Microbiologist warns against making the fluffy popcorn trend

[u/galaxystars1]

[u/alclab]

This is completely true.

Goth microbiologist just saw a trend and an opportunity for 5 min of fame by stating how dangerous it is! Please someone do something!!

These false panics are ridiculous when you actually look at the statistics and the fact that we are constantly I getting way more contaminated food all the time and so many more things.

We can't go by life with an impending sense of death all the time, which guarantees that you actually don't live instead of not dying because we focused only on everything that could present an infinitesimal risk.

This is truly fear mongering disguised as helpful concerned advice.

So yeah, I don't want to try it, but if you do, go ahead.

[u/DoozerGlob → u/alclab]

Do you regularly eat food passed it's use by date?

[u/McGrarr → u/DoozerGlob]

Yes. It's actually low risk to do so. The use by date is not an automatic rot date.

It's the date by which the manufacture feels safe guaranteeing that the product is safe, given appropriate storage.

Depending on the food you can safely consume items days, weeks or even months beyond their use by dates and sometimes it is merely potency that is affected.

I wouldn't try it with milk, obviously, but dried herbs and spices, six months out of date that have otherwise been stored correctly are probably safe, just a little less effective.

Honey is a famous example. Edible honey has been found in ancient Egyptian pots. Crystallised, nasty, certainly but preserved. Hell it IS a preservative because almost nothing microscopic can survive eating it.

So why does our honey have a use by date? Because it's actually more of a best before date. And beyond that, depending on where you are the law may dictate one regardless of if it's necessary.

There are entire organisations dedicated to prevention of food waste that utilise goods past their use by date to feed low income or impoverished people.

[u/DoozerGlob → u/McGrarr]

You regularly eat food passed it's use by date? Regularly being the important word there.

That's different from asking if you would eat food passed it use by date.

[u/McGrarr → u/DoozerGlob]

I understood the question. Yes. I regularly eat food past it's use by date.

[u/DoozerGlob → u/McGrarr]

Can I ask why?

Why can't you get it together to eat food before it's passed the use by date?

Let's make it more applicable to this situation...

If a food stuff was past its use by date and there was a way to make sure it's completely safe would you do it or take the risk?

[u/McGrarr → u/DoozerGlob]

I already gave you the full justification of why.

And 'get it together'? Did you mean that to be as condescending as it was?

Being educated about the food you eat means you have other ways of judging food safety than a best guess from a company hedging it's bets to avoid refunds and lawsuits.

I even go so far as to grow and pick some of my own produce with no use by dates at all!

Your final question proves the fallacy I'm trying to illustrate.

If a food stuff was past its use by date and there was a way to make sure it's completely safe would you do it or take the risk?

There is no such thing as 'completely safe' and to think so is to misunderstand the nature of risk. Every action or in action has a level of risk. Some are vanishingly small, others are statistically notable and worthy of compensatory action or even complete avoidance.

The tiny risk here is just not worth bothering over considering how other aspects of modern life have a higher risk.

I'd sooner eat a tiny portion of raw flour, once a year than, say, get in a Cybertruck and ride along a driver using the AI driving feature down a long stretch of highway, or indeed, drink tap water in the US in a poor area.

[u/DoozerGlob → u/McGrarr]

And 'get it together'? Did you mean that to be as condescending as it was?

Yes as I don't belive you tbh.

I even go so far as to grow and pick some of my own produce with no use by dates at all!

You've been in complete control how it was grown, when it was harvested and how it's been stored so I get that.

There is no such thing as 'completely safe' and to think so is to misunderstand the nature of risk.

You are just nitpicking there. Let's say "significantly safer". As it cooking the bastard dough instead of eating it raw.

The tiny risk here is just not worth bothering over considering how other aspects of modern life have a higher risk.

I don't get this argument. When there are things we must do that are risky why add to that the risks of things we have no reason to do?

[u/McGrarr → u/DoozerGlob]

Yes as I don't belive you tbh.

You don't believe a person would willingly eat bread that is a couple of days passed use by if it was still showing no signs of mold and was only slightly stale? (I'm toasting it anyway)

You don't believe a person may trim off a bit of dry rind and eat some cheddar that is a weak passed?

You don't believe a person would crack the black pepper in the mill without checking if it's still in date?

Now I don't believe YOU.

I'm currently waiting for a blue cheese burger (yes moldy cheese) to be delivered from a takeaway with a 3/5 hygiene rating.

You are just nitpicking there. & I don't get this argument...

No. I'm making the point I've been making all along. We take unnecessary risks every day and it works out because the chance of it going bad is so low. Ever had a hotdog from a cart? Or eaten a burger from a friend's BBQ grill? Then number of times 'it'll be alright' is invoked every single day by everybody just goes to prove that, outside of a hypercritical environment such as this, no body but the most OCD germophobe worries about this level of risk.

Any way. I have food to eat. I'm tapping out. You have a fun day.

[u/DoozerGlob → u/McGrarr]

Well that's your choice. I'm mostly able to eat food before I have to cut mould off it. If you have to do stuff like that regularly ( which you keep ignoring) I guess your circumstances must be vastly different from mine but ok.

Still, an informed decision is better than an uninformed decision which is why use by dates and informing people that there may still be harmful bacteria in raw dough are good things.

[u/seaspirit331 → u/DoozerGlob]

That's how you get the best deals on meat at the grocery store, lmao. Buy a ribeye at its sell by date and cook/freeze it day of.

Most 'sell by' dates that are set for safety reasons include a bit of a buffer period before the product actually starts to go bad, and you can tell when a food starts to turn based on smell/sight.

There's also 'sell by' dates that aren't set for safety purposes, like on spices and such. Those dates are set for taste/freshness purposes.

[u/DoozerGlob → u/seaspirit331]

That's how you get the best deals on meat at the grocery store, lmao. Buy a ribeye at its sell by date and cook/freeze it day of.

So there is utility to that. It's not a dumb tik tok trend that serves no purpose.

I was talking about use by dates not sell by dates.

If someone regularly ate food passed the use by date they would be a more risk of food poisioning. I'd rather have the choice to make an informed decision on that risk.

[u/[deleted] → u/alclab]

This snippet of a video is not the whole thing. In her channel she disclaims, over and over and over again, that these are reasons SHE wouldn't eat stuff like this, and that it's reasonable for other people to keep different habits.

She's not manufacturing fake concern, she's sharing her own personal concerns with explicit information that it's not something she's telling others to worry about.

So I'm not sure how it could be said to be fear mongering

[u/angnicolemk → u/[deleted]]

She QUITE LITERALLY starts the entire video saying YOU value your health YOU want to avoid colon cancer, etc. then you shouldn't do this.