Fancy a bit of Russian Roulette?

Posted by Andrew Wadge on June 9th 2008 in Science, safety and health

Now although I’d like to think of myself as a bit of a James Bond (I can hear my wife chortling), the truth is I’m not really a gambling man. While I might be tempted to hedge my bets in the Grand National, or on the 2p penny fall machines on Brighton Pier, I’d steer well clear of playing Russian roulette with use-by dates on food.

That’s why I was particularly perturbed by Jonathan Maitland’s use by dates 'experiment' reported in the Mail on Sunday yesterday. It reminded me of the type of justification some smokers used years ago – they could always point to their Great Aunt Bess who smoked her self silly for 50 years and never had a health problem. There’s always one, but would you advocate smoking on the back of this? Fortunately, food safety policy is based on sound science rather than meaningless experiments of one subject.

Our launch of the GermWatch campaign today highlights the high number of food poisoning cases in the summer. Annual incidence of foodborne diseases appears to be on the increase and that’s why I worry that Jonathan's article might encourage some to disregard the use-by date.

Use-by dates are something you shouldn’t ignore and are set by manufacturers following detailed risk assessments to establish the likelihood of contamination and the survival of bacteria that can cause food poisoning.

Although Jonathan might have been OK eating these products, someone else could have become seriously ill. If you’re pregnant, elderly, a child or have an underlying illness getting food poisoning could be more than unpleasant, it could put your life at risk. See more information about use-by dates, and the difference between them and best before dates.

One final thought for Jonathan – listeria (a serious foodborne bacteria which can grow in the out of date houmous he ate) can take up to 70 days to cause symptoms. You’re not out of the woods yet…

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the tonight program

Posted by Jason Austin (not verified) on 07/07/2008 - 21:25

jonathan would have spent better time explaining the use by /best before system instead of putting is own dogs health at risk
atleast if dog had thrownup he would have had to clean it up, certainly there are vunerable groups out their its an education message missed by glamorised television.

Risk of toxins and cross contamination

Posted by Andrew Wadge on 30/06/2008 - 16:43

Some packed foods intended for cooking (such as poultry meat) are highly perishable and can change appearance or smell quite quickly as a result of bacterial growth, particularly if there is poor temperature control. Although it is true that thorough cooking will kill food poisoning bacteria on such foods beyond their use-by date, toxins may be present from bacteria that have grown on the food and, in some cases, these are unlikely to be destroyed by cooking. The other point is that for perishable foodstuffs the numbers of bacteria present will increase with time, particularly with poor temperature control. So older foodstuffs, such as those kept beyond the use-by date, are likely to present a greater risk of cross contamination during handling in the kitchen, even if you are intending to cook it thoroughly.

Cooking times

Posted by Hugh Hancock (not verified) on 16/06/2008 - 18:38

How do Use By dates interact with cooking times, though?

For example, to the best of my knowledge, there's no common foodborne bacterium, including listeria, Salmonella, E. Coli, Campylobacter, etc, that could survive, say, 2 hours at 80 degrees centigrade. So, assuming you took a piece of pork belly that was two days past its use-by date and cooked it for six or so hours at 80 degrees internal temperature, wouldn't it be perfectly safe?

(Obviously, not everyone has sous-vide capacity in their kitchen, which is what I'd use for this. But what about using a slow cooker, or just blasting the hell out of it in an oven?)

I think one of the reasons that people are skeptical about use-by dates is that the message seems overly simplistic. People are aware that cooking kills germs!

(Note - I'm assuming that we're talking about something that hasn't been stored anaerobically here. Obviously, Botulinum is a different kettle of rotting fish.)

The use by vs best before

Posted by Rob A (not verified) on 09/06/2008 - 11:17

The use by vs best before difference is crucial, but not one I've ever heard before. I presume that most people are not aware of the difference, and yet the consequences of ignoring the date are very different: you may die vs this is a bit bland