By Mike Thayer
If you're regular readers, then you've read a number of past articles warning about how inflation is coming. You've read about my urging to buy guns, gold, and food. You've probably also read of, listened to and seen the news of the riot and unrest going on in North Africa.
Related article: http://coralvillecourier.typepad.com/community/2011/01/theres-unrest-about-the-globe-is-america-next.html
Believe it or not, that strife is going to affect us here at home in one degree or another.
It's time to start conducting a review and manage what you have and don't have in terms of food and supplies, whether it's just out of immediate need, to fight inflation, or to prepare for times ahead.
For the purposes of today's article, let's focus on food and safety kits. Are you paying attention to the expiration dates of your food stock? It's important to rotate your canned goods, jar goods, dried goods, medicines, etc. Did you know that something as everyday as aspirin has an expiration date? How many bandages and wraps do you have?
Most canned goods stocked on store shelves these days have an expiration date of the years 2012, 2013, depending on the food type. Things like vegetables and fruits are likely to be in the 2012, 2013 range. Meat based items such as canned soups, chili, ravioli, chicken breast, that kind of thing - probably 2012. Canned fish like tuna, salmon, sardines, those typically have a stamp for 2013, 2014 or even 2015.
Jar goods don't go quite so far out. Most jar pickles, peppers, bean salads on the store shelves right now are perhaps stamped for late 2011, others into 2012.
Like the jar goods, dried goods such as powdered milk, soup/sauce mixes, beans and peas will also have late 2011 and 2012 dates.
And many people don't pay attention to this, medicines have expiration dates too, even the over-the-counter stuff. Do you have a first aid/safety kit for your car, your house? You really shouldn't travel without one and they really don't take up much space.
Here's a rule of thumb if you will regarding expiration dates. Sure, when it comes to a gallon of milk, pay attention to the "sell by" date, because you don't want to drink sour milk. I don't know anybody that goes, "Yum, chunky!" But for a lot of products, keep in mind that the "best before" date doesn't necessarily mean the food goes bad, it can simply mean that the flavor just won't be as potent, so don't automatically throw it away just because of the date. U.S. food producers - and I think this is American sourced - started the whole expiration date requirement thing largely because the government told them to in the name of food safety, and because the companies don't want to get sued.... A butt covering thing. Believe it or not tea has an expiration date, and we're talking about dried leaves for crying out loud! The reality is, the tea isn't spoiled, it's just lost some potency. So use some good old fashioned common sense and your nose. For things like spices and seasonings past their expiration date, it's hasn't necessarily gone bad, it's most likely just not as flavorful. You may have to use a little more than a recipe calls for. With medicines, that's another ball game, I wouldn't recommend using those past the date marked. But with food, use your nose, eyes, and tongue. If it doesn't pass the smell test don't use it, by all means, throw it away. But if it looks and smells OK, then do a sample taste. If it passes, use it. A lot of good food that is perfectly safe to eat goes to waste because of expiration date requirements.
So with that being written, it's important to know these dates and rotate your shelves at home accordingly. Check the dates when at the store and consider keeping a log or diary of your food stock purchases. How would that come in handy aside from avoiding expired food you ask? Well, it can help prevent buying too much of one thing and not enough of another, allowing you to target your purchases. When making your grocery list, review your log/diary. It might reveal you're getting short of soups because most of what you have on hand expires in March 2011. Your log/diary might indicate that you can forego buying tuna this week because you have a lot of that on hand with an expiration date of 2015, allowing you then to buy more rice.
Next up, how much of what you need to buy for you and your family.... How much rice, how many pounds of dried beans, how much in wheat products....
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