When Things Go Bad

Navigating Expiring Items in your Fridge

The last Q&A someone asked for a post covering expiring items in your refrigerator and how to navigate.

With the advent of the industrial revolution plus advancements in technology and efficiency there has never been a safer time to consume food.

Despite what you see on twitter, the sky isn’t falling and many technologies and packaging techniques have allowed the human race to scale and deliver food across the globe in, mostly, a safe and effective manner.

For some reason tho, it seems that people have never been more paranoid about food safety.

Your Fridge should not look like this 😑

Go take a stroll on the interwebs in FB groups, twitter threads and even the click-baity TikTok universe… whenever people ask “should I throw this [insert refrigerator item] out” peoples’ first reaction is “throw it away!”/

Spending time in really good kitchens taught me precise and efficient walk-in (aka fridge) management. Waste in restaurant kitchens is a big deal. The margins are just so low that if you start having waste and ingredients not being properly then your profits can literally go in the trash and the restaurant closes.

This is also the best way how to force ‘creative meal making’… “I need to use X & Y tomorrow that are in the fridge”. You don’t have a choice, now you just have to make it taste good.

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Organization:

This is the single-most important factor in avoiding waste and spoilage in your refrigerator. I still enjoy looking in peoples’ refrigerators when I go to frens houses or cooking dinner parties. It’s not a judgment thing. You can just tell a lot about people by how they organize and keep their fridge.

It’s surprising how much food can “hide” in these coldboxes that live in our kitchens.

They really aren’t that big but somehow a straw lemon falls behind a drawer, a bag of parsley gets buried under the broccoli crowns, and a stray jar of chutney gets pushed to the back wall and forgotten about.

The best way to counter this is to do a quick check (weekly) when you have done your grocery shopping. Just take 1-2 mins and quickly look through your coldbox before loading your new ingredients in. This will also help you finding things ingredients that need to be used sooner rather than later.

In addition, having set “zones” and areas of your fridge where certain categories live: dairy, fruits, veg, lunch meats, cheese… and have certain shelves for specific categories. (This will vary depending on what your diet consists of but just setup a system and stick with it as long as it’s efficient for you).

You should be able to open your fridge and know the exact location of what you’re looking for.

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Expirations:

Ok, so the above will help avoid waste and spoilage but what if you find something that is borderline?

This is where people can get paranoid.

First, a caveat:

I am not in any way suggesting you should ingest rotting or spoiled food.

What I have seen over the years is that people are increasingly paranoid and are likely throwing out food that is perfectly good and still tasty.

Sniff Test:

This is my default test. Crack the jar open and give it a smell. Most jarred condiments, sauces etc have either high vinegar, salt and sugar contents that many of these I would call “indestructible”

Salt, vinegar and sugar are all natural preservatives. Pickles, jams, jellies,mustard, salted shrimp… all examples of items that are mostly destructible. If they smell normal you’re probably good to go. That BBQ sauce that got forgotten about in the back shelf 8 months ago? Should be fine.

The sniff test is especially important for chicken and pork. You’ll know immediately if your product is still good for cooking or needs to be disposed of… you’ll know… immediately.

Visuals:

If you have a jar that is bubbling, the contents are probably fermenting. This is a harmless reaction where beneficial and healthy bacteria are eating the natural sugars present and expelling CO2. The contents will be more sour. If that’s ok with you then go for it. If not desirable, discard.

Mold is another issue during spoilage. There’s an old rule that white-surface mold is harmless; just remove the layer and discard. Most people freak out at the sight of any mold. I’ve never experienced illness after removing surface mold.

Fruits and vegetables can often be rinsed or the effected area cut off without wasting the whole item.

You will sometimes see other colored molds like greens etc. Many people say any green molds are automatic “no-go’s” but my years of making charcuterie proved this wrong. As for at home, if you see any greens feel free to discard. Many times the products with green mold will also smell funky so the sniff test above would have disqualified that item anyway.

Use By vs Sell By

When reading labels don’t confuse these. Use by is a pre-determined time assigned by the maker and FDA. This is primarily for CYA. No one wants to be sued so most of these are somewhat arbitrary time frames erring on the conservative time-frames. I’ve found chili oils in Asian markets past the “use by” that were still delicious and tasty.

Sell-by is what you’ll see mostly proteins and dairy. Doesn’t make sense to purchase a “sell by” that has already passed. Find a different one at the grocery store.

These are just a few ways to avoid waste and navigate the sea of jars, fruits and vegetables in your icebox.

Feel free to share any stories in the comments or tips that have worked for you.

Until next time!