Sour Cream - Sell by March 10

[Luv to Cook]

I am making baked potatoes tonite and found some sour cream lurking in the back of my fridge. It's not green and smells fine, but is it still okay? I never know about this stuff.

Thanks!
Anita

[kwormann]

I am so picky, I dont use many things past the sell by date, and I only keep sour cream open for 1 week.

kim

[lorilei]

http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif Sour cream is the one thing (oh, yogurt too) that I feel comfortable eating AFTER the expiration date. It's SOUR cream, after all. And I've never noticed a difference in taste... or gotten sick from old sour cream.

My opinion -- go for it...

[aggie94]

I am probably not as careful as I should be about expiration dates. Milk is the one thing I won't touch after the exp date, but everything else, if it still looks and smells OK, I'll use it.

[Luv to Cook]

Thanks everyone...I think I am going to go ahead and use it...I really do not feel like going to the store.

[Adriana]

Technically things have 7 days after the date - but for sour cream if it smells OK I would use it.

[funnybone]

For me, it would not be touched after midnight of the "best before" or "sell by" date. I am just particular. How do I know that it isn't off just because it didn't turn green. Salomonella, last I heard, did not have a color.

[sneezles]

So what did we do before expiration dates? Simply sniff, touch and maybe taste? Works for most things! I mean, why does water have an expiration date?

[Tiger]

I always wonder about the "sell by" dates too. Ok it's sold, but how do they know how long you're going to keep it!? Does that 7 day rule work for everything?

[MrsReber]

It all depends. I notice that if my milk is unopened for a couple of days, it'll stay fresh well past the due date. I confess that I just used some cream cheese that was unopened, but had a date of 12/00 on it. It looked and tasted fine- and it was just me and dh for dinner. I've used sour cream well past the due date as well. If I am really not sure, I will taste it- not if it's green or fuzzy, of course!

[Kerri]

Keep in mind that those dates are all sell-by dates, NOT expiration dates! Little tidbit I learned in my food microbiology class and now it bugs me when it is refered to as expiration dates.

[Vanessa]

If it was unopen and it smells and tastes fine go ahead. Yogurt & sour cream will be fine.