[nabs-l] Parishable Food Items

Sun Feb 27 06:49:38 UTC 2011

Hi all,

I don't think you need to worry too much about expiration dates. Dairy
products will give a telltale smell and/or taste signal when it's time
to throw them away. In my experience, if the milk smells and tastes
fine, it won't make you sick. For uncooked meats and perishable foods
like restaurant leftovers, my mother's rule that I've always followed
is to eat it or freeze it within 3-4 days of getting it. I am not sure
if this rule is too strict but I have found it pretty easy to follow
with a little planning. Once food is frozen it can be stored safely
for a long time; just Braille your freezer bag or remember what it
feels like. Generally, I think just using some common sense like
keeping track of approximately when you bought something and paying
attention to the texture and smell of foods will prevent most
problems.

By the way, I just learned about a website called
www.directionsforme.com
which contains a searchable database of food package labels. So you
can easily look up the preparation instructions for frozen meals, easy
mac, Ramen, etc. or even read ingredient lists and nutritional info if
you are so inclined. They also have package labels for
over-the-counter medications so you can verify how many Advil or cold
pills you need to take, how often you can safely redose and any other
pertinent drug information.

Arielle

On 2/26/11, Cindy Bennett <clb5590 at gmail.com> wrote:
> I know exactly what you're going through. Mini fridges don't havev a
> lot of space, and especially the mini freezers in the top of the mini
> fridges don't always keep things frozen. And, being on a meal plan but
> wanting to have food options for when the meal plan is not convenient
> is hard to balance, because the meal plan was expensive, so you don't
> want to spend a lot of money on other food let alone see that money go
> to waste with food going bad. And that combined with the fact that a
> meal plan causes you to eat your own food less often can make things
> complicated. The previous advice is good. One thing that I have found
> that might be unique to where I go to school is that the perishable
> food found in the convenient stores on campus tends to expire sooner.
> I think this is the case because it wouldn't be efficient to keep
> ordering more stock when they don't sell it quickly, but purchasing
> food at the convenience stores is convenient, because you can use
> dollars from your meal plan. Like I said, especially at larger
> niversities with more on campus students, this might be less of a
> case, but if you've been having a problem with on campus stores, try
> some off campus. Also, when you go shopping, you can ask whoever is
> helping you to look for the latest expiration date available.
> Sometimes stores will place food that is closer to expiration towards
> the front of shelves which might hide longer lasting products behind.
>
> This might sound obvious, but if you bring home leftovers from a
> restaurant, take it out of the crappy styrofoam and store it in a
> sealable container. It will last way longer.
>
> And one thing that I have found for nonrefridgerated food such as
> bread is that keeping it in cabinets helps. You can even keep bread in
> the freezer for a while granted your freezer is big enough for a loaf.
>
> But I totally understand what you are going through, and for that
> reason, I found myself not really buying fruit, but grabbing a few
> extra pieces for the next couple of days when leaving the dining hall,
> and mainly consuming nonperishable foods such as soup or easy mac in
> my room.
>
> And you will probably notice that for money and/or convenience reasons
> that you will become less paranoid about food. I'm not saying you
> should do this with dairy products, but if pizza has been left out or
> something, I definitely consider it a second meal before throwing it
> out. I would have absolutely never done this before college. It is all
> about judgment and your comfort level.
>
> Cindy
>
> On 2/26/11, bookwormahb at earthlink.net <bookwormahb at earthlink.net> wrote:
>> Chelsea,
>> That is a little hard to know. If you're in a dorm, why not ask someone
>> the
>> expiration date?
>> If you go shopping every two weeks, you probably have nothing to worry
>> about.
>> Over time you'll sense when things go bad; as I haven't lived on my own
>> much, living in the dorm with the new fridge was new to me too.
>> Generally, things have a certain shelf life.
>> Sounds like you mainly buy dairy products: yogurt, milk, etc. Maybe you
>> buy
>> lunch meat and bread and cheese to have in place of cafeteria food,
>> sometimes.
>>
>> Well for milk, I heard it lasts a few weeks.
>> You can smell or taste when it goes bad.
>> For yogurt, I imagine it would smell bad too.
>> Yogurt should last a couple weeks provided you seal the container tight
>> after using it.
>>
>> Lunch meat lasts over a week.  Cheese sliced up lasts
>> a week at least.
>>
>> One thing is I cannot tell if bread is moldy; it doesn't smell or feel
>> different, unless its real gotten moldy, but just a little bit I don't
>> know.
>> So I've  just asked someone or relied on how long its been around.  Like I
>> had this bread six days, its still good.
>>
>> Hth,
>> Ashley
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Chelsea Cook
>> Sent: Saturday, February 26, 2011 10:58 PM
>> To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>> Subject: [nabs-l] Parishable Food Items
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> One of the coolest things about college dorm rooms is ... the mini
>> fridge! However, the stuff I put into mine sometimes gives me trouble.
>> How do you guys manage milk and yogurt and stuff like that in terms of
>> expiration dates? Usually, since it's just me, I go shopping about
>> every two weeks and try to get items that will expire in the same
>> window, but it's still tricky and I haven't gotten it down to a
>> science yet. (Play on words, haha!) Anyway, any tips short of writing
>> down everything would be helpful.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Chelsea
>>
>> --
>> Chelsea Cook
>>
>> Virginia Tech 2015; Physics Major
>> cook2010 at vt.edu
>> "I ask you to look both ways.  For the road to a knowledge of the
>> stars leads through the atom; and important knowledge of the atom has
>> been reached through
>> the stars."
>> Sir Arthur Eddington, British astrophysicist (1882-1944), Stars and
>> Atoms (1928), Lecture 1
>>
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>
>
> --
> Cindy Bennett
> uNC Wilmington Psychology major
>
> clb5590 at gmail.com
> 828.989.5383
>
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-- 
Arielle Silverman
President, National Association of Blind Students
Phone:  602-502-2255
Email:
nabs.president at gmail.com
Website:
www.nabslink.org