Dating jars, bottles and sometimes cans sounds a bit odd I know, but how many times have you gone to the fridge and looked at a bottle of pesto or curry paste and thought it says to use within 14 days, when did I open it?
With a permanent marker across the bar code area I write the date that I opened that jar so I know to use it more often as time is running out, or to just throw it away and not wonder because the 14 days has gone by. Sometimes they just don’t make smaller jars of what you want.
There’s a store I go to that has canned food and other stuff as seconds. They also have goods not sold in the major grocery stores any more, the stock didn’t sell well and are favourites of mine that are hard to find. The label is wrong, the use by date is near and some of the tins slightly dented. On those tins mislabelled (you do know what’s inside it’s just a plain sticker) I rewrite in marker so the name is bigger, easier to see.
I also check any bottles I buy for the use by date as I’m sure you’ve found that sometimes the use by is printed on the glass, can wipe off easily and being the dates are quite often short I write the use by date on the label in an easy to see place, I then know to use that bottle first. Use some of your own sticky dot labels if you think the marker will be to hard to read over the original label.
It’s easy to do, just check your items as you’re putting them away from your shopping trip, set aside if you can’t read the dates easily so that you can mark them last and put them away.
I know this may seem like extra work but it makes things easier when you glance in your pantry to see what’s what. You’ll also be able to wipe out and clean your pantry or fridge and not find out of date food stuffs.
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