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Food safety question

last year

So...

I have a sealed plastic package of oil cured olives in my fridge. They are almost a year past their best buy date. I am usually pretty sure about what food I consider safe or not but I am stumped here. The package sealed and has been refrigerated. Olives are pretty salty. OTOH food in oil....

Opinions?

Featured Answer

agmss15
Original Author

last year

And fwiw my grandfather and myself at approximately the same age. He was a really good cook. I have early memories of his bouillabaisse! And he was an artist.

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Comments (9)

carolb_w_fl_coastal_9b
last year
Open and check? I'd be more wary if they weren't refrigerated. Curing olives is a means of preserving, so I'd think a year old is no big deal.

The flavor might've gone off tho, even if they won't make anybody ill.
chloebud
last year
I agree with Carol. Sealed and in the fridge should be okay. However, I wasn’t sure so this came up in a quick check.

https://www.doesitgobad.com/do-olives-go-bad/
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Thank you, everyone! I forgot the second step of posting last night. This was my reply to Lindalou: No, it was not cold at all. Now I am hoping I don't get sick from what I already ate before I noticed the fridge problem. OR the swig of spoiled carrot juice that alerted me. Luckily there is very little immediately-perishable food in that fridge -- it is mostly seeds, lotions, produce, cheese, stuff like that. Oh, dang, the figs are probably moldy. >Some food borne illnesses can take weeks to incubate in your gut. Can you tell me more about these, so I know what to watch out for? Or just names and I can google :). -- After I went to bed, I remembered I had also eaten fish oil and clam juice out of there. Scary! I had some kind of histamine response last night -- burning pain all over-- which decreased some when I took a prescription dose anti-inflammatory. It's still with me now, though. The pain kept me awake most of the night. It's like what I get when I eat gluten, but without the other symptoms. But there was no gluten. My immune system just does not like something in that stew of microbial toxins I ingested with my meals yesterday :/. No barfing or other GI stuff though, which I guess is good. Today's project: Throw out, clean out, move frozen foods out, thaw fridge overnight and see if that cures it or if I need a new fridge.
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My decision would, in part, depend on your kitchen. Is it 90F? If so, i'd toss it. 50F? Probably not. The USDA says 2 hours at any temperature over 40F and you should throw it out. They also say never cook beef less than 145F, and I ignore that completely. So. the answer is tht it's up to you. The USDA says toss it. I wouldn't hesitate to make stock with it. The risk level you are comfortable with is entirely up to you. Annie
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The link between childhood obesity is tenuous at best...and is merely a supposition certainly nothing supported by trusted researchers... This quote comes from another site called "fitday" and was written by someone with a string of letters after her name. "The "Spurious Relationship" When conducting research, one error that can be made is finding a "spurious relationship." This type of error happens when researchers see coinciding events and determine that they are related. For example, one notices that ice cream sales go up in summer. One also notes that fires increase in summer. One therefore determines that ice cream sales cause fires. Clearly other factors are in play. The same can be said of the c-section and obesity relationship. If you take a look at the study, the findings aren't as clear, or as large, as the researchers claim.
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ETA, we cross posted. They're probably fine if commercially produced. Sometimes there's a good seal that just doesn't pop. Still, if you're worried, don't take the chance. -------------- Don't green olives have a special kind of processing with caustic chemicals? I wouldn't consume them without a label. If there's a label with the name of the people who made them, I'd look them up online and call. The olives may have been commercially produced and just jarred in the vinegar, etc., by the vendor, at which point they should be fine if they seem "fresh", but there's no way of knowing without at least talking to them. It's not worth the risk if you really don't know who made them and how.
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CA Kate z9
last year
Thank you for the article, chloebud. From what I read I have a lot of olives to toss. I used to eat lots of them, but have tapered-off in the last year.
plllog
last year
The most salient line in the does it go bad article is near the end: ”If the olives smell and look perfectly fine, time for the last check: taste.” I don't like olives, so have had lingering olive bar olives, as well as ones from cans and jars. They decline in quality long before they rot. If they get soft or funky, you don't want to eat them even if they perfectly safe. :)
petalique
last year
last modified: last year
Don’t oil-cured olives have a lot of salt? Olives, olive oil and salt. In jar/container in fridge.

What would go ”bad?”

What about making a yummy cured olive, salt and EVOO Focaccia? Ofv haand, I’d say that will help insure against any whatever-bad-spores or cooties.

I made it once, from scratch as soon as I returned from Italy one year. I think I might have made up my recipe on the fly after looking at a NYT magazine. Darn, it was so delicious.

Here is a blogger’s recipe and storyboard. Oh, and fresh rosemary leaves are nice.

https://foodslice.blogspot.com/2011/07/black-olive-and-rosemary-focaccia.html?m=1

PS ^^^ I like to make deep dimples in the crust before baking to hold the EVOO. Use a lot. When it come from the oven an cools a bit, add more.
CA Kate z9
last year
last modified: last year
After this thread I checked on my olive supply. Several cans and jars got tossed because of their age - 2011. I had 4 cans of very nice olives. I checked online to see when I bought them - Dec. 2020. OK. I opened one of the cans and they were still good but rather soft and tasteless. Rats! I will check each can and hope.

Maybe I can use them for cooking? I don't do that much, but I suppose I can start using them this way.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.
agmss15
Original Author
last year
last modified: last year
Actually the specific birthday request by my nephew was for what he calls my ’salty, greasy bread with olives’ ie focaccia. The olives were fine. Whew!

I also made one with the last few tomatoes from @sleevendog‘s miniature tomato seedlings. Thanks again!

In return my nephew made his delicious smoked salmon for my mom and myself. We had a small group family birthday celebration.

Here is my cutie pie nephew way way before his 29th birthday. His birthday is right after his great grandfather’s who he is named after... I have been thinking about how they were both were born at the end of (different) centuries. During periods of great change.
bragu_DSM 5
last year
He looks like an artist ,,,

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