Courgette
Red onion
New potatoes
Cheese & tomato pizza (own brand from supermarket)

Just out of interest.

These are a few things I didn't get round to using and they are now out of date (to varying degrees - the onions over a week)

How the hell does fresh veg have a use by date?

You look, smell and fell them to see if they are still good enough to use.
Corgettes would go mushy and miscoloured. Same with onions although you could peel off a few layers and get a perfectly acceptable product.

Spuds would start sprouting, which you could pick off. They also go soft and start to go green.

The courgettes and onions were fresh (IE not in a packet with a date) the new pot's were dated though.

Meant to add that I live with someone who is completely paranoid about use by dates due to a family member dying after eating an "off" egg mayo sandwich from a deli (she developed a severe reaction to salmonella and died within days, traced back to this, made the local news and everything but alas I digress!)

I also have a little one I don't want to make ill.

OK what about:

Eggs
Yoghurt
sausages (premium but supermarket brand)
Mincemeat

I would eat any of those things except yogurt provided they didn't smell bad, if the sausages tasted funny after cooking I wouldn't eat them. Do you mean mincemeat out of a jar or minced beef? If beef (or other meat) you would smell that if it was bad too.

If they look and smell ok then eat them, they will be fine. It's pate and dairy products you want to worry about.

I go with the smell and feel method. I use potatoes stored in the fridge about a month past their useby. Onions I also use weeks after their useby. If I cut them and they look opaque I will throw them away.

Meat and yoghurts I am more careful with. I would eat both a day after, but nothing more than that.

I rarely look at use by dates, instead going by the smell/look/feel method to check if food is off. Frankly though, I don’t keep stuff in for too long before I consume it, so I don’t usually encounter the “is it off?” problem.

Still, I have been known to cut off the mouldy bits of cheese, or scrape away the furryish bits of yoghurt and finish the rest off. Doesn’t appear to have done me any harm, but with a little one I think I’d be a lot more careful.

I always go by = if it looks and smells PERFECTLY fine >>>>>>>> it is still OK to eat

I find that **Sealed pots of Yoghurts** keep for ages

A tip I heard on TV the other week was that >> if you store yoghurts upside down in the fridge
it causes an airtight vacuum that also helps them last longer

I have eaten yoghurts - several months after the use by date

I have heard that you should not eat potatoes that have turned green

I will pinch off little bits of mould If I find it on the last pieces of bread that I want to toast
and cut bits off cheeses
I do not eat anything that has fluffy stuff on it

For years I have done this method and I have **never had a dodgy tummy**

How long does Greek yoghurt keep if you open it? Mine is still within its "Use By" date but its been a few days

I wouldn't use meat past the use-by date, although use-by dates tend to be pretty spot on or even over-ambitious where meat is concerned. Use-by dates on other products tends to be over-cautious so I pay little heed.

Check for signs of mould. If not mouldy make a ratatouille!

Use my wife's foolproof method.
Ask me to eat stuff and then watch me for a few hours.
If I'm ok she tells me it's "my stuff".

If yogurts are off, the foil lid looks raised, even if in date

I've never had problems with live yoghurt which is well past use-by date. Though once opened it is best to eat within three days.

Veg - Indefinitely. In most cases, as long as it's not growing mould or turning to mush, it's fine. I've had courgettes that went mushy after a week, and others that lasted several months. I've peeled and cooked carrots that were in a bag with moudly ones and seemed okay, but they tasted sour and rank. I also recall some potatoes being stored (perfectly legitimately) in massive refrigerated warehouses for months before being shipped to supermarkets.

Pizza - Assuming it's fresh (not frozen), I'd go 2 or 3 days without a thought, any longer and I'd probably give it a smell and maybe try a bit of the cheese first.

I have eaten many a yoghurt over 10 days out of date.. no harm done..

I eat yogurt well past its sell buy date, as long as the lid isn't blown (raised). I worked in the dairy industry for many years and the cheese you buy in the small blocks in the supermarket have often come from bigger mouldy block that have been stripped and repackaged.

People have been growing their own vegetables for generations, and storing them for later use. My dad used to grow onions and shallots, and we used to weave them onto strings, which were then hung in the shed, while the potatoes went into hessian sacks. There were no "use by" dates! If something was rotten, you threw it away. Simple.