I've found that most use by dates are there simply to get the masses to throw it away and go buy more.

It amazes me sometimes how often I see people throw milk out simply because it is one day past the expiration date. If it is properly refrigerated I have found it to last a few weeks beyond that date.

I would think vacuum packed coffee should be good for years!?

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I've found that most use by dates are there simply to get the masses to throw it away and go buy more.

It amazes me sometimes how often I see people throw milk out simply because it is one day past the expiration date. If it is properly refrigerated I have found it to last a few weeks beyond that date.

I would think vacuum packed coffee should be good for years!?

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I don't know about that, man. There's a difference between a can of soup and milk.

I just threw away about half of a gallon of milk that was 2 days past the throw away date and it was smelling a bit sour.

I mean I likely would of been fine if I drank it, but it's milk... I'd rather have some fresher, non sour smelling milk... but that's just me.

 

It's only been two years. For coffee that isn't really bad.

If course your taste buds play a big factor here. I'm sure one of those talented taste testers that work for the big coffee distributors would notice the difference. They might even be able to tell a month or two after it was out of date. Some of those professional "tongues" and "noses" are scary good. But when I was a heavy coffee drinker I liked the afternoon dregs of barracks coffee urns. No telling how bad old coffee would taste to others that I found acceptable.

Just use it up and keep using up the old stuff until you think you can make room for canned unroasted beans. Some people here swear by the fact it lasts forever until you roast it yourself.

 

i let one of my cans go about three years just to see. it was fine to me

 

Here at the house. We make large pot with our coffee maker in the morning then leave it in the pot and heat up cups of same pot in the micro-wave the next day.

We do drink the name brand ground stuff... Starbucks (burnt flavor) and Caribou. We buy it at the local bump and dent store cheap. Usually it's expired when it's for sale at that store.

 

My mother has told me that in the last year she's opened a couple big cans that are a couple years past, and she says it's been perfectly fine.
I have several containers of freeze-dried coffeee that I know are several years old, but I've read numerous people saying they've drunk very old freeze dried stuff, and been pleasantly suprised. At this point all I can do with it is hang on to it till it's really needed, and hope for the best.

 

Any of you who drink coffee might be interested in this chart:

http://www.finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?t=KC

The price of coffee on the futures market (current expiry) has risen 50 percent since November. This price *will* find its way into the price you pay on the grocery shelf; indeed, it's already started to do that.

That price has a lot higher to go.

We've been adding to our stock since November; up to 12 plastic cans. With the big price runup today, I'm going to get more yet.

 

Link won't open for me. Darn, I wanted to see that chart!

 

Also, if you have had a bad experience with "expired" coffee... doesn't mean it all is bad. I've had coffee that was only a year old taste horrible, and I've had coffee that was several years old taste just fine.

Also, my experience seems to say that flavored coffees tend to go bad sooner.

 

I ate a can of Dinty Moore stew the other day that was 2 years past Best By date. Follow the adventure here:

http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=340488

 

I buy "old" coffee all the time from salvage store, whole bean dark roast usually Starbucks or Peet's brand at 60% off retail. Saturday I got a deal on some Espresso blend 6lbs for $12.00

 

I posted about eating some soups past the date on another forum.

I ate a can of cream of mushroom soup with a 2002 date on it, and I'm still living with no ill effects. A couple weeks before that, I ate a can of cream of chicken soup from 2007, also with no ill effects. The point is, that best by and expiration dates are for the manufacturer and not necessarily the consumer. If the can isn't bulging, or seeping through, open it and observe, if it's not bubbling or totally dried out, then smell the contents. If it doesn't smell bad, then it's probably okay to eat.

I imagine the worst thing that could happen to coffee is it would go a bit stale. The coffee snobs would never percolate their coffee, it get's the water too hot for too long. Me, I like the commercial coffee machine at work. I don't drink it for its taste, I drink it for the caffeine.

 

Milk is bad when I have to chew it. Coffee is a requirement for life, I've drunk some really nasty stuff on Field Excercises back in the day but it was STILL coffee.

 

I'm currently working through my oldest supplies and just broke open a 7 year old 1-lb brick of whole bean coffee. Smelled good, grinded well, tasted fine. I have learned by testing but the "best by" does not have anything to do with contents if you store them correctly.

Again, always store and test. You need to know this will work if something happens and coffee makes the world go around.

 

Use your own brain on expiration dates. If something is frozen, dried, cured, vacuum packed, etc. then it may last alot longer than advertised. If there's no meat or dairy in it, the odds increase even more in your favor. Evidently there's little or no real regulation here. So industry has a few incentives to expire things early: avoid litigation from food poisoning & sell more product. Regardless of whether the stuff has actually gone bad or not.

 

I think I must be one of those people who can detect the slightest difference in things. And I mean slight. I know when something is off by even the tiniest bit while others can detect no difference at all. When I worked in a lab setting, I could tell by the way things looked, smelled, or acted if there was something wrong with the sample, the reagents, the process, possible contamination or if something like a gene splicing protocol didn't work. And I can also detect some color variations so slight that other people say they can't detect. One time I was in one room and was listening to a large centrifuge running in another--this thing was the size of a washing machine. It started making an oscillating noise so slight and so fast that no one else could hear it, it was very high pitched, but I insisted something was wrong with it. I went to get the CEO of the company and tell him when BOOM!, the centrifuge tube went completely through the side of the machine and was embedded in the sheet metal exterior wall, like a missile. The machine had a hole the size of a laundry basket in it, it was completely ruined.

I assume I have more sensitive senses and I know when something isn't quite up to snuff. So to speak. I couldn't detect any difference in the old coffee vs. the brick of coffee that I had just finished using.

And I agree about the milk smelling bad because it's what has dried on the threads of the milk jug. Story telling on myself--once I was super thirsty and hungry and had been working out in the heat. Came inside and thought a few nice glugs of cold milk would be delicious. I opened the jug (1/2 gal.) and without hesitation turned it up and started drinking, I was very thirsty and just started slugging it down. After the fourth slug I realized it was pretty thick. And it was putrid. Clabbered isn't the word for it. It was beyond clabber. It's a good thing I have a strong constitution. I thought for a second I might throw up, but it stayed down just fine, if a little squicky feeling in my stomach.

I really enjoy hearing about what other people have actually tried and how far past it's 'best by' date it was.

 

I like a couple of store brands, Parade and Clover Valley (Dollar General's store brand). They're about as good as more expensive coffee, and probably are a more expensive coffee just put in different containers.

Chickens will drink milk that is just starting to go a little sour. Not totally sour or spoiled, but just when it starts to get that little aftertaste that tells you not to drink it. But the chickens like it just fine and it doesn't hurt them at all. I don't believe in giving rotten, putrifying, or overly moldy food to my poultry. I don't want them to get ill.

 

Get a pig, there's NOTHING they won't eat......

 

expired canned goods...

me and one of my grandsons eat SPAM that has a BB dates of Feb 2005.
Tastes just as good as a brand new can.

 

If the dog won't drink the milk, then it is bad.

 

IMO expiration dates are just a CYA for the manufacturer.

 

I just checked--coffee up another 17 cents per pound today.

That puts it up about 72 percent since the low in November.

Guess where I'm going tonite, and what I'm purchasing?

 

After you brew your coffee, dump the grounds on some news papers, lay it in the sun, after they dry, you can use them again and it will be just as strong as the first time.

 

Outstanding tip, beats the work involved with my method of reutilization and then composting the leftover. Plus, it is a good first use of my sun table/desert rat dehydrator on my back porch.