Canned stuff stays good long past its date. I don't think I'd ever buy any perishable past its date though, unless it was within a few days. I had a bad experience with what should've been milk, but it more closely resembled large curd cottage cheese and baby puke.

Hey kids, we're eatin' dinner tonight!

c'mon tiffany, heather, cody, dylan, dermott, jordan, taylor, britney, wesley, rumor scout, cassidy, zoe, chloe, max, hunter, kendall, caitlin, noah, sasha, morgan, keira, ian, lauren, qbert, phil ...

Grocery Outlet has been doing this for nearly 30 years, also handling food dispersal on failed chains and markets.

Some of the best deals came out when the first embargo on Iraq occurred, and tons of commonly recognized foods, labelled in Arabic, sold for 30 or 40 cents on the dollar.

Other deals are foods that are embargoed/refused by another nation, or Canada (which, for some reason, has more sodium in their foods than the otherwise exact same US counterpart food).

And then, of course, there is always Dollar Tree...

@HPCommando: Grocery Ouitlet is my hero sometimes. $30 can get me enough for 5 full suppers, snacks for a month, and other stuff. And they stock Cheemo perogies which I missed so dearly from Canada.

Freegans are generally vegans (second part of the made up word) and do not enjoy cheese. Even free cheese.

Don't items nearing or past expiration eventually end up in food pantrys or food donations and distribution centers anyway? Seems like this is one last step before someone receiving a handout. I think this is a good thing for most families struggling to make it, even with food stamps. Food prices are so outrageously high making it difficult to stretch food stamps as far as they used to be able to go.

when i buy perishable stuff i always go for the one with the farthest away expiration date... so if im gonna buy milk or juice i look at all the brands to find the ones with the farthest away dates...

i think its better value...i have spotted milk thats a week away from expiring, and people just blindly grab it and put it in there carts because its .30$ cheaper for the gallon...

@Ratty: lol i just bought a box of those perogies last night...

btw corn pops from canada also kick allot of ass...US corn pops are weird...

For the most part, canned goods are good long, long past their expiration date - but by the time that date comes, it's probably been on the shelf for a year and a half...most people eat canned goods long before the expiration date. I'm not sure I'd want to eat something that's been sitting on the shelf for two years.

@Cat_In_A_Hat: food bank in my town won't take expired or past best by date non perishables.

Certain things can be eaten like packaged snacks if they are not within expiration but I would stay away from any dairy products or meat that is close to spoiling and other perishables of course. A case of food poisoning will cost you a lot more in the long run than the few extra cents it costs to get a fresh gallon of milk or fresh yogurt.

@urbanturban666: since i drink a lot of milk, i look for the one three days from expiring because my grocery store drops it down to $1 a gallon. if i didn't drink a lot of milk, then i wouldn't.

@catastrophegirl: My Dad has worked in the grocery business for years. Most of this stuff ends up in the dumpster.

I keep hearing about these grocery auctions in the news, but the articles never tell you how to find them. Googling for grocery auctions in my area doesn't return anything relevant.

@BeerManMike:
"Qbert"? lol

I guess the point is that people might not think that their kids are a large part of how broke they are? Especially when they've been treating a uterus like a puppy mill?

@pecan 3.14159265: I ate a can of expired pineapple once... yeah, never again.

@catastrophegirl: my local store rarely has markdowns on staples like milk and eggs...and they are very lazy with the date checking...thats what got me into the habit of looking at all the dates (after i bought something that was past its bb)...i like stuff to be as fresh as possible, so the best before date is a good indication of what is the most fresh...

@mrsultana: Actually its from a Simpsons episode where Marge forgot to print "limit on per customer" on a free pretzel coupon.

Never heard of a grocery auction.

Yogurt is already converted. It won't go bad until well past its date. Canned goods? No problem. Cheese (real cheese)? No problem. I'd buy 'em. My Doritos are probably already stale, since I don't really use a lot of them and only buy them on sale.

@huadpe: Freegans are generally disgusting regardless of what they eat.

I found soy "cheese" in the dumpster.

I'm not a vegan.

It was delicious.

@Outrun1986: Meat that's about to "expire" (ie: on the day of or day before the sell by date) is fine, as long as you cook it or freeze it before the sell by date ends. I do it all the time.

@Cat_In_A_Hat: Our local grocery stores tried to donate food items from the bakery, e.g. day old bread, to the food banks and soup kitchens, but were turned away every time. They eventually stopping trying and just started throwing it in the dumpster.

Many distribution centers are not willing to take the risk of a patron getting sick and suing.

@HooFoot:

you might want to try auctionzip.com - here in Maryland there are a number. There are also some auction houses that have random lots including food.

@missi1226:

That's not really a true statement. The Good Samaritan Act absolves donors from liability if an item was given to a 501(C)3 charitable organization in good faith.

Some food banks receive guidelines from manufacturers that let them know how to handle expired product.

@huadpe: I've heard that term applied to those who are vegan, except for food which they find for free (i.e. from dumpster diving).

@Andrea Vickers: I don't understand people who eat dumpster cheese by choice.

The food is not past its expiration date, it's past its "best if sold before" date. There's a *huge* difference. A "best if sold before" data is no different from a "best if served with" recommendation. It is *not* based on spoilage or food safety issues.

@missi1226: i used to work at a supermarket that donated virtually anything it couldn't sell (sans dangerous food) to soup kitchens & they gladly took it. every day they would come to our loading docks ~3pm to pick up whatever we were willing to give.

did you know that was often the same pile of food used by the in-store prepared food bar to make daily dishes? it's not that the food is bad, it's simply unsellable - like an apple with bruises or an extremely ripe tomato or a bag of flour with a tear. moldy food went right in the trash.

anyway, i don't think the issue is safety or even over-cautious centers. sometimes a soup kitchen already has an abundant source of donations or a lack of storage or a lack of volunteers to manage the logistics. then there's the snobs that are disconnected from the needs of their clients & somehow feel that having hungry clients or turning away those in need are somehow better alternatives to day-old bread.

on the other side of the equation, companies sometimes seek to exploit these organizations. remember, every pound of food given away is a pound of trash they don't have to pay for at the transfer station. unscrupulous managers may simply seek to transfer the waste burden to the local kitchen.

overall, there's no easy answer. all you can do is try to help & hope for the best, i guess.

@HPCommando: So, you ate terrorist packaged goods?

/joke

It's great to see one of the Consumerist Flickr pool photos made it to getting posted!
I recall the picture was a winner, and the mom of the kid even posted in the comments going on about how adorable her girl was, and snarky (as snarky as a tween can be, at least). Really sweet!

I knew a girl who posted on Craigslist that she wanted to get rid of some pork chops. She was vegetarian, a former roommate had left them behind. A long time ago. She disclosed the freezer-burned nature of said chops.

She got a ridiculous number of responses, including some from as far south as Long Beach (she was in LA). It would be cheaper and oh so much more sanitary to buy fresh at this rate, but she was determined to get the free pork chops.

Of course, one guy didn't care about the chops and just wondered if she was hot.

(shudder)

@huadpe: Your definition is somewhat nonsensical. And wrong.

@downwithmonstercable:

And you drank it? The fact it didn't even past the look test might have been a hint.

If you didn't drink it, well then it sounds like a pretty good experience.

@subtlefrog: Well is she?

I can still remember Priceline's long ago experiment at this, were you selected groceries online and were given one of three possible brands of each item after "naming your own price". You prepaid at the website with a credit card, then took THEIR special debit card to the participating supermarket, found all the items on your list and check out. IIRC it was called "Webhouse Club".

@missi1226: Bread is one of those items that is hard to donate. The big food bank I've volunteered with won't take any bread or matzo or pita; it's probably a supply/demand thing.

It's a shame that some food banks won't take "expired" items. It's generally okay to use things 6 months after the stated date, and most items for 1 year after. Again, this might be a case of available space or demand in the community.

@Trai_Dep: Yah! I remember that. And I remember that they used the photo for another post and for some reason, people went totally off-topic because they thought the little girl was an oddly-proportioned adult woman and the mom came on the board to clarify that no, it was her young daughter. It was so bizarre.

@huadpe: h3llc4t is right; freegans will not eat meat or dairy unless it has been thrown away (or if it will certainly be thrown away unless they eat it first). Freegans are typically vegan for ethical reasons, they believe killing animals is inherently wrong, but they are also pragmatic in the sense that they believe that if an animal has already been killed and the meat has gone to waste (ie., has ended up in a dumpster) eating the meat will at least ensure that the animal died 'for a reason'.

@downwithmonstercable: Milk generally isn't stored at "optimal" conditions in the first place. Even if the store is keeping it in chilled coolers with doors, I've seen the milkman deliver still cool, but substancially warmer than you'd expect milk to stores at the end of the route. Overally, I wouldn't trust milk that said it was going to expire in a couple of days, much less milk that was already past date.

@mizike: That...makes no sense. I guess the problem I have with this is that if you're sticking to your guns about animal cruelty and how eating animals is cruel and wrong, but then it's okay if the animal's died and thrown out...that's like saying "I don't eat meat, but if you happen to make some steak and forget it on the grill when you're done cooking it, I won't mind helping myself. But SHAME on you for wanting steak."

@RandomHookup: I think there's also a little liability involved, where 99% of the time it's safe, but if that 1% comes around and someone does get sick off expired food, you're in trouble.

@Ratty: Ooooohh.... never use expired or even close-dated canned citrus (pineapple/orange pieces/juices/etc). There's a reason why most mfrs use cans with inner ceramic linings for that stuff. It shall eat the can, every time. You really don't need that much steel in your diet...

@Jessica Schwartz: Just running down the list here, offering advice where I can...

Meats less than 48 hrs past their date are usually fine, if:
1. It's been properly refrigerated (or has been frozen),
2. All you see are shades of red or brown (oxidized blood). ALL other colors of meat are verboten for your dinner table, and
3. You cook those meats to their minimum recommended temperature. For safety's sake, make it at least 170 degrees.

Yeah, I know. You're not gonna get "rare" by cooking to 170. But trust me, you really don't want a rare week-old steak.

BTW, you also don't want rare burgers or chopped anything. Ever.

@David Schwartz: And true that.
Here's what the biggest dating schemes mean:
"Best if sold by" "Sell by" "Guaranteed Fresh" This is how long the quality is guaranteed by the mfr, and is mainly for the store's use. You won't get your money back for bad product past this date.
"Best if used by" This is for YOUR info, not just the store's. Quality will usually drop off fast after this date.
"Expires:" "Exp:" This is a drop-dead date. If you've passed it, do yourself and your loved ones a favor and toss it out.

Also: check the FDA's Dating Factsheet."

@pecan 3.14159265: I believe it's the difference between "EATING animals is wrong" vs. "KILLING animals to eat is wrong."

@David Schwartz:

Have you been to a grocery auction? How do you know what they are selling? Or what 'type' of date is on the package.

I've been to a grocery auction once (weird as hell, btw) and they were most certainly selling 'expired' food.

@Farquar: When you go to a grocery auction, you should expect to have to throw away between 33-50% of the stuff you get. It's part of the deal, and you should work that into your bids.
General rule of thumb: give everything you get the sight/smell/taste test and make sure it is well heated before serving.

@boomerang86: I loved this program in college. I don't remember all the details but it really made a difference for me at a time when I had very little money.