I bought frozen BBQ eel and the best before date says LJ349. What does this mean?

idunnololz@lemmy.world to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 285 points –
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I mean... Expiration dates are mostly a lie anyway. Just do the sniff test, probably fine.

But, on topic, I do appreciate the post since that's weird.

Expiration dates give a clear and easy way to know if something is definitely still good.

Only after the expiration date do you have the need to do the sniff

I've seen food expire before the date stated, so you should also take into account where you live and the regulatory entities that manage your food and stuff.

I'd say always do the sniff if you are worried.

Leave your beef out on the counter for a day and I assure you, the expiration date will be useless.

Expiration dates are 99/100 times a baseline for guessing if an item is safe to consume. If you’re not using your brain and actually checking, you’re gonna have a bad time.

You don't even have to leave it on the counter sometimes. I had a steak a bit ago in the freezer, thawed it, smell test, it had gone bad. Best guess is some point in the store or transit it got stored improperly and it was bad before it got to my freezer. Always check even if in the expiration date food poisoning is awful

Definitely helps some of us remember approximately how old something is.

They assume you store the food properly, obviously.

Is milk an exception? Because the moo juice always smells a little off to me. I usually have to resort to the take a small swig and pray technique to tell.

pour some in a cup then smell it, sometimes it's just the dried part by the cap that smells

It's frozen, so it's edible as long as it stays that way. It's "good" until it's too freezer burnt though.

Hard to do a sniff test on an unopened item in the store. I know that's not this exact scenario, and best by dates are iffy at best, but I'd like to have some notion of how long the product I'm about to buy has been around.

At the homebrewing store I used to frequent, I always picked through the cooler for the youngest yeast. Then they moved the cooler behind the cash registers and they clerks would just grab the one in the front. Then stupid Northern Brewer shut down all their retail stores.

Have you considered propagating your own yeast? You're pretty much already doing it when you make beer, it's super easy.

I definitely considered it but I haven't brewed in about 6 years.