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Comment by bigstrat2003 | Hacker News Reader

bigstrat2003

My wife does the same thing, and I've been unable to convince her. Not talking perishable stuff, either - she'll throw out something like a bottle of hot sauce because it is a few months past the "best by" date. No matter how much I try to tell her that these things are shelf stable and will be good for even a year or more after the date, she doesn't believe me.

I think that the show Kim's Convenience said it perfectly, myself. "See this date? It say 'best by'. After date - not best, but still pretty good."

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Hot Sauce is kind of annoying because it lasts so long after the best by dates. Like it could just be kicking around in then fridge for a couple years and not grow anything on it, but it is probably time to toss it out eventually?

Many hot sauces are so acidic they’re pretty much a preservative!

Vinegar based hot sauces, and/or hot sauces that are very high in sodium, usually yes, but not always.

Particularly if the sauce includes unstrained organic bits such as garlic or onions, or includes oils - botulism (odorless, tasteless) can be a non-zero risk.

At some point, that crusty $5 bottle of hot sauce you found in the back of the fridge should just get tossed out instead of taking the risk.

I don’t even keep things like soy sauce or something like Tabasco in the fridge. Much less vinegars. I suspect a lot of people are inclined to.

Tabasco is fine in the pantry or on the counter.

Tabasco in particular isn't just vinegar-based, it's nearly entirely vinegar. Its ingredients list is vinegar, salt and crushed peppers that are then strained before bottling. It is a very inhospitable environment for botulism - or anything else.

Many other types of hot sauces contain oils and/or are not strained of organic matter and/or contain blended organic matter. Such as all of your thicker or chunkier sauces for the most part[1] (which happen to be my favorites). Those should be kept in the fridge and you should discard after some time just to be on the safe side.

[1] https://thepepperplant.com/shop.html

I do refrigerate Siracha. But I admit I make my decisions more on gut feel than anything else.

Gut feel is the ultimate judge of food rottenness

I remember seeing a comment thread on here a few weeks ago where people were talking about making their own hot sauces, and botulism was a big concern, which was surprising to me. I figured hot sauce was so extreme that you didn't need to worry too much about the normal food-borne illnesses. Not so, I guess.

I proudly store ketchup in the pantry. No amount of recently added "For best results, refrigerate after opening." on the label will convince me otherwise. Cold ketchup is in no way "best".

When I was in college, at a house party we were all guessing for how long the oldest item in the fridge had been expired. It was a shared flat for four people, so we bet something like half a year or so. The hot sauce expired more than four years before. I am not sure anyone dared to eat some though.

My ex was like this two, but was fairly binary about it. The day before the "sell by date" = totally good, not in any way ruined. The day after = clearly dangerously unsafe food.

Ironically, stuff like hot sauce that never goes bad because it's so incompatible with microbial life as we know it is the stuff that needs "best by" type verbiage the most because while it never becomes hazardous to consume the chemical processes of degradation (oxidation and friends) still happen and the product becomes less good.

Ha! I like to joke that after the 'best by' date, it's no longer the best, just better :)

I'm not particularly judgemental, but I wouldn't be able to cohabitate with someone with that mentality. "Best by" is a matter of faith, and it shouldn't be treated as fact.

I might seem petty about this behavior, but such things are not isolated. This way of thinking colors one's reality.

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