Sure it was cheese? you'll know soon enough lol. Good luck.

I don't think you'll get sick. I checked on StillTasty (it was Grainlady referred me to it a long time ago). Here's what I found:

"Properly stored, an unopened chunk of cheddar cheese will last for about 6 months in the refrigerator.

Is an unopened chunk of cheddar cheese still safe after the "sell by" date or "best by date" on the package? Yes -the unopened cheddar cheese will typically remain safe to use for about 6 months, even if the "sell-by" or "best by" date on the package expires."

https://stilltasty.com/fooditems/index/16744

Yours is shredded and spent twice as long in the fridge, but according to your description of it, it wasn't spoiled at all.

Think of it as extra aged cheese :)

When I first read, I thought "Oh, it's just a month." Then I realized. sooz! If it were me, I'd call my pcp just to say "Hey, you're not going to believe .... " I'm pretty neurotic about food safety stuff and some foodborne illnesses hit right away, in a few days or longer; that said, my gut feel is that you're probably going to dodge the bullet (smell, taste, etc.) even though it's shredded dairy, and, yes, I actually knocked on wood.

Keeping my fingers crossed for you AND DH (on a lot of levels:)

CathyinSWPA

There's a running joke we have about our mom and her cheese drawer. We often throw things away that have gone off when we visit. But she's 80 and loves cheese so I think you'll be OK! Fingers crossed for you!

Just checked stilltasty.com and the bad news is

• Properly stored, an unopened package of shredded cheddar cheese will last for about 1 week after the “Sell By” or “Best By” date on the package.

but the good news is

• How can you tell if shredded cheddar cheese is bad or spoiled? The best way is to smell and look at the cheese: if cheese develops an off odor, flavor or appearance, it should be discarded; if mold appears, discard all of the shredded cheddar cheese.

I wouldn’t be too worried.

By now you should have the answer to your question. I'll go with the gang that says no worries. On the other hand, Imodium is your friend.

So far, so good, knock wood! Thanks for ringing in! As for DH, yeah, he's going to be schooled a little more.

;0)

I'm sure you'll be (are) fine. Kind of amazing there was no visible mold after a year!

My husband is banned from the kitchen (except for oven cleaning) for reasons like this. I couldn't school him, smacking did nothing but evoke laughter, and divorce isn't really an option...he does pay the bills.. so he's just not allowed any food prep at all ever. Can't even trust him not to toast moldy bread.

Thanks again for all the comments, and I especially enjoyed the *hilarious* ones (you know who you are!) !!!! All is well here, no tummy troubles, so hooray!

Glad you didn't get sick. Perhaps now question the nutritional value of food that won't even grow mold a year after the pull date :-) Or maybe the extraordinary power of preservatives!

sooz, we once bought a condo for rental property that had been vacant for many years (long story). There were some items in the fridge that had been there the entire time. It was mostly condiments and beer...no cheese! Obviously it was all quickly tossed, but I was kind of amazed how normal the ketchup looked, at least what we could see through the bottle.

A side note on the condo...we also found prescription medicine bottles full of money. It was definitely still good! :-)

I,d still rather take my chances with your old cheddar if I had to chose between that,and that marzo cantu Italion maggety cheese.

Who else is checking their cheese drawers today? :)

Cheese, aged cheese like cheddar doesn't "go bad"...it just ages more...or gets hard...or gets moldy. If the mold isn't red....it's still safe to eat....afterall what's blue cheese?
I have eaten blue cheese that was stuck in the back of the refrigerator for more than 2 years.....a bit dry...VERY blue and delicious, what wasn't compeletly dried out> What do you think 12 year old cheddar is?...old cheese!! Glad you didn't toss it!

I'm late to this party, but all the recommendations you've been looking at are from people who can be sued if they steer someone wrong!

Cheese is preserved milk. The whole point is the "preserved" part. Packaged cheese has the air sucked out to keep it from going bad. Cheese that has gone off looks and/or smells bad or wrong.

I feel safe in so saying because you didn't eat the cheese on my say-so, but while I might be careful with it, and not give it to someone with a compromised or deficient immune system, I wouldn't hesitate.

I've chucked plenty that were well within their use by dates, but were not fit for consumption. Use by dates are the manufacturers' guarantees that it should be top quality up to that date and that they'll stand behind it (refund you if it goes off before then).

"I'm late to this party, but all the recommendations you've been looking at are from people who can be sued if they steer someone wrong!"

Oh, good lord! Are you serious?

Yeah, but my sentence could have used more modifiers. I meant the manufacturers, and even the government agencies, though I'm not sure they can be sued, per se. They have to err far on the side of caution. I saw a food quality scientist on TV even admit it. If they say "2 hrs." safe out of the fridge, they really mean more than 4, because they know that people will fudge the numbers and guestimate the timing, and all that, and that if they give advice that people will swear up and down that they're following, it had better be foolproof advice. The government has a much larger interest in keeping you alive and healthy, no matter what stupid thing you do, than keeping you from throwing away food that may be perfectly fine. So yeah, the use by date is what they'll stick their necks out and guarantee, not the date when they expect the food to go bad.