Expired cream given away at the greengrocer's: is it safe to eat?

Expired cream: when it is safe to eat and when it is not

Can you eat cream past its best-before date? The scene is all too common: the local greengrocer's is giving away 200 ml cartons of cream because they expire on 1 February. The question is whether that cream will keep for another fifteen days and whether, once the date has passed, it is worth asking for it instead of letting it end up in the bin. The short answer is that the printed date is not a safety deadline, but neither is it a free-for-all.

Best before is not the same as use-by

The packaging does not say "expires on 1 February"; it says "best before 1/2/2013". That wording, the best-before date, does not mark the day the product becomes dangerous, but the point from which the manufacturer no longer guarantees its optimal quality. The difference with the use-by date is substantial: one allows some leeway, the other does not. In the case of cream, that leeway exists, but it depends on how the cream is stored.

The fridge is the first factor. Keeping the carton cold slows down the product's ageing, just as happens with yoghurts, which keep for days or weeks beyond the printed date without becoming a problem. The second factor is opening: while the container is sealed, deterioration is slow; once peine, the clock runs much faster.

How to tell if the cream is still good

Smell and taste are the judges. Cream that has gone off is inedible: it smells bad and tastes sour, and there is no way to disguise it. If, when you open the carton, the smell is normal and the taste reveals nothing odd, the product is still fine. If that sour smell appears, there is no debate to be had.

The consensus on this issue is more cautious than it seems. Some people simply do not trust it: cream past its date is considered bad, and not as a joke. Against that distrust, practical experience suggests that the real leeway exists and that the product does not spoil overnight.

Freezing it or making butter: what to do with a surplus

If the problem is the volume — a pile of cartons you cannot get through in time — there are two solutions that avoid food waste. The first is freezing: cream keeps for months in the freezer. The second is turning it into butter, which extends its shelf life and gives it another use in the kitchen.

Food waste has a cost. Giving away the surplus before it expires is one way not to throw money away, and asking for it after the date, with due precautions, is another. The date on the packaging is not a sentence.

In the end, the greengrocer's question has an answer: yes, cream usually keeps, but your nose decides, not the calendar. What no date can fix is a carton that has been sitting open in the fridge door for three weeks.