Expiration Dates on Food – When Do You Throw It Out?

We hadn't been grocery shopping for a while and both Michele and I were tired from a long weekend last night. I asked what was for dinner and she said she wasn't hungry, so I went rummaging through the fridge to see what I could have.

There wasn't a lot to choose from. The best I could find was a dozen eggs, and I didn't want to fry or scramble them, so I thought I'd make egg salad. I grabbed the eggs and the Miracle Whip. Easy, Mayonnaise lovers. I've been a Miracle Whip person all my life and I'm not changing that.

I hadn't used the Miracle Whip in a while because I had been using mustard for sandwiches. It has a lot less calories, but you can't make a good egg salad with mustard. So I took a look at the date on the bottle.

First of all, how specific can Kraft be? March 27 at 8AM? Wow.

So now I was wondering if I should go for it or not since it was two days away. I refused to go out so I took my chances and the egg salad I made was great.

How much do you rely on the dates on packaging to decided if you use it or throw it out? Let us know in the comments below or on our Facebook page. Oh and check out this episode of Adam Ruins Everything where he explains what the difference between an expiration date at a "best if used by" date, why dates are there and how long your milk really good for.