The word outdated isn't typically used in the context of food freshness.
The adjective outdated suggests something is no longer widely in use or is unfashionable. Wearing poodle skirts is generally considered outdated. Super Nintendo and Windows 95 are outdated. You wouldn't typically say your food is outdated (unless its presentation or ingredient usage has gone out of style).
"Expiration date" is a term used to indicate when either the shop has to stop selling the item ('sell by' date) or the date by which it must be consumed ('use by' date). If the freshness and overall quality of the product is more of a concern than health issues (for example, crackers go stale but are largely safe to consume after their expiration date), one might use the term 'best before' or 'best used by' date.
But, generally speaking, if food is said to have "expired", that generally means it should not be consumed. It is only historically that items (like milk) were labeled somewhat ambiguously with terms like "expiration date" — which, in the case of milk, was the date it needed to be sold by — but laws varied by product. Product labeling of expiration dates is typically a bit more specific now.
Answer from Robert Cartaino on Stack ExchangeThe word outdated isn't typically used in the context of food freshness.
The adjective outdated suggests something is no longer widely in use or is unfashionable. Wearing poodle skirts is generally considered outdated. Super Nintendo and Windows 95 are outdated. You wouldn't typically say your food is outdated (unless its presentation or ingredient usage has gone out of style).
"Expiration date" is a term used to indicate when either the shop has to stop selling the item ('sell by' date) or the date by which it must be consumed ('use by' date). If the freshness and overall quality of the product is more of a concern than health issues (for example, crackers go stale but are largely safe to consume after their expiration date), one might use the term 'best before' or 'best used by' date.
But, generally speaking, if food is said to have "expired", that generally means it should not be consumed. It is only historically that items (like milk) were labeled somewhat ambiguously with terms like "expiration date" — which, in the case of milk, was the date it needed to be sold by — but laws varied by product. Product labeling of expiration dates is typically a bit more specific now.
As others have noted, "outdated" is not a commonly-used term to describe food.
I think here, as in many cases, you have to be careful not to assume that one writer's usage represents any kind of standard. Writers often find it helpful or necessary to invent very specific definitions of common words for the purpose of one article or book. He may take a word that has a general meaning and give it a more specific meaning. Or he may take a word from some other context and give it a meaning relevant here.
The conscientious writer will make clear that he is doing this. He will say something like, "In this article, I use the word 'chair' to refer specifically to a piece of wooden furniture intended to be sat on by one person at a time, and not to include padded or cushioned furniture or furniture that seats more than one person ..." or something of that sort. Sometimes they are a little more vague, and sometimes they expect you to just magically know they're unusual terminology. But don't assume that specific definitions used in one particular piece of writing are generally applicable or would be understood in this writer's sense by other people without explanation.
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Some context: my husband and our young child moved in with my MIL. It's a small space. Her hoard is mostly but not really contained in her room. And multiple sheds and vehicles on the property. But that's another story.
Her and her late husband were "preppers" and there is a ridiculous amount of food stored everywhere that we could never hope to eat in a timely fashion. When we thought we were making a dent, we'd find more stored in totes. The majority of is canned goods and dried beans, pasta, and rice. Nearly all of it is past the "use by" date. Though she argues it's still good. And that's fine. A lot of things do keep after the "use by" date. But where is the limit? We barely even cook and the stuff is so disorgnized, she doesn't even know what she has. I'm 99% sure the food bank won't take the items because they are several years past the date. A lot of it is random preserves and jams and homemade pickle things that we personally just don't eat and don't even know the dates or source for a lot of it.
I'm so overwhelmed. The food is a drop in the bucket as far as the hoarding go. I just want the house to function and atm it does not. I gave some food away to families we know, because there is just no way we could use all this stuff ourselves. I could tell she was a bit annoyed with that. We are not using the stuff. Hardly anyone cooks from scratch here, least of all her, let alone has the foresight to soak dried beans and prep them for meals in the tiny crowded kitchen. Even if "dried (beans/pasta/rice) don't go bad" there is a point they reach where you... probably wouldn't wanna eat it? What point is that? I would use the stuff if I wasn't drowning in stress and 10 million other problems, many of which stem form the clutter/hoarding situation here. And I'm only cooking for three people, one is a toddler, the other eats like a toddler, and my husband eats at work 99% of the time. So like. We just cannot go through all this food and so much of it is crap no one even likes but I feel guilty getting rid of? Help?