Piggyback Question About Meats

I have never had a food borne illness that I know of. I suppose a few of the times I have had a bad stomach virus it could have been food borne. I do buy meat that is on clearance because it is close to the sell by date and freeze it. I managed a restaurant for many years so I have food handler training and I am pretty careful with meat. I never thaw at room temperature, always in the fridge or under cold running water. I am careful about cross contamination and cooking temperatures.

For many food items I do not go by the "sell by" or "use by" dates alone. Most food items do not magically go bad on the date marked on the package.

I've had stuff stay in my freezer so long it got freezer burned. Didn't taste very good but didn't make anyone sick.
My ex once ate a hunk of homemade stuffed bread that had gotten pushed to the back of the fridge and stayed there for a month before anyone noticed it. That made him sick, but he should have known better than to eat furry green bread.

I've never had food poisoning, and because of severe financial restrictions, I've had to make use of some foods that other people might throw away out of caution. And I routinely buy aging meat from the mark-down bin. But I keep my hands, kitchen surfaces, cutting boards and utensils very clean when I'm doing food prep.

I couldn't tell you what the oldest food was that I have eaten. There have been quite collection.

I'm not sure that food poisoning happens more from restaurants or not.
Plenty of people don't pay attention to cross contamination (handling raw meat then not cleaning surfaces to prevent meat juices from getting on other foods).
And every few months someone or another will post "is it ok to leave a roast/turkey/chicken/etc to thaw on the counter over night?".
(No, it's not. No food should be left out for longer than 2 hours - that goes for thawing, and left overs too.)
So I really not sure which would be more reliable.
Working in a restaurant often requires a food handlers card - proof you've been trained in food safety (classes are given by the Health Dept) - and they use bleach to clean surfaces.

As long as the food/meat was fresh when you froze it, freezer burning doesn't make it tainted.
It's just freeze dried and texture and flavor suffer a bit but it's perfectly edible and especially if you marinade it or put it into a stew, you might never notice it was ever freezer burnt.

I opened a container of raw chicken that I purchased from the grocery store and threw up because of the rank, rotten smell. Does that count? ;)
The meat had 5 days to go before its expiration date, so it must have been mishandled. Gross!

Its not meat but....
We made chili at my moms one time and found a costco size ziptop bag of marie calendars corn bread mix in her pantry. We made some up to go with it. My mom came home and asked where we got the cornbread mix she didnt remember ever buying it. We checked the date and I think it was 2 years past due. But we had eaten all the cornbread. I felt a little (mentally) ill at the thought but we were fine. For things like that it just wont rise and bake normal. Which it kind of didnt but we just thought we didnt measure right. Next time I would only add some more baking powder and we'd be good to go.

i'm pretty cavalier about dates. i don't think the folks who put the dates on have a clue most of the time, so i just go with common sense. i've never been sick from anything i've prepared at home. the only time i've had food-borne illness was from restaurants. i'll never eat at the golden corral again!
khairete
S.