Cheese with a "use by" date

[calibrax]

Perhaps a silly question but...

I have a vacuum-pack block of Tesco mild cheddar in my fridge. It's been there for ages... it has a "use by" date of 25 June 2009. It's not gone mouldy, it looks fine. Surely it will be ok? I mean it's cheese, why does it even have a "use by" date?

[Steve748]

Just cut any mouldy bits off if there are any and the rest will be fine. Should be a bit stronger than usual vintage

[ayu]

If you haven't open it, you can eat it I think. If you open it, you should use all of it at once though.

Maybe pizza??

[Engineer1]

it's barely cheese to start with, so is probably fine, cheese should be good if you trim off the mould.

[SirClarke]

I don't think I've ever bothered to look at the useby date on cheese (or most other things for that matter). If you can't tell whether or not it's edible by tasting or smelling it then you should probably stick to eating microwave meals or something.

Use-by dates don't really mean anything anyway, all depends how/where it's stored, and what next to etc, and really they're just a guideline for stupid people who might otherwise eat something rotten and sue the supermarket.

[taldo]

wouldnt worry about it, i suspect the use-by is only there to cover their backside's incase of poisoning etc!

if it looks smells and taste's fine, then it is!

[bint]

My theory is that they only put use by dates there to ensure people buy more.

I.e. the numpties (and there are oodles of them) who stock up on shed loads of food and regularly just throw half of it out because "it's past the sell by date, I can't eat that, it will make me ill"

Speaking of this wasteful phenomenon, I wish I'd come up with this idea;

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8326756.stm

the featured company here;

http://www.approvedfood.co.uk/

and another here;

http://www.foodbargains.co.uk/pages/food_bargains....

[calibrax]

SirClarke said:

I don't think I've ever bothered to look at the useby date on cheese (or most other things for that matter). If you can't tell whether or not it's edible by tasting or smelling it then you should probably stick to eating microwave meals or something.

Use-by dates don't really mean anything anyway, all depends how/where it's stored, and what next to etc, and really they're just a guideline for stupid people who might otherwise eat something rotten and sue the supermarket.

Oh I agree... I usually always rely on my senses and ignore the dates. It's more a case of me expecting cheese to have a "best before" and not a "use by" date... it just struck me as a bit odd.

[Vipers]

calibrax said:

Perhaps a silly question but...

I have a vacuum-pack block of Tesco mild cheddar in my fridge. It's been there for ages... it has a "use by" date of 25 June 2009. It's not gone mouldy, it looks fine. Surely it will be ok? I mean it's cheese, why does it even have a "use by" date?

Go back to Tesco, buy a similar pack of cheddar, then take the old one in the new package back with he receipt for the new one, and tell them it smells sort of off, they probably won't argue, give you a refund no probs.

Or take the old one packaged one back with the new receipt, and tell them "Oi, this is out of date mate".

[RizzoTheRat]

SirClarke said:

I don't think I've ever bothered to look at the useby date on cheese

I always check the use by date on camembert or brie, they're usually about ripe enough to eat when they reach the use by date

[bazking69]

I'm still chomping on some cheese I bought at a market in the summer and has a use by date of 22nd September. It's gone a bit dry around the edges but is fine otherwise

Just look and smell, it will be obvious if it has gone rancid.