Dyes the cheez
Mar. 9th, 2017 02:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunsen_hLast night, I came home from work excessively drained, and looked on the pantry shelves for something easy to cook for dinner. There were a few packages of KD, which I didn't remember having bought, but I decided that that would do nicely. Comfort food. I'd probably picked them up at some point when the grocery store was selling them at a ridiculously low price; it has happened from time to time. For a few weeks last year, the equivalent Italpasta product was being sold at 16 or 19 cents a box.
And everything was fine until I opened up the packet of cheez sauce powder. It was a kind of medium brown colour, instead of the expected bright orange; about the colour of an old apple core. Okay, I thought, this might be because Kraft has switched to using natural food-colouring agents. It'll probably brighten up when it's mixed into the pasta.
Except it didn't. The "finished" potful of pasta was still brown. It tasted a bit weird too.
Then I remembered where I'd acquired the package: Dad's pantry, when we were clearing out foodstuffs that he didn't need to take to the assisted-living place. It might have been there... a while.
So I checked the best-before date on the box. "98 AL 15". Given the expected shelf life of KD, the package was probably more than 20 years old.
Now we know. That fluorescent-orange cheezy substance does expire eventually, even in dry form, even inside its foil pouch inside the cardboard box, presumably stored under reasonably good temperature conditions.
And everything was fine until I opened up the packet of cheez sauce powder. It was a kind of medium brown colour, instead of the expected bright orange; about the colour of an old apple core. Okay, I thought, this might be because Kraft has switched to using natural food-colouring agents. It'll probably brighten up when it's mixed into the pasta.
Except it didn't. The "finished" potful of pasta was still brown. It tasted a bit weird too.
Then I remembered where I'd acquired the package: Dad's pantry, when we were clearing out foodstuffs that he didn't need to take to the assisted-living place. It might have been there... a while.
So I checked the best-before date on the box. "98 AL 15". Given the expected shelf life of KD, the package was probably more than 20 years old.
Now we know. That fluorescent-orange cheezy substance does expire eventually, even in dry form, even inside its foil pouch inside the cardboard box, presumably stored under reasonably good temperature conditions.
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Date: 2017-03-09 07:34 pm (UTC)P.
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Date: 2017-03-10 04:35 am (UTC)As serendipity goes, this was not one of my finer moments. Not quite "I can't believe I ate that!" but at least there don't seem to have been any bad after-effects other than a lingering bad taste in my mouth.
One of my lab colleagues made up a batch of KD as she was starting on her Comprehensive exams, shoved the leftovers into her fridge, and forgot about them until a couple of months later. When she found the container, there was no change in its contents other than a bit of oil having separated. I have long maintained that the only reason we can survive eating KD is that we are much bigger than it is. Bacteria can't cope.
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Date: 2017-03-10 12:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-03-10 05:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-05-28 11:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-03-10 12:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-03-11 08:05 pm (UTC)