-Isms: Views on life in rural America

“When I miss my parents I put 12 expired salad dressings in my fridge and it feels like home.”

The abovementioned meme made me chuckle the other day because:

1.) so true; and

2.) I definitely resemble my parents. (Note to my children: I counted and there are only six expired dressing bottles in the refrigerator door.)

The meme hit home after reading a recent article in “The Atlantic,” about expiration dates on packaged food.

Like author Yasmin Tayag, I have multiple cartons of expired yogurt in the fridge. Do I still eat it? You bet. Is it still delicious? Absolutely, unless it’s blueberry. Blueberry yogurt is never tasty.

I get it. Food expiration dates refer to quality, not safety, of food items.

Some foods - especially those eaten raw - require caution since they can spread listeria or other food-borne illnesses. Avoid foods that smell “off,” have mold or an unpleasant taste.

But the box of Cheerios purchased seven months ago, with a sell-by date from three months ago? Still safe.

According to ReFED, a food-waste nonprofit, Americans wasted approximately 305 million pounds of food this Thanksgiving. That’s a pound of food waste by every individual in this country. Think of the number of food-insecure people could be fed.

Granted, I’m not going to dig into the container of green bean casserole left over from the holiday. It’s headed for the compost pile. The week-old loaf of bread, sitting in the back of the second shelf of the refrigerator, can be cubed, seasoned and turned into croutons.

Hey, at least I’m not saving butter wrappers to grease a 9x13 pan, like my depression-era grandmother did. On second thought, since butter is $6.39 per pound, maybe I should be duplicating her efforts.

A 2019 study appearing in “Waste Management” reports “84% of consumers discard food near the package date and more than 33% believe the federal government regulates date labeling.

Don’t get me wrong: our cupboards aren’t filled with out-of-date foodstuffs. But, I do have a pretty good stockpile of canned black beans, cake mixes, bottled water and coconut milk.

It’s best to be prepared.