still alive, she might have a point there.
rockydify 22
I'm assuming you haven't been having frequent bouts of food poisoning. Your mom's 17 year experiment seems to indicate that her hypothesis is correct! You know that the Best Before date on SOME items is purely a marketing ploy, right?
RAUN 8
Your mom appears to be correct.