Confession: I ate really old food

This week I ate canned pumpkin that was three years past its expiration date, and I didn't die. Not even once.

Why risk it? Why not throw it out? Because I was feeling both frugal and contrary.

Last week a Smart Spending message board reader started a thread about an "out of code" food market in her neighborhood. The outlet specializes in food that's super-cheap because it has passed its sell-by date. Some of the items -- canned goods, coffee, cake mixes and the like -- were four or five months beyond their suggested dates.

Some people who responded were grossed out by the very idea. One called such marketing "a step above a Dumpster dive."

That's when I decided to bake some pie.

I’d been meaning to anyway, in order to use up a can of organic pumpkin whose top bore the stamp, "Best by 9/2006." It had gotten lost at the back of my daughter's cupboard and was one of the things she left at my place when she moved to Arizona.

The can looked fine: no suspicious lumps or leakage. The contents smelled normal. The result turned out quite nicely, thanks. The flavor was a little blander than the pies I usually make, but what could I expect three years after the pureed gourd had passed its peak?

Food expiration dates don't necessarily mean much. With dry or canned goods they generally indicate the tail-end of peak flavor. In fact, expiration dates are not required by federal law except on infant formula and some baby foods. (See this USDA fact sheet for more info.)

• Bing: About food expiration dates

Please note: Common sense must be used. I wouldn't buy three-month-old milk unless it were clearly marked "yogurt," and any "manager's special" meat has to be red, not green. Nor would I buy canned food if the cans were rusted or bulging.

Do what works for you. Myself, I think people get a little too jumpy about things that are probably fine. For example, one message board reader noted a roommate who throws out the milk the day after its use-by date -- without checking to see if it really has gone bad. To me that seems like a potential waste of food.

Besides, it could be a lot worse. My former boss was raised mostly in the Alaska Bush because his parents were teachers. In the mid-1950s his family ate surplus powdered eggs from World War II, and they all lived. Just not happily, because powdered eggs aren't very good even when they're fresh.

Related reading:

• 5 sleek marketing ploys aimed at your grocery money
• Less than food stamps: Could you survive?
• A beginner's guide to beans