Life is filled with remarkable learning experiences and to be honest, learning about something new can be very exciting, especially if it's something you truly have passion for. But, the thing with learning is that there is a lot of false information out there (or you can call them myths) which seemed very believable at first but we later found out that it's not actually true. This false information didn't just appear from nowhere, most of the time they were told to us by adults who either didn't know the truth as well or were trying to hide it for one reason or another.
I have come across tons of learning shock all through my life and I believe it's the same for everyone. From the wrong lyrics of old nursery school rhymes we confidently sang to names of foods we wrongly pronounced, there has been a lot of relearning going on over the years. Before I go on to the one that stood out the most, let me ask y'all some questions. So, how do you know a food item that is no longer safe to it? By food item, I'm referring to canned, bottled or packaged foods and drinks such as a can of Pepsi, a pack of noodles, a carton of milk, etc.
We know the ones that are still good to eat by checking the "best before" or "BB" date, right? For example, if you see a can of Pepsi with a best-before date of 02 August 2023 (last year), would you still drink it? The majority of people would throw it away because it has "expired", which is something I would have done as well back in the day. After all, that's what we were told when growing up. When I was in my 2nd year at the university, I took a course called "Food Science and Technology" and that was when the professor teaching the course shocked all of us in class that day.
He just finished talking about the whole process of canning when he said "Ladies and gentlemen, this is why you can still drink a can of Peak milk after 5 years of its expiration." The way he explained it made sense to most of us but then, when put a best-before date on products if you can still eat them after that date? I got home that day and after doing some research, I learned a lot about processed foods and drinks. So, I think the obvious thing here is that it says "best before date" and not "expiry date" on most products because they are still good to consume after that date but the product won't be on their "best quality".
Maybe there might be a slight change in taste but it's still perfectly safe to eat and won't cause any harm. I won't be going into much detail about the whole thing but if you're interested in learning more, check out that video above. So, for over 20 years, I always threw away any snack or drink I noticed had expired because I believed they were harmful but it turned out I was wrong. As long as the food or drink haven't been opened before, and if it's a can, make sure it isn't swollen, then it's still safe to eat.
One last thing I also learned during my research was that "expiry date" is mostly used for drugs, that's the one you should take serious and never consume any drugs gone past their expiry date. And just in case you're wondering if I have actually tried this, yeah, I have taken soft drinks that have come past their best before dates and I still felt fine afterwards. As long as it still makes that fizzling sound or gives bubbles when opened, then it's still good to drink. You can also do more research on all I have said, it's actually interesting to find out about these things 😁.
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