can someone please enlighten me about the "sell by" date on milk?

[spanky]

i guess sometime last week, i was at pathmark and saw some corn pops on sale. to me... corn pops need milk, so i went over and picked up some milk. now fast forward a week... i open the fridge and see an unopened half gallon carton of milk. some cereal sounded like a good idea, so i reach for the milk and see the sell by date is "june 24". today, sunday, is the 26th. would it be a bad idea to go ahead and consume that milk? does the "sell by" date have any correlation to safe consumption? it seems like such as waste if i were to simply chuck out the whole unopened carton.

 

[Zee]

smell it. taste it. you be the judge. the dates are just legal mathematical recommendations.

 

[Iron Woode]

Originally posted by: spanky
i guess sometime last week, i was at pathmark and saw some corn pops on sale. to me... corn pops need milk, so i went over and picked up some milk. now fast forward a week... i open the fridge and see an unopened half gallon carton of milk. some cereal sounded like a good idea, so i reach for the milk and see the sell by date is "june 24". today, sunday, is the 26th. would it be a bad idea to go ahead and consume that milk? does the "sell by" date have any correlation to safe consumption? it seems like such as waste if i were to simply chuck out the whole unopened carton.

Actually yes, the sell by date has to do with the milk going bad. The dates are usually very accurate.

 

[amdskip]

Just has to leave the store by then, could be good for a week or more after that, just depends on temps its kept at, etc.

 

[Nomada]

If you open it, it'll be fine, but you'll have to drink it within a day and a half or so.

 

[spanky]

well i downed a pint of rotten oj a few weeks back. my mom told me she just brought it home from the office like last week. when u buy oj from the store, it usually has a sell by date of pretty far off into the future, so i thought it had to be good. well i downed it and it tasted like raisins or something. i turned to my dad and was like "wtf... this taste like raisins". i look at the sell by date and its like..... two weeks over or something. i told my dad "i thought mom said she just brought it back from the office". later my mom was like "oh yeah, i just brought it back from the office, but it was there in the office fridge for a while". god dammit.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: Iron Woode

Originally posted by: spanky
i guess sometime last week, i was at pathmark and saw some corn pops on sale. to me... corn pops need milk, so i went over and picked up some milk. now fast forward a week... i open the fridge and see an unopened half gallon carton of milk. some cereal sounded like a good idea, so i reach for the milk and see the sell by date is "june 24". today, sunday, is the 26th. would it be a bad idea to go ahead and consume that milk? does the "sell by" date have any correlation to safe consumption? it seems like such as waste if i were to simply chuck out the whole unopened carton.

Actually yes, the sell by date has to do with the milk going bad. The dates are usually very accurate.

What? Maybe on your planet.

The sell by dates have NOTHING to do with when the item in question will "go bad".

It means exactly that. It is the date that the store needs to sell it by.

When exactly the food in question will go bad depends entirely on it's environment, both past and present.

We keep our fridge at 33-34ºF, and milk will last 2 weeks past the expiration date.

 

[myusername]

Originally posted by: Eli
When exactly the food in question will go bad depends entirely on it's environment, both past and present.

We keep our fridge at 33-34ºF, and milk will last 2 weeks past the expiration date.

Yup. Ate some raisin bran this morning ith milk that had a date of the 18th. Mind you I try not to do this, but I bought a gallon instead of half-gallon last time I was at the store. Smelled and tasted fine.

Edit: Oh, and this thread made me want to go get a bowl of cereal. Unfortunately, sometime in the last 12 hours, the milk has aquired a slightly sour odor.
RIP:brokenheart:

 

[kmac1914]

Also (and correct me if i'm mistaken), but isn't there nothing that legally prevents stores from theoretically changing the expiration dates on milk, anyways?

 

[tami]

maybe it's my experience, but the sell-by date has a lot to do with milk going bad. i'd keep the milk for a day or two afterwards, but if it smells bad before that time, toss it. usually, milk does go bad around the sell-by date. sometimes i'd go slightly beyond a day or two, but i'd do so with a lot of caution because i don't want bad milk.

maybe my experience is different considering i'm doing this in nyc and there are two sell-by dates: one regular one, and one "in nyc, sell by XX-XX" (which is earlier than the original sell-by date)... i'm not sure why they have to specify both dates but that has always had me wondering. is the air bad enough in the city that the milk gets bad too?

 

[Rock Hydra]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: Iron Woode

Originally posted by: spanky
i guess sometime last week, i was at pathmark and saw some corn pops on sale. to me... corn pops need milk, so i went over and picked up some milk. now fast forward a week... i open the fridge and see an unopened half gallon carton of milk. some cereal sounded like a good idea, so i reach for the milk and see the sell by date is "june 24". today, sunday, is the 26th. would it be a bad idea to go ahead and consume that milk? does the "sell by" date have any correlation to safe consumption? it seems like such as waste if i were to simply chuck out the whole unopened carton.

Actually yes, the sell by date has to do with the milk going bad. The dates are usually very accurate.

What? Maybe on your planet.

The sell by dates have NOTHING to do with when the item in question will "go bad".

It means exactly that. It is the date that the store needs to sell it by.

When exactly the food in question will go bad depends entirely on it's environment, both past and present.

We keep our fridge at 33-34ºF, and milk will last 2 weeks past the expiration date.

Yes. Same here. I also noticed that some brands of milk go bad sooner. Upstate Farms (a big supplier in NY) milk generally seems to last the longest.

 

[overclock]

this is a hilarious topic!

i have always had a thing for that date. i have even gone as far to poor the milk out at 12:01 am the day after the date on the jug.

my wife laughs at me everytime.

then i started letting it slip for one day. too lazy to drive to the store just for milk.

now i buy smith's grocery store brand milk and my current jug says:

Sell by June 26/05
Use by June 28/05

so i'd say give it two days and then down the drain.

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: spanky
well i downed a pint of rotten oj a few weeks back. my mom told me she just brought it home from the office like last week. when u buy oj from the store, it usually has a sell by date of pretty far off into the future, so i thought it had to be good. well i downed it and it tasted like raisins or something. i turned to my dad and was like "wtf... this taste like raisins". i look at the sell by date and its like..... two weeks over or something. i told my dad "i thought mom said she just brought it back from the office". later my mom was like "oh yeah, i just brought it back from the office, but it was there in the office fridge for a while". god dammit.

AHAHAHA..doofus....

 

[Mill]

Buy Organic Milk. Sure, it is much more $$ unless you live in Cali or a big producing state, but it lasts soooooooo much longer, and for someone who lives by themselves 95% of the time that is a plus. Oh, and did I mention it actually tastes like real milk? None of that BS adulterated crap -- it tastes like real milk at 1 or 2%. Best stuff ever. Refuse to by regular milk regardless of what I'm using it for.

 

[sonambulo]

those in the know buy it before it's even pasteurized.

 

[vexingv]

Originally posted by: tami
maybe my experience is different considering i'm doing this in nyc and there are two sell-by dates: one regular one, and one "in nyc, sell by XX-XX" (which is earlier than the original sell-by date)... i'm not sure why they have to specify both dates but that has always had me wondering. is the air bad enough in the city that the milk gets bad too?

yeah i never got that too. if i cross the city line/border the milk is suddenly good again? btw, i avoid buying milk from those small/ghetto delis/grocery stores since i don't think they transport/store their milk correctly (ie. unrefridgerated van/truck) and stick to the larger chain supermarkets or drugstores.

 

[alien42]

if the milk is not open then it is fine. i have tried milk several days after the 'sell by' date and as long as it was not open before that, it was fine. however i would not expect the milk to last very long after being opened.

 

[dxkj]

usually the trip from the store to your house cuts your milks life way down... cars are usually un-refrigerated, and hot when you first put the groceries in. Even if you cool it down to 70 degrees in the summer, your milk loses many days off of its shelf life while warming up in your car

 

[Reikon]

I just read about expiration dates at a food bank. It said that those dates are usually the last day the product retains its peak quality. Most foods are still safe for a decent amount of time after the expiration, but just don't taste as good.