I have some gerber whole grain dry cereal that is still in the box, and has the cellophane around it even. But it is past the BIUB date. It's a sealed dry cereal; should I toss it or would it be ok? I hate to waste food, but I don't want to feed my daughter something that will make her sick...
Thanks, Mamas!
I would just play it safe and not give it to her. I always toss those things out. I hate that they don't have a set date!
Check out the site www.stilltasty.com
It talks about "use by" dates and when (and for how long) you can ignore them.
There is a reason WHY they do it....food, dry or otherwise, has a limit. I, for one, wouldnt risk it for 3 bucks.
M:)
Hello, I toss all foods which are outdated.
K. K.
When in doubt, chuck it out! It's not worth being ill over a few dollars (and yes, I hate wasting food too but I wouldn't want to risk it).
Good luck!
I think it would be fine. There isnt anything in it that would or could go bad in it. It's just dry a cereal.
If you must use it, freeze it first and then store it in the freezer. If the label is BEST if used by, it might be okay. They cannot GUARANTEE freshness past that date. How expired is it? If only by a month or so, it just might be a little stale. Labeling foods are necessary so companies are covered in case of lawsuits. Food doesn't magically go bad on a specific date.
If it has a USE BY date, I would toss it. There is a reason for the difference in labeling foods as Sell By, Best By, and Use By. It is confusing. Not to mention that the best foods for us (fresh fruits and veggies) have no dates! You have to go by look, feel, and smell.
It is no longer good as babyfood but you can bake with it. I usually make muffins replacing 1/8 of the flour with baby cereal.
if in doubt, throw it out! You will kick yourself later if your child gets sick.
I had someone give me a LOT of toddler baby food, the chunkier kind in the bigger jars. They were out of date but they said they used them all the time and had no problems.
I am a worrywart so I called the 1-800 number. The person told me that baby food has very little nutritional value to start with, it is to supplement formula or breast milk to teach the baby/toddler to chew and swallow. It is not meant to be the main source of nutrition for any children. Therefor if it is out of date ALL nutritional value is depleted. There are very few if any preservatives in the food so even when it is in date it has very little nutrition to it. As for dry cereal, it's not very expensive to begin with so I'd toss it.
Don't use it. When she's older feed her food that you have made and just use a food chopper like the Pampered Chef one that is very easy to clean and chop the heck out of it. I usually pumped it 15-18 times for a toddler just starting out on chunkier food.
