You might know me from Buzzfeed Bring Me!'s

"Giant Food Time."

I'm a huge foodie, I cook all the time,

and food is just a huge part of my identity.

And something I learned recently was sell-by dates.

You know when you buy food at the store

and it has those little date labels on them?

Those labels are called sell-by dates,

and the way I've operated my entire life

is that if that date had passed,

I threw the food away, no questions asked.

To better myself, I decided to tackle this learning

in a very real and public way: by only eating food

that has safely gone past its sell-by date for 72 hours.

That's everything from canned food, to dairy,

to vegetables, to even tea.

But, before I jump into this adventure,

I want to make sure that I'm going to be consuming anything

that will make me sick or misinform the world.

So I'm heading over to UCLA

to meet with Dr. Catherine Carpenter,

who has a PhD in Nutrition to learn more.

Catherine, I'm so excited to be here.

I have so many questions.

So first question.

When did we start putting sell-by dates on food?

- Well, the whole idea about providing dates

was actually a movement started by consumers in the '70s.

And the food industry picked up on this.

It's been quite successful as far as giving the consumers

a timeframe to make sure that the food will be fresh,

but on the other side,

it's also causing a lot of food waste.

- I'm guilty of that.

I feel like I toss a lot of food

once I see that it's past the sell-by,

even though I would look at that, and I'm like,

"It might still be good," but I have a sensitive stomach,

so I just don't want to take that risk.

So how strictly should I follow the sell-by date guideline?

- It's a message from the food industry to the retailer,

telling them to pull the food off the shelf,

so it isn't necessarily the date when the food goes bad.

These dates are designed really to protect the public,

and they're not fixed; so, in other words,

you do have a little more time afterwards.

- Are there certain foods that I should really avoid

eating past its sell-by date?

- Perishable food, so things like meat and dairy.

These foods can go bad.

They come from living tissue.

You want to be more careful about the dates,

and you want to make sure that you prepare them quickly

and/or you store them properly

and/or you freeze them right away.

And that's very different from foods

like cereals or pastas.

Those foods, they've already been prepared,

they're basically pretty dried out,

and the worst thing that can happen is they'll go stale.

Also what's the other way to tell if meat is good or not?

You smell it, you look at it.

If it smells rotten, whatever the date is,

unfortunately, you'll have to let it go.

It's important, I think,

for the public to develop more awareness

about how much power they have in their own life

actually to make a difference.

- Okay, so taking that all into consideration,

what's your biggest advice as I go into the next 72 hours,

eating food past its sell-by date?

- Let's have the idea that the food's gonna tate good,

and let's just prepare it

as though there was nothing wrong with it.

- Hopefully, I can do that, and I can reduce my waste,

and also become a better consumer in the future.

(upbeat music)

So I went through my entire cabinet

and I found one or two of these past the sell-by date,

and I thought, "Hmm, I don't have a lot of things,

"but you who does?

"Asian mothers."

So I came to my mom's house.

She's not here right now.

I'm gonna raid her entire cabinet

and take out all the things that are past the sell-by date.

I'm pretty positive there's gonna be a bunch.

So after grocery shopping at my mom's house,

this is what I have.

Biscoff cookies, best by August 26, 2019.

Miso soup base, July 8, 2019.

Some rock sugar, best by 2016.

Then we've got our flax seeds, best before March 6, 2018.

Some steel-cut oats, best before November 10, 2019.

And black bean sauce mix, otherwise known as jjajang,

best before September 27th, 2019.

There's a lot of good stuff here.

I think they're still good.

I've kind of sniffed some.

I think I'm gonna be able to easily make these meals.

Yay for things not going to waste!

Good morning.

It's Day 1 of eating foods past its sell-by date.

I have my celery,

which is past its best-by date of about four days.

I'm gonna make some celery juice to kick off my morning,

and I think it'll taste great, but we'll see.

Cheers!

Ah!

I love celery juice.

It's Day 1, lunchtime.

I have these noodles.

They actually expired in 2018, and it's an opened bag.

But I smelled it, and it smells fine.

Usually, I can smell when it's gone stale,

but this one doesn't smell stale.

So I finished making my lunch.

It's using the expired noodles from 2018,

and on top is Sichuan-style boiled fish,

and topped with green onions and white pepper.

Mmm!

Oh my god, so good!

If those noodles got thrown away, I would have been so sad.

They're so good!

It's dinnertime for Day 1.

I'm going to be making black bean noodles

with steak, squash, and onions.

I don't have noodles

because I already ate my expired noodles

and I don't have noodles at home,

so I'm making them.

Okay, look at this!

I can get with this.

- Wow, that's a nice noodle.

- This is good noodle!

So this black bean sauce is best before September 27, 2019.

It's never been opened,

so I think it should be okay, actually.

Babe, this sauce expired a year ago.

- Oh, okay.

But it was like powdered.

It was like dry sauce.

- Yeah, and it was not an open package.

I've been eating expired foods

or food past its best-by and sell-by date all day,

and my butthole is fine.

- Can we dig in?

- Yeah.

(slurping)

Mmm.

- Oh, that was so good.

I wish everything expired could taste like this.

- Mm-hmm.

Yum.

(claps)

That's that.

Morning.

It's Day 2 of the challenge,

and this morning, I'm gonna have some miso soup,

instant miso soup for breakfast,

and this one is best before July 8, 2019.

(sad trumpet blows)

I think this one's really best before July 2019.

I think that really strong miso flavor is gone.

Maybe I put too much water.

Now I'm at this small dilemma, where I'm like,

to waste or not to waste.

Uh.

Hey.

I'm making the decision to toss this,

because at the end of the day,

if you're eating food past its sell-by date,

I think it's best to be safe.

Dr. Catherine said to taste it, to smell it,

and if it doesn't feel right,

then it's probably best to throw it out.

And so that's what I'm gonna do.

The miso soup does not taste good.

This the red bean.

The date on here is March 9, 2019,

so nearly a year past its best-by, expiration, sell-by date.

I don't know.

Not sure.

It doesn't really specify.

And I also have sweet potato starch.

This one is only past its date by a month or so.

This is what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna use the sweet potato starch,

mix it in with some stewed sweet potatoes

and make some sweet potato rice balls,

and then I'm also going to use the red beans as a topping

for a shaved ice I'm gonna make.

Lastly, we're gonna add the grass jelly.

And then we're gonna add some condensed milk.

I made shaved ice.

Yay!

All that work for this.

Well, it's worth it, 'cause you know what?

We're quarantined.

Mmm.

I'm happy.

This is worth getting a stomachache

for the miso soup this morning.

Mmm.

Good morning.

It's the final 24 hours of eating food

past its sell-by date.

So for Day 3, I still have a lot of things to use

that I haven't used, and I'm not gonna let them go to waste,

so I'm gonna do a lot of cooking today.

For breakfast, I'm gonna start out with a smoothie bowl

topped with hemp hearts.

And this was best before July 2018.

Mmm.

Oh, good texture.

Mmm.

I like it.

Okay, time for a midday snack.

I'm gonna use these these Biscoff cookies

that were best before August 26, 2019.

Mm, smells good.

Nice and brown sugary.

Mmm.

Okay, that's good.

The last meal with these foods past its date

on the packaging.

I've gone with these two items for tonight,

Quick Grits and steel-cut oats.

The steel-cut oats were best before November 10, 2019,

and the Quick Grits were best before April 26, 2019.

So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna make the grits,

garlic butter grits.

And for the steel-cut oats,

I'm gonna process these and turn into a batter

so I can use it as the crust on air-fried cod.

And then I'll eat that with a side of asparagus.

Mmm.

I guess that's 72 hours of eating foods

that stores probably wouldn't sell, and I'm still alive.

I think I made some pretty good meals too.

If everyone in the world knew what the words

on their packaging actually meant,

we'd be wasting a lot less fun.

This was fun.

This was good.

This really challenged me.

The Earth is gonna be much happier now,

because I will change my habits.

(upbeat music)