I came across a surprising statistic the other day, it is estimated that over £12 million is wasted each year by people throwing away cold cups of tea. God alone knows how they managed to work this out but if it's true, what a waste! Personally I see nothing wrong with cold tea, in fact I quite like it but have these people never heard of a quick blast in the microwave? This triggered me off into thinking about sell-by dates, another cause of food waste because it is illegal to sell food that has exceeded its date so it goes to landfill.
It might surprise the younger people but us oldies can remember a time when there were no dates and we all relied on our eyes and nose to decide whether food was fit to eat or not. Funnily enough we weren't dying like flies! Part of the reason for this was that we cooked food at home and we made sure it was well-cooked for long enough to kill the majority of bacteria. The sell-by date only became necessary when ready-prepared foods became common and were not thoroughly cooked before eating, another example of how the food processors have modified our attitudes to food. Indeed, we knew that raw meat became more tender if it was allowed to 'mature' before we cooked it. An extreme case is the way the gentry used to hang game until the maggots were dropping off it before washing in vinegar and then cooking. In case you're wondering, I class this as a depraved appetite and never went that far! However, I'm sure you will have noted that the very best beef is hung in the cold room for about three weeks before it's sold. The way this works is that as soon as meat is hung the bacteria start to break the meat down and the first parts that are affected are the minute fibres of gristle in the muscle and it is these that cause fresh meat to be tough. Normal cooking arrests the process, kills the bacteria and you have tender meat.
I like good food and I hate waste so I have a suggestion. Why can't out of date food be kept on the shelves in a special section and sold at a reduced price to those of us who know enough about food and its treatment to make up our own minds whether something is fit to eat or not? One example, almost all chickens contain harmful bacteria but we all knew that if it was cooked till it dropped off the bone it was tender and safe. Modern chefs tell us this ruins the meat and urge us to eat it pink because that's how they cook it in kitchens where cooking time is money. They may have much to answer for, as my mother used to say “It isn't burnt, it's just well done”!
No sell-by date, home made!
