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Comment by tremendo | Hacker News Reader

Ah another reminder I am old, and thankful I got to learn the lost art of using my senses, and appreciating food that although not useful for winning photography awards, it was still yummy. Yes, I'm one of those that gets frustrated when I see someone throw away a banana because it had a softer spot on one end, or "ew, too many freckles". I am from a past that will never return. While I'm here, I'll miss it.

EDIT: I should mention that I prefer buying non-packaged food, so I still trust my senses better than any "sell by" or "best before" labels.

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> Ah another reminder I am old, and thankful I got to learn the lost art of using my senses...

I literally have lost my sense of smell, more or less, since I was about 20 years old. These dates are pretty useful to me, I'd never know milk was off until I was pouring lumps of it.

It's one of the superpowers I got from being poor back in the day. The "sniff test" always makes my wife and her family laugh :-)

The human olfactory system is the product of millions of years of evolution, it's highly adept at detecting food that's no longer edible. Nature doesn't come with labels, that's why the smell of inedible food is so obvious and fowl.

Sure but food is is almost too clean now.

For example an unpasteurized cheese has a whole ecosystem of bacteria, each keeping the others in check.

The cheese like substances in most American grocery stores however are almost sterile, so a single bacteria like Campylobacter can colonize it and take it over unopposed.

Not all bacterial contamination leaves a detectable smell.

You can smell meat that is rotting. You can't smell most bacterial contamination, and some of these can be fatal.

For example, fresh chicken will smell fine, but a lot of it (in Europe) is contaminated with campylobater.

https://www.food.gov.uk/science/microbiology/campylobacterev...

> We carried out a survey of campylobacter in chicken on retail sale in the UK between May 2007 and September 2008, and it reported that campylobacter was present in 65% of the fresh chicken samples tested. A European Union baseline survey carried out in 2008, and published by European Food Safety Authority in March 2010, showed the UK estimated prevalence for campylobacter in broiler batches (caecal contents) was 75.3% and 86.3% in broiler carcasses (skin samples). These results were above the weighted EU mean prevalences of 71.2% and 77% respectively. There was a wide range of campylobacter prevalence across members states varying from 4.9% to 100% in broiler carcasses and from 2% to 100% in broiler batches.

True, but that's the reason why you don't see "raw" recipes for poultry: properly cooking the meat kills whole classes of bacteria prevalent in it.

Well I'm in my thirties, and I'll happily use stuff way past the date.

I also go by my nose, though for some products like milk, I don't mind if it has a smell or some separation. I do make sure to boil it before I use it.

Edit: I also don't use pre-packaged food, I prefer cooking from scratch.

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