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Post by myshelly on Oct 17, 2022 15:45:20 GMT
Do you donate expired food?
I recently led a group of kids volunteering at a food bank and was a little shocked at the food bank’s guideline for expired food. I had always heard not to donate expired food, but I guess I should rethink that.
The food bank keeps cheese 6 months past expiration. Bread and produce are kept unless there is visible mold, regardless of expiration. Dairy milk and yogurt 2 weeks after expiration. Dry groceries like cereal, boxes foods, canned goods 2 years after expiration (only getting rid of dented cans if they are dented in such a way that the metal makes a sharp point that could cut someone), spices and baking goods indefinitely.
I know lots of goods are fine past their expiration date and our society wastes tons of food. Some of their guidelines just seemed extreme to me.
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Post by disneypal on Oct 17, 2022 15:50:54 GMT
I don't donate expired food to a food bank, but I can see why they keep food past their expiration dates.
Canned food, especially, is good well past their suggested expiration dates. Many boxed foods are also good way past their expiration dates. Dairy on the other hand, 2 weeks seems a bit long to keep it to me...cheese may keep longer, but milk and yogurt don't last too long after their expiration dates.
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Post by allison1954 on Oct 17, 2022 15:52:39 GMT
Our food pantry keeps canned food 6 months past expiration. Baking mixes etc also. They are fine.
Cheese and Dairy we check for freshness but easily a week past date.
Breads when moldy are tossed, but not before. Even if dry it can be used for toast, stuffing, bread puddings, etc.
Produce is kept until moldy or close.
Even if not firm, it can be used in sauces, soups, pies, breads etc.
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Post by compeateropeator on Oct 17, 2022 15:57:46 GMT
I believe ours say that donations need to have a date at least 30 days before the expiration date and they sometimes hold them for 6 months. I do not donate expired food although I know a lot of it is fine and I will use it a bit past the expiration date for myself.
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Post by **GypsyGirl** on Oct 17, 2022 16:00:29 GMT
A few years ago I was part of a group that volunteered with the local food bank for a day. The guidelines then were 6 months past expiration date for food in glass/plastic jars and 1 year for canned foods. Not sure what their current guidelines are though. The FDA is currently seeking to clarify the use of "Best By" and "Use By" dates on food. Those dates are currently set by the manufacturers and tend to be subjective (With the exception of infant formula). We do as a country waste a lot of food by tossing things based on expiration dates alone.
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amom23
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Post by amom23 on Oct 17, 2022 16:19:18 GMT
I would never do that.
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tracylynn
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Post by tracylynn on Oct 17, 2022 16:26:17 GMT
I will eat canned/jarred food well past expiration as long as it doesn't seem ruined, vessels are in tact, etc.
Same with baking goods.
Dairy until it either is moldy or smells bad (milk, yogurt, etc).
I would never donate expired food though.
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oh yvonne
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Jun 26, 2014 0:45:23 GMT
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Post by oh yvonne on Oct 17, 2022 16:31:07 GMT
A few years ago I was part of a group that volunteered with the local food bank for a day. The guidelines then were 6 months past expiration date for food in glass/plastic jars and 1 year for canned foods. Not sure what their current guidelines are though. The FDA is currently seeking to clarify the use of "Best By" and "Use By" dates on food. Those dates are currently set by the manufacturers and tend to be subjective (With the exception of infant formula). We do as a country waste a lot of food by tossing things based on expiration dates alone. this! my family freaks out at me over every date listed. Salad dressing is not bad after a week of the date stamped. My DD acts as if I'm poisoning her by insisting she finish a box of cereal past the freshness date. I swear they'll talk about me after I'm dead about how I tried to kill them all with expired food, lol. oh and I don't donate expired food. I usually buy new stuff at the store for my donations, I rarely raid my own pantry. |
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Post by papersilly on Oct 17, 2022 16:49:16 GMT
i don't donate expired food but if they want to keep food past the expiration date, then that's on them. many people say that canned food can be good for a certain time after expiration. maybe they believe that too.
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Post by **GypsyGirl** on Oct 17, 2022 17:07:41 GMT
My DD acts as if I'm poisoning her by insisting she finish a box of cereal past the freshness date. Start decanting your cereals into Oxo containers. The cereal will stay fresher and she'll have no clue what the expiration date is!  |
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Post by katlady on Oct 17, 2022 17:25:49 GMT
I don’t donate expires food.
Question about the bread. How do you know it is moldy unless you open it and check inside? Not all mold shows up on the crust.
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Post by bc2ca on Oct 17, 2022 17:28:02 GMT
The food bank keeps cheese 6 months past expiration. Bread and produce are kept unless there is visible mold, regardless of expiration. Dairy milk and yogurt 2 weeks after expiration. Dry groceries like cereal, boxes foods, canned goods 2 years after expiration (only getting rid of dented cans if they are dented in such a way that the metal makes a sharp point that could cut someone), spices and baking goods indefinitely. Given that the food bank is turning over these products quickly, I'm not really surprised at any of these guidelines. These are pretty much our household guidelines for bread, produce, dairy, spices and baking goods and our canned/box item pantry is pretty light. Expiry dates always make me think of an arctic mining camp where supplies were shipped in once a year in the 6 week ice-free window. No one had a problem drinking months old soda/pop until they started putting expiry dates on individual cans.  ETA with things like bread, we used to buy 8 loaves at a time and freeze them. I could see donating something like that if you were eliminating bread from your diet and all would have expired used by dates. |
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Post by CardBoxer on Oct 17, 2022 17:28:46 GMT
We donate food to A Simple Gesture, and they bring it to several food pantries. Expired food or even food at or past the best buy dates aren’t accepted. A Simple Gesture is in a bunch of locations in the U.S. It’s so easy; you just fill a “cool green bag”—though since the pandemic it’s been two bags—with food and other items every other month, put the bags outside the door and a volunteer picks them up. They provide a list of the most needed items. asimplegesturegso.org/national/ |
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Post by myshelly on Oct 17, 2022 17:40:07 GMT
I don’t donate expires food. Question about the bread. How do you know it is moldy unless you open it and check inside? Not all mold shows up on the crust. I guess we didn’t know for sure. You just do a quick visual inspection of the bread. You aren’t supposed to open it, so you’re just judging from the outside. |
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Post by snugglebutter on Oct 17, 2022 17:58:36 GMT
I don't donate expired food as a general rule. I think the main food pantry in our community has that as a rule. If I did have something expired to give away I would post it on Buy Nothing.
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pilcas
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Post by pilcas on Oct 17, 2022 18:24:30 GMT
I wouldn’t donate expired food but have no qualms in eating expired food at home as long as it looks to be fine.
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Post by allison1954 on Oct 17, 2022 18:44:15 GMT
Many small food pantries recieve items from grocery stores.
We picked up 3 times a week from Jewel, Whole Foods, etc.
We got produce, pastries, et past its peak.But perfectly fine.
Also, when I worked at CVS, we purged shelves of items less than 2 weeks from their Best Buy date and marked them out. I then got me store manager to donate them to the food pantry instead of destroying. Not expired, just close to.
Very useful still to many people.
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Post by melanell on Oct 17, 2022 19:54:48 GMT
I never donate expired food. It wouldn't occur to me to do so, and even if I was interested in doing so, whenever I see guidelines about donating food, that's always one of the reminders---to make sure nothing is expired.
I don't have an issue with them keeping food past its expiration date and offering it if people are willing to take it, though. As you said, may foods are good past their stamped dates and these days, perhaps places are receiving less donations and feeling the need to do anything possible to stretch out what they are given.
I imagine if they take recently expired items from stores they could hand it out over a certain amount of time and still have it be perfectly safe (and probably without it really tasting much different, either).
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RosieKat
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Post by RosieKat on Oct 17, 2022 19:57:13 GMT
Check on the rules of the specific pantry. Some will accept them, typically the larger ones with more turnover. Some will not accept them, or will have to throw them away when they see the date has passed, such as the small one I work with.
As to the question of do I donate expired food - no, I do not, although I will eat it without a qualm if it's relatively recent or something that essentially doesn't go bad like rice or pasta. I try not to keep too much stock on hand so that this doesn't happen too often. If it does, it's usually because it was all I could do to keep <insert product name> on hand for weeks, until everyone spontaneously decided one day that they had had enough and wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.
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Post by lucyg on Oct 17, 2022 21:10:11 GMT
i don't donate expired food but if they want to keep food past the expiration date, then that's on them. many people say that canned food can be good for a certain time after expiration. maybe they believe that too. Canned food is good for years. That’s the whole point of canning … to preserve it indefinitely. What you refer to as an expiration date is generally a Best By date. And that date is a marketing tool, not an indication that there’s anything wrong past that date. You have been conned if you believe canned food isn’t safe to eat after the date on the can. |
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Post by flanz on Oct 17, 2022 21:12:26 GMT
From Santa Barbara Food Bank website:
We cannot distribute cans without labels.
We cannot accept home-canned goods.
We cannot distribute opened products.
We do not accept candy and soda.The
Foodbank is committed to distributing healthy,
nutritiousfood.
Please donate retailsized items.
Foods must be in original packaging.
We cannot accept pet food.
Please do not donate products with expiration
dates that have expired.The Foodbank has to
check every item and then discard those that
can not be distributed
This has always been the case here.
I do give slightly past their best before date canned goods to a group of Poor Clair (sp?) nuns via a friend of mine.
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Post by papersilly on Oct 17, 2022 21:36:47 GMT
i don't donate expired food but if they want to keep food past the expiration date, then that's on them. many people say that canned food can be good for a certain time after expiration. maybe they believe that too. Canned food is good for years. That’s the whole point of canning … to preserve it indefinitely. What you refer to as an expiration date is generally a Best By date. And that date is a marketing tool, not an indication that there’s anything wrong past that date. You have been conned if you believe canned food isn’t safe to eat after the date on the can.dh can attest to the fact that i feed him "expired" canned food all the time. i think the best buy date is a marketing ploy too and that is why i will test the canned food theory all the time. if it's not smelly, bulgy, or rusted, i will give it a go. believe me, in a post apocalyptic world, those 5-10 year old cans i find along the dusty roads will be pretty tasty right about then. but just to be on the safe side, i don't feed the expired stuff to house guests. |
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Post by lucyg on Oct 17, 2022 21:47:15 GMT
Canned food is good for years. That’s the whole point of canning … to preserve it indefinitely. What you refer to as an expiration date is generally a Best By date. And that date is a marketing tool, not an indication that there’s anything wrong past that date. You have been conned if you believe canned food isn’t safe to eat after the date on the can.dh can attest to the fact that i feed him "expired" canned food all the time. i think the best buy date is a marketing ploy too and that is why i will test the canned food theory all the time. if it's not smelly, bulgy, or rusted, i will give it a go. believe me, in a post apocalyptic world, those 5-10 year old cans i find along the dusty roads will be pretty tasty right about then. but just to be on the safe side, i don't feed the expired stuff to house guests. Good, I’m relieved … you always seemed to have good sense.  I must have misread your post, so I apologize profusely. |
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Post by lucyg on Oct 17, 2022 21:52:42 GMT
And I got sidetracked before and forgot to say, our food bank won’t take “expired” food. I used to put it on Freecycle and it would get snapped up.
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Post by papersilly on Oct 17, 2022 21:52:42 GMT
dh can attest to the fact that i feed him "expired" canned food all the time. i think the best buy date is a marketing ploy too and that is why i will test the canned food theory all the time. if it's not smelly, bulgy, or rusted, i will give it a go. believe me, in a post apocalyptic world, those 5-10 year old cans i find along the dusty roads will be pretty tasty right about then. but just to be on the safe side, i don't feed the expired stuff to house guests. Good, I’m relieved … you always seemed to have good sense. I must have misread your post, so I apologize profusely. lol. no worries. i just don't like to go around advertising that i feed DH expired stuff. i may miss a bulgy can someday and someone will try to establish history and intent with one too many expired-food comments i made on 2 peas. remember, someone posted on another thread that accounts can be deleted but posts stay around forever.  |
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snyder
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Post by snyder on Oct 17, 2022 22:01:50 GMT
I participated in a team building exercise where we went to our food bank and our task was to go through the boxes and discard all expired items.
I would never donate an expired item. I know many are fine to eat, but to me it feels like I'm giving something less to those that have less. Kind of like they are beneath me, so no way would I even think of it.
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maryannscraps
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Post by maryannscraps on Oct 17, 2022 23:22:04 GMT
Our local health department doesn’t allow the local food pantry to accept expired foods.
I usually donate money to them.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Oct 18, 2022 0:17:24 GMT
I don’t donate anything past the date stamped on it. Most of the time we prefer to donate cash because they can get so much more for that money by buying in bulk than I can buying at the grocery store.
We personally use stuff past the best by date all the time at our house. If it looks okay and smells okay and doesn’t look funky we’re game within reason, especially if it was never opened. Now my MIL on the other hand used to serve us stuff that didn’t look or smell right, or would put out opened bottles of salad dressing, etc. that had a best by date on it from multiple years prior. Yeah, no. I will draw the line there. 😬 🥴
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I must have misread your post, so I apologize profusely.
