Save! - Depends on how much you spend on groceries and how often you get a chance to pick up quick sale items from the supermarket
The long and the short of it:
Expired foods are ok. If they aren't turning green or white with mould and other weird fungi, it's fine to eat them.
Additional or local tips!
Check out the supermarket about 30min before closing time to pick up Quick Sale items which needs to be sold by the end of the day otherwise they will get chucked. These items will normally be at 50% off.
Alternatively, come in early in the morning. These should be the two timings when items get labelled for Quick Sale.
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Now I'm a big proponent of this.
Expired or expiring foods are OK.
If they aren't turning green or white with mould and other weird fungi, it's fine to eat them.
One big big example is... sliced bread. My parents always makes sure there is a loaf of clean white Gardenia sliced bread lying in the kitchen. It's the daily breakfast food, a versatile staple. They go through a loaf about once every 4 days but if not... they toss out the remaining slices, sometimes even whole loaves even if it is perfectly edible.
Why? Because of this...
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| They throw out perfectly edible food. And YET they lecture me on starving children in Africa when I was younger! |
Hell, they've even gone one step further and toss out the bread on the day of expiration! It's not even about expired food anymore, they are tossing out expiring food because they can.
It's just too wasteful! It's like Singaporeans are too rich or something...
So what's a kid gotta do to convince the parents? Hahaha I started horrifying them by buying close to expired groceries before proceeding to cook and eat them. I've survived for about 3 yrs now having eaten some food items that are long past their expiry dates so there, it's fine.
Now there are obviously certain things that you should not eat in this manner. Namely, eggs, diary products, oils and canned foods which are bloated or have turned black when they should not. But honestly, even if these items have not gone past their expiration date, I wouldn't eat them if they have obviously turned bad. So just use your common sense. But in case you need some help to start off. Below are some examples:
- White bread that's white. No wispy fungal spores or mould is safe to eat.
- Vacuum packed preserved meats such as sausages, smoked meats and bacon. Best if frozen. Frozen goods last indefinitely.
- Canned foods such as beans. No tomatoes cos the acidity might eat through can. I've had that happen to me so don't chance it.
- Dried goods. Beans. herbs, mushrooms... Dried goods if kept properly dried will last indefinitely.
If you need more convincing, here's an article from TIME magazine that supports this. It's aptly named -
Only Suckers Abide by Food Expiration Dates.
Oh and on top of saving food, you'll save money cos near expired items in the supermarkets have to be cleared asap and will often be sold at deep discounts.
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