Heh Heh... There's a NAME for what I do!

[bestclimb]

dates an packages are typically a sell by date. One of the stores I shop at sells food on the last date of the sell by at deeply discounted rates (50-90%). Use by dates are set with a "guaranteed freshness" in mind. The assumption that 99.9% off food is good and a day later 25% has gone past good is a pretty wide assumption. If .1% of food is bad in your life when you buy 1000 packages of food 1 will make you sick seems like a pretty high % of hazardous food.

I am going to use Peter to illustrate my point. If he has twice gotten sick from food and he is ~30 years old(a guess given population distribution he is likely older, though he may be younger), subtracting the first 10 years of his life for not remembering times he may have gotten sick when younger. So for the last 20 years sick twice. that's once every 10 years. 10 years times 365 days times 3 meals a day times 3 ingredients (a swag) equals 32850 products he has been exposed to per 1 that made him sick. Peter has been exposed to 99.997% safe food or only .003% unsafe food. Given the buffer manufactures put into there sell by/use by dates I should think using found food from a frequently observed source would be pretty safe.

I am not likely to go dumpster diving even now that I figure it is way safer than I would have thought it would be. Mostly because I am not a bum, it violates social norms, and diggin in the trash for food seems...well trashy. I do definitely see a place for "expired" food in food banks and what not. It does not make sense to just fill landfills with food that could be used by folks that could use it.

[Christ]

Wait... was that... logic?!

[Frank Lee]

I haven't kept any stats- maybe I could keep a "gas" "log" for my terlit???- on how often I've been sickened by food. It's not often, though, or I'd change my ways.

[Christ]

I don't think I've ever had food poisoning... but I've gone to work w/ the flu and never knew it until I was diagnosed several days later, so eh..

[Frank Lee]

Yeah, it's like I've been sick but why? What do I assign the blame to? Touched a cootie on a door handle? Someone sneezed in my proximity? Ate something "bad"? The frequency of it is low enough for "bad" food borne illness to fall into the randomly caught category.

[Christ]

I recently met a group of squatters when I went to do a cleanout.

They moved out for the week I was there, and left no mess/damage, even a couple of them helped clean. I offered to buy them lunch for their help, but they refused, and said they "had plenty"... As soon as I was done, they moved right back in.

They weren't bad people at all.. not what you hear about when people say the word "squatter"... they were as kind as the house-sitters that you hire from professional services.

[bestclimb]

Originally Posted by Christ

Wait... was that... logic?!

coulda been, still a few assumptions and guesses in there. Another thought is that a higher % of the food could be safe, while in the package then whoever prepped the food may have introduced a toxin. If that were the case then you could not blame the illness on the product. For all the bad press processed food gets (some of it deserved as naturally derived food is "healthier") it is pretty safe. Sorta like aviation, very safe but when something bad happens it gets broadcast everywhere.

I have yet to see how a dead grain fed cow is any less healthy than a dead grazed cow. They are both dead.

[Christ]

I believe I read somewhere that you're statistically more likely to get hit by lightning than to be involved in a plane crash... though that was in the late 90's, and could have changed drastically, given recent circumstances.

Per capita, Air transit is still less likely to kill you than driving.

[MadisonMPG]

So you guys are eating out of the dumpsters? I am looking into doing a little research on the "live on minimal stuff" strategy.

[bestclimb]

Originally Posted by Christ

I believe I read somewhere that you're statistically more likely to get hit by lightning than to be involved in a plane crash... though that was in the late 90's, and could have changed drastically, given recent circumstances.

Per capita, Air transit is still less likely to kill you than driving.

The scariest thing about flying is the drive to the airport. Really there is a lot in aviation that can bite you, it's all about identifying hazards, reducing and mitigating risks, and making informed safe choices.