From hummus and coleslaw to yoghurt and chicken… do expiry dates really correspond to the actual time it would take a food product to make people sick?
On TikTok, Gavin Wren wants to prove that they do not. And the British social media user is not afraid to put his own health at stake to prove how effective common sense can be in the fight against food waste.
Against a backdrop of inflation, he TikToker nicknamed the “man with the titanium stomach” scores several thousand views with his videos in the form of experiments that involve tasting “expired” food
In each episode, Wren analyses the smell and taste of the food in question several days after its expiry date. And in each video, he shows viewers how these items, which were destined for the garbage, do not make you sick even when they are consumed after the expiry date.
Perhaps the most symbolic example – because of the potential risk of salmonella poisoning – is the egg. Here, Wren gets to work with a box purchased 88 days, or almost three months, previously.
He demonstrates a time-old trick of putting an egg in a container of water to see if it’s still safe to eat. When it floats, it becomes unfit for consumption, while when it remains at the bottom, it can still be made into an omelette.
During the TikToker’s experiment, some eggs indeed rise up to the surface, while another gets closer to the bottom, which in turn encourages the internet user to cook it. He ultimately concludes that the expiry date system generates a considerable amount of food waste, whereas relying on one’s senses is perhaps a better way to proceed.
As well as using smell and taste, visual clues can also be helpful. Coleslaw is carefully observed to check its freshness, for example. The more time passes, the yellower the white cabbage and grated carrot salad becomes. After two weeks, he decides to throw it in the garbage.
His point is not to say that food can be eaten indefinitely, but that from one product to another, you really have to use your common sense. In the case of the yoghurt, the last test is 31 days after purchase, and for hummus, bacteria have developed after 17 days.
The truth is, there are no magic tricks or fail-safe rules. But Wren follows the same routine before testing each product: he checks the temperature of the refrigerator, which he says should be between 0° and 3°C. The proper storage of food is a key element in maximising its longevity.
This position is reminiscent of the decision taken by the British supermarket chain Morrisons to stop putting an expiry date on its own-brand bottles of milk. Instead, consumers should sniff it and see, the retailer advised when the measure was announced earlier this year.