Would YOU eat it?

[Colonel Green]

Well, it's been nearly 24 hours and I still live.

Based on this experience, I am confident in asserting that food poisoning is a myth, a communist plot intended to weaken capitalist economies by urging rampant and unnecessary food purchases, thereby diverting much needed funds away from the solid gold aircraft carrier program. Don't even get me started on fluoride.

 

[Roger Wilco]

^^
Seriously, I think the suggestions of many people here are kind of wasteful. Why throw away food that's perfectly fine just because it's not totally fresh? If it smells good, looks good and tastes good it very likely is good; you're not going to die from one bite.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^^
Seriously, I think the suggestions of many people here are kind of wasteful. Why throw away food that's perfectly fine just because it's not totally fresh?

"Not totally fresh" usually means "rotten".

If it smells good, looks good and tastes good it very likely is good

Not necessarily. A piece of food can still be rotten and/or have any number of bacteria, yet still not smell or look bad.

you're not going to die from one bite.

You could get very sick though. Why take that risk?

 

[Count Zero]

It seems to me that Americans are much more concerned about the 'freshness' of food than the rest of the world. Maybe it's a sign of affluence.
Over here, my parents' generation, who grew up shortly after the war, ate all sorts of dubious food because they didn't have much back then. I'm already more cowardly than them, e.g. I throw fruits with rotten spots away while they would just cut the rotten parts away.

 

[Geckothan]

In a world where food is so easy to come by (for most of us anyway), there's no point in chancing it with potentially bad food. Is it really worth weeks of sickness and diarrhoea?

 

[Colonel Green]

If you are suffering from weeks of diarrhea, I really don't think you can blame a single meal.

^^
Seriously, I think the suggestions of many people here are kind of wasteful. Why throw away food that's perfectly fine just because it's not totally fresh?

"Not totally fresh" usually means "rotten".

No it doesn't. Are you seriously unable to conceive of a middle ground between "totally fresh" and "rotten"? If so, I've got news for you: Virtually every piece of food you've ever eaten was "rotten".

This is just another example of your pathological black or white BS.

 

[iguana_tonante]

It seems to me that Americans are much more concerned about the 'freshness' of food than the rest of the world. Maybe it's a sign of affluence.

Maybe. But I think it's also a matter of different perceptions of risk. I have found that usually American advertising are much more aggressive than the ones I see here, especially when it comes to medicines and health: "what if it happens to YOU?" seems to be a common sentiment. I'm thinking that it has generated over time an inflated sense of danger about some health risks (while, ironically, exposing themselves to whole new bunch of risks, like processed foods and abuse of medicines).

"Not totally fresh" usually means "rotten".

No it doesn't. Are you seriously unable to conceive of a middle ground between "totally fresh" and "rotten"? If so, I've got news for you: Virtually every piece of food you've ever eaten was "rotten".

This is just another example of your pathological black or white BS.

Color me unsurprised. And pink. With some brown bushy parts. But mostly unsurprised.