HOW old was that bread?

[Shalom]

I better write this down while it's still fresh in my mind.

We have a small pharmacy, which had really more room than we needed for just a pharmacy, so my boss got in some food items and made a small grocery in the front, and hired a young man to run it. He's only part time, though, so when he's not at the front register, people come up to the pharmacy counter in the back of the store. Normally my boss rings the register and acts as a tech when it gets busy, but he went out for lunch or something, so I was ringing the register myself until he got back.

Among the stuff we sell is bread, rolls and so forth, which is dropped off a few times a week by a local bakery. The biggest seller is the fresh rye bread.

Today, someone came up to the counter, and the following conversation ensued:

Me: your friendly neighborhood druggist
DC: dumb customer

DC: "Hi, do you have any other bread?"

Me: "No, all we have is on that silver rack in the front. Isn't there any left?"

DC: "Yeah, but the stuff up there is all expired."

Me: thinks: (we get rye a few times a week and generally sell it out within a day or two. How'd it get expired?)

Me: "What date is on the bread?"

DC: "January 08. Some of them are even from January 06."

Me: "Well, that's not expired, it's only the thirtieth now. It's got plenty of time."

DC: "What are you talking about? It's December 09 now! We're almost in January 10!"

Me: "..." (trying to figure out what he means. Suddenly it hits me...)

Me: "That's January 08, 2010. Not January of 2008."

DC: "Are you sure?"

Me: "..."

Me: "Of course I'm sure. Believe me, if that bread was there since January of 2008, it would be so green and hairy by now you couldn't even see the bread."

DC: "Oh, OK." Pays for his groceries, including a loaf of rye bread, and leaves.

I ... can't find words sufficient to express my astonishment at this imbecility. How in the hell could we have bread sitting there for two freaking years and it still looks fresh? We don't sell dwarf bread here! [1] I've seen what happens to bread after only a couple of weeks, never mind two years. How could this guy even think that A, the bread is still intact after all that time, and B, that in two years we haven't even sold enough bread that we still have some left...?

I related all this to my boss when he came back. He asked "Was he serious?" I said "Yeah, he was serious. He really thought that bread was two years old." "Nah, couldn't be." "I'm telling you, he was." Boss finally just shook his head, laughing, and said, "Dude, you just can't make this shit up."

[1]OK, the hand-made round matso that we get around Passover time might qualify. I've eaten matzo from two or three years back that weren't any staler than they were when I bought them. But that's besides the point.

[Broomjockey]

I've had bread a few months old on the counter, and it's just dried out. I'm talking shuriken hard. I've also had bread for a year in my freezer, and it was fine after. It's possible the guy was simply silly enough to think that you kept it in the freezer (which I'm doubting you even have ) and pulled it out as needed. Not that this scenario is really any better mind you.

[LillFilly]

Oooo....I found an orange under a display table at my old grocery store once. Actually, it had been there for years; it was shrunken and grey/green and hard as a rock. Only way we knew it was an orange was because it still had the sticker on it!

[SorryIsGoodEnough]

...I need to clean out my fridge.

Food goes bad fast in my apartment.

I just threw away some gross orange thingies.

One time, I woke up a room on the first floor of the Hotel by screaming at some moldy bread that I accidentally touched. I gave them a 5% discount for it.

[Broomjockey]

Food goes bad fast in my apartment.

Strangely, food lasts extra long in my places, usually. I had milk stay good for about a month. Other assorted examples which I will not provide.

[Chromatix]

I find it varies according to two factors:

- Whether you have high or low humidity inside. This mostly depends on how well draught-proofed the place is.

- How good your fridge is. The right temperature makes a huge difference to foods that need it.

It might also depend on whether your milk is in a bottle or in a carton, and how it was processed at the dairy. I once found that the supermarket's own brand would last almost indefinitely (given the very favourable conditions in my fridge), but that a "local" brand would last only a week or so.

[csquared]

Sorry, couldn't resist...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTkR6d76J3E

[Arcade Man D]

Sorry, couldn't resist...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTkR6d76J3E

You couldn't link a full version? (bonus, it's the Cowboy Bebop AMV)

[Green_Fairy]

when i was selling cookies, i was closing one night. moved the oven to sweep/mop under it. found a ball of cookie dough that was so old it had thawed and hardened. had a few random hairs stuck to it, too. ick. i normally didn't close so i told my boss. fired the closing guy the next day. apparently he'd been coming in drunk anyway, but that's another story.

[Cazzi]

Strangely, food lasts extra long in my places, usually. I had milk stay good for about a month. Other assorted examples which I will not provide.

great money saver isn't it

Today I'm still using low fat milk that has a use by of 24th Dec on it... still tastes & smells fine

Also, vaguely remembering the days before use by dates were common, we always knew if a yogurt was off or not by whether the lid was dome shaped or not.. so I frequently eat those past the date too

Hey, not killed myself off yet

Personally, I think use by dates have done a lot to kill off common sense when it comes to telling if food is off or not

I better write this down while it's still fresh in my mind.


Me: "What date is on the bread?"

DC: "January 08. Some of them are even from January 06."

Me: "Well, that's not expired, it's only the thirtieth now. It's got plenty of time."

I remember back in the day, can't remember when but it was the late 90's, I was shopping in Sainsburys, was mid summer & hot.. probably about July/August when I heard an older gent absolutely berating one of the store assistants for having out of date tinned stock on the shelves. Can't remember what it was exactly, but it was canned.

The Gent was furious that this particular item had an april date on it & how dare the store keep 2-4 month out of date stock on the shelves! He ranted & raved while the poor assistant was trying to tell him that yes, it said April, but if he looked a bit further it would say april of 200x!

The guy just wasn't listening... think he was still berating the poor frustrated assistant 10 mins later when I was checking out

To be honest, I dont see why there is so much fuss about best before dates on cans, sure, they may not be at their utmost best after that date, but they're still edible, even after this long http://www.cancentral.com/hist_empire.cfm

[Broomjockey]

Personally, I think use by dates have done a lot to kill off common sense when it comes to telling if food is off or not

Well, the time I was trying to make mushroom soup, and wasn't paying attention, and the milk poured out chunky pretty much gave me the ability to tell if milk's off.

My personal philosophy is "if it's not chunky when it shouldn't be, not fuzzy when it shouldn't be, and not squishy when it shouldn't be, it's fine."

Yes, that means many forms of discolouration are A-okay!

[wolfie]

I remember back in the day, can't remember when but it was the late 90's, I was shopping in Sainsburys, was mid summer & hot.. probably about July/August when I heard an older gent absolutely berating one of the store assistants for having out of date tinned stock on the shelves. Can't remember what it was exactly, but it was canned.

The Gent was furious that this particular item had an april date on it & how dare the store keep 2-4 month out of date stock on the shelves! He ranted & raved while the poor assistant was trying to tell him that yes, it said April, but if he looked a bit further it would say april of 200x!

I recall seeing in a computer-related risks forum about how a grocery chain found out that their automated warehouse system wasn't Y2K compliant when one of their suppliers asked them why their orders for canned tomatoes had increased to far beyond the normal level. It turns out that this was the first item with a "best before" date in 2000, so the system's "housekeeping" function ordered the contents of bay X thrown out because it was seriously outdated, then saw that they were out of canned tomatoes and ordered more. New shipment with a "best before" date in 2000 arrived, was put in bay Y. "housekeeping" function sees contents of bay Y are seriously outdated and orders them thrown out. Lather, rinse, repeat.

[Cazzi]

My personal philosophy is "if it's not chunky when it shouldn't be, not fuzzy when it shouldn't be, and not squishy when it shouldn't be, it's fine."

Exactly

[greek_jester]

My personal philosophy is "if it's not chunky when it shouldn't be, not fuzzy when it shouldn't be, and not squishy when it shouldn't be, it's fine."

I tend to follow this too, although I will religiously follow the use-by dates on fresh poultry or seafood, simply because of a couple of nasty incidences in our family involving these items when they still looked & smelled ok a couple of days after the date, but obviously weren't from the reactions of the eaters.

[Plaidman]

I had a similar incident. Customer was looking at I think energy bars. He left saying he wouldn't buy stuff that kept such outdated product.

This was in June 08. The item was expired. In Jananray. 09.