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As a single person with no garage, I have no room for, nor no real need for a deep freezer. I would never stock my freezer to the point where foods would be gathering dust for longer than a year. Actually about 6 to 8 months is my maximum.
There are varying estimates, but I've heard that between one-third and one-half of all the food in the USA that is harvested, gets discarded before it is eaten. That seems very silly, since the amount that actually spoils and become either dangerous or distasteful to eat is probably no more than 5-10%. The rest is food that people order and leave on their plate, or processors reject because it is imperfect, or gets discarded because it is past best-buy, or gets put away as leftovers and forgotten about, or gets carelessly prepared and becomes undesirable, etc etc etc. In every one of the above cases, the food would be quickly eaten in an undeveloped country where people have a very real familiarity with the concept of hunger.
The total amount of food eaten in a huge country like Pakistan, Indonesia, or Nigeria, is probably smaller than the amount of food that Americans just throw away for the most trivial of reasons.
I have had cryovac-wrapped meats in my freezer and they generally get used within six months (poultry) and a year (beef). Any longer and regardless of how well-wrapped they are, there is some indication of freezer-burn, in which case, out it goes.
As far as every last germ being destroyed in the canning process, I once opened a can of macaroni and cheese only to find a colorful ring of green mold across the top of the contents. And it wasn't out of date. It was, however, out of my house.
If I have a can or package of something that is a few days or even weeks, past the use-by, I will use it.
How much would your groceries cost if the store had to hire staff to go through every day and read the date on every product? It's more efficient to let the customers cull the stock, even if they have to discount expired products.
Who said anything about hiring staff to go through every day and read the dates? Every few months might be sufficient to stop the problem. Anyway, they already have staff stocking the shelves--no need to hire people for something that's already being done. If the people stocking notice that they are given new stuff to put on shelves when the old stuff hasn't been sold, isn't it their job to take the expired stuff off?
And the products I'm talking about are things that are bought frequently, like spaghetti sauce and microwave popcorn, with expiration dates six months ago, which leads me to suspect they were already expired when they were put on the shelves.
The key here is that this is a change. Two years ago, we didn't find expired food all the time on the A&P shelves, and now we do.
To tell the truth, I hardly noticed, but my daughter was pretty picky about the expiration dates and kept finding them. Now where she lives all the food is expired. She adjusted!
Last edited by Mightyqueen801; 11-26-2011 at 10:40 AM..
I don't necessarily buy at full price, but I don't shop around expiration dates and manager's specials. Heck, I even use coupons at restaurants. It just seems like it's not worth my time to worry about expiration dates when food is cheap.
It's hard to determine how much I make per an hour because most of my income is in profits. I own two private preschools, a software business, and a staffing company. My income is significantly higher than if I were to take a job making $50/hr or even twice that. But that's not the point.
I, probably just like you, max out my 401k to the $49,000 max every year, have my homes and cars paid off and with the exception of a business loan for my second preschool, have all my bills paid in full. I go on 2 or 3 international vacations a year, and then I go to Florida every other weekend to golf if the weather allows it. I don't go on cruises, though. I wouldn't mind trying it out if you want to guide me in the right direction.
I'd take you on that "more cash and more free hours" bet if you really want. I don't see the purpose of it though. My point is that I figure the time can be better used calculating derivatives or discrepancies in options... or even how to employ more people.
However, to each their own; let's allow the expiration-date myth discussion to
continue.
Because it's somehow frugal to use all that electricity keeping something frozen for 11 years than it is to just buy what you need at any given time.
Something already frozen, occupying otherwise empty freezer space, actually saves electricity. It's empty spaces in a freezer that account for the most thermal exchange each time you open the lid.
I have had cryovac-wrapped meats in my freezer and they generally get used within six months (poultry) and a year (beef). Any longer and regardless of how well-wrapped they are, there is some indication of freezer-burn, in which case, out it goes.
.
Don't know if it's the case with your freezer but as far as my experiences go, it matters not how well something is wrapped, if the freezer is self-defrosting, freezer burn is going to occur after a length of time.
I will not have a self-defrosting freezer.
Don't know if it's the case with your freezer but as far as my experiences go, it matters not how well something is wrapped, if the freezer is self-defrosting, freezer burn is going to occur after a length of time.
I will not have a self-defrosting freezer.
That's a good point. Never thought of freezer burn being caused by the defrosting mechanism. Thank you.
As a single person with no garage, I have no room for, nor no real need for a deep freezer. I would never stock my freezer to the point where foods would be gathering dust for longer than a year. Actually about 6 to 8 months is my maximum.
Something is wrong with your freezer if there's dust in it ...
Sorry. Just made me giggle
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