Would you eat 9 year old pasta?

[marions ghost]

At my dad's house I found all this spaghetti and rotini that is almost a decade old, according to the expiration dates. It has been stored dry in original packaging and is bug-free. It looks fine. It has no preservatives. I hate to waste it.

Cooks and food scientists: Is it OK?

[cbayer]

1. No. If it were something expensive to purchase, I might consider it. But no dry pasta.

:hi:

[hippywife]

2. I wouldn't. Unless, you know,

we were mid-apocalypse and food was scarce. :rofl:


Seriously, though...no. Sometimes it looks bug free until you boil it and they float to the surface.

:hi:

[Warpy]

3. No, the oil in the egg yolk would go rancid over time.

There are some things you can throw out, even if the packing is still nice. Really.

I knew my dad was only going to do ding-ding food after my mother died, so I cleaned out the kitchen cabinets. She hadn't cooked for 5 years, so everything pretty much went. There was an open box of cereal on the top shelf I was getting ready to pitch, and my dad grabbed it away from me telling me it was still good.

The look on his face when a huge palmetto bug scurried out of that box and up his arm is one I will treasure forever. The cereal got tossed.

If you know it's that old, toss it. That includes canned goods, too, because the flavor degrades after the first year.

[marions ghost]

4. thanks for your replies...

So far the nays have it.

Any yeas out there?

[Vinca]

5. I vote toss because pasta is cheap.

My quandary is a package of Slim Fast that expired about a year ago. Purchased during one fantasy that I would stay on a diet and never consumed. Keep or toss?

[kestrel91316]

6. I guess I'm weird. I see no reason not to use it. The amount of egg in it (if any, lol)

is miniscule, and dry pasta is not gonna sit there suddenly manufacturing its own food poisoning bacteria inside that packaging.

The quality might or might not be acceptable, but it won't hurt you.