Nuts

[bladespark]

My box of grape nuts has an expiration date. It expires in about a week, in fact. And this makes me wonder... what happens when grape nuts go bad? It's not like they can go stale! And they're not going to grow mold, or "turn" or any of that. Why do they even have expiration dates?

Really expiration dates don't always mean much. I mean on thinks like milk, or ground beef or whatever, sure. You can probably use them just fine for a day or two past the date, maybe a week on some things, but yes they do expire pretty close to the date on them. But canned goods are actually good WAY past when they expire, usually. I've used a tin of sweetened condensed milk that was about three years expired, and I couldn't detect anything wrong with it. And if any cereal type thing is sealed up still, it's good long past the expiration as well.

But I think grape nuts, sealed or unsealed, are forever. Seriously.

Comments

[nicodemusrat.livejournal.com]

That's when the Grape Nuts start to... hatch.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Your icon totally made me do a double-take. *cracks up*

[svashtar.livejournal.com]

Grape Nuts are made from gravel and tree bark, so you may be right.

Though with the tree bark, you'd think the Grape Nuts would eventually attract termites or slime mold.

[beetlecat.livejournal.com]

I do not think they sell that brand of cereal in Canada (I've never seen it anyways) but I've eaten expired cereal before and it is not harmful but tastes stale and unappetizing.

Canned foods, on the other hand, will last until the next Armageddon. When my grandmother died, we cleaned out her cupboards. She had things in there from many, many years ago and it was still perfectly fine ... except for the can or two that had (become contaminated?) and exploded..

I am now the proud owner of an unopened box of Kraft brand Macaroni & Salad Mix that expired in 1985..

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

If you haven't eaten grape nuts, then I shall explain by saying that a fresh grape nut nugget (they are not flakes or any such thing, they are little bits, rather like small pieces of gravel) is rock hard. It's the texture of those black overcooked cornflakes you sometimes get. A "full" bowl of grape nuts is about 1/4 cup of them, because they're so dense that fills you up nicely.

So there's no way on earth the things could go stale.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

augh. *pokes at italics*

[kainhighwind-dr.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh, they exist in Canada... I have childhood memories of the first time I tried them. *shudder*

Damn funny icon, btw. ;)

[xodiac.livejournal.com]

You forgot the ultimate in never-go-bads: Twinkies!

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

LOL Grape Nuts are like Twinkies. XD

[malakim2099.livejournal.com]

Grape Nuts are the Anti-Twinkie.

I mean really... all natural, all healthy, and completely the opposite of Twinkies.

I suspect that if you put a Twinkie into a bowl of Grape Nuts, they would annihilate each other in a pure matter-antimatter reaction.

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

i meant that theyre similar in that they both last virtually forever. and yes i know that thats a myth about twinkies.

[rimspace.livejournal.com]

Best before dates on some products are really completely arbitrary. They're legally required to have them, but some things either just don't go off, or have shelf lifes so long it is hard to prove an expiry date, so they just slap on a date some years after manufacture. In general, if you don't think something is likely to go off, the BBE date is probably a meaningless legal technicality.

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

Remarkably enough, I can attest that grape-nuts do indeed go stale. They taste odd.

[lightgreendryad.livejournal.com]

This is why I'm not completely convinced of the idea of refreshing your food storage supply. if it's all cans and dried pasta, who cares?

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Heh. Indeed. Though I will say that the timeframe matters. 20 years even pasta gets a little... odd. I've eaten extremely old pasta, it is edible, but not exactly as good as it used to be.

[lightgreendryad.livejournal.com]

Hey. When you've got no electricity, no heat in the house, and your entire neighborhood is starving, pasta that tastes a little odd is perfectly acceptable.

[coyoty.livejournal.com]

When Grape Nuts go bad, they become Vinegar Nuts. Or maybe Night Train Nuts.