# Sell by date!!



## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

What happens to everything that is coming up to it's sell by date?
You never see anything being sold off here.... is it just repackaged?
Frozen food is something I never buy now as I was in Carrefour once and the all the frozen food had defrosted and they just switched the freezers back on... and I am sure this is a common occurance.

Maiden


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## SamWelbeck (May 24, 2010)

I'm sure you're right. In fact I can often taste what I refer to as that "freezer taste" when something (especially meat) has been defrosted and then frozen again without airing it. It almost picks up the taste of the smell of the freezer, if you know what I mean? I have also found many items which are past their sell by dates in shops like Metro, yogurt especially. Always worth checking.


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## DeadGuy (Jan 22, 2010)

MaidenScotland said:


> What happens to everything that is coming up to it's sell by date?
> You never see anything being sold off here.... is it just repackaged?
> Frozen food is something I never buy now as I was in Carrefour once and the all the frozen food had defrosted and they just switched the freezers back on... and I am sure this is a common occurance.
> 
> Maiden


Hi there,

You don't really need to know the answer, trust me! Just trust your nose and eyes, and stick to the supermarkets that sell a lot, that's all I can say!

Good luck


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## Tinytraveler (Feb 17, 2010)

Even if the sell by date is ok does not mean the product is. There was a little grcoery (closet) store that I stopped at that had a stack of yourgut on the counter during one of the hot hot days we had at 4m. 
We have bought new packages of pita bread that had mold on it.
More than one bottle of coke in glass bottles that there was glass pieces in the coke (luckily we found out before anyone drank it). 

What I would like to know is the sell by date the same as an expiration date? 
How long does the milk in he card board boxes that is unrefrigerated at the grocery store last from the time that it is opened? 
How is it that milk can be unrefrigerated?? Before moving here I had only seen milk that was refrigerated or powder form for emergencies like a hurricane.


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## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

Sell by date is the last day it should be available in the shop.. it is still o.k to use, it is a way of shops etc protecting themselves, use by date is the day that you should no longer use it, but then again who ever throw out toothpaste, make up, shampoo etc at the use by date????
I would never use any food stuff here past it's sell by date but have happily done so in the UK in fact eating yoghurt up to a week past the sell by date. The flavoured yoghurt milk here has the date that it was produced stamped on it... that can lead to confusion when you cannot read Arabic but you can work out numerals and you tend to presume that it is out of date. Carton milk is fine to use and I would think the shops have a high turnover of it so that you are never really getting anything that has been sitting for long.

Maiden


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## moataz123 (May 26, 2010)

Mainly, I advise everyone:

1- Not to buy frozen meat products, partly because it's 90% not meat put other filler components, and partly because it had been for sure frozen and refrozen several times specially in summer. Better to find someone (a butcher) that will give you expensive fresh meat and you do with it what you want.

2- Not to buy frozen fishes at all, and to beware of the fresh fishes in the supermarket during summer. Better to buy fishes and shrimps from a fish market and you go there early in the morning, buy good amount and freeze them by yourself.

3- For chicken products, watch carefully the expiry date.

4- For milk products like yogurts, but the ones produced TODAY or yesterday and nothing else. Milk boxes are safe because they have a special pack that can keep then sterilized, so never buy an opened pack or a punctured pack even if the price is very low. Milk poison is something very dangerous, and even international companies like nestle will tend to cheat on this. The cheese, but only the packed cheese and never the ones that are unpacked and cuted, even if the taste is little different.

5- Chocolates from the street is a NO NO, even the best brand, always buy from the supermarket where they are well kept.

6- I won't even talk about the dangers of eating in a local restaurant, but even in an international restaurant it must be a busy one in a busy area to be sure the food is not staying, although I wouldn't recommend eating outside at all.

7- I don't think bread has much problems, although I prefer to buy it from a local bakery rather than a packed one.

I know this is too much to consider, but the health authority in Egypt is kind of sleeping here, or maybe they are depending on the "fact" that producers will swear to be honest and say the truth and nothing but the truth!!


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## Sofia Cooper (May 25, 2010)

moataz123 said:


> Mainly, I advise everyone:
> 
> 1- Not to buy frozen meat products, partly because it's 90% not meat put other filler components, and partly because it had been for sure frozen and refrozen several times specially in summer. Better to find someone (a butcher) that will give you expensive fresh meat and you do with it what you want.
> 
> ...


 What about when you have been living in Egypt for a while ,do you drink the water ever out the tap , as when i came on holiday ,,, i got a bad stomach but this was nearly as seriuos as them getting me out the desert quickly, when tarvelling from Cairo to Sharm ,,i was that ill ...i put it down to maybe the water , even tho i was drinking bottled but im sure i may of swallowed some tap water when say ....brushing my teeth


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## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

In Cairo you can drink the water from the tap.. it is safe and in fact is cleaner than E.U regulations demand, the AUC used to test the water every day but I don't know if they do this now. However it is so full of chemicals to clean it up that it tastes like the swimming pool.
The chemicals may upset your stomach but you would get used to it quickly. I do drink from the tap occasionally and no harm comes to me. Bottled water here is very cheap, a case of 12 large bottles costs about 20 Le... the same as you would pay for one bottle back home.
I believe Sharms water is a different matter all together.

Maiden


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## DeadGuy (Jan 22, 2010)

MaidenScotland said:


> In Cairo you can drink the water from the tap.. it is safe and in fact is cleaner than E.U regulations demand, the AUC used to test the water every day but I don't know if they do this now. However it is so full of chemicals to clean it up that it tastes like the swimming pool.
> The chemicals may upset your stomach but you would get used to it quickly. I do drink from the tap occasionally and no harm comes to me. Bottled water here is very cheap, a case of 12 large bottles costs about 20 Le... the same as you would pay for one bottle back home.
> I believe Sharms water is a different matter all together.
> 
> Maiden


Hi there,

Not all Cairo areas should be considered "ok" to use the tap water for drinking, Maadi seems to be the worst area, of course there are worse areas, but it is the worst one among areas with high existence of expats.....

The tests WERE usually made in the first end, the company's headquarters, not the taps back homes, and trust me, water lines in here are bad enough to turn distilled water into ****! (I'm not 100% sure that the tests aren't made anymore, but it doesn't really matter, everything's "under control" here all the time!)

If you can't handle the water in here then stick to the bottled one that's all, no matter how bad it may seem, but it is much better than the tap water in most cases.

And water filtration systems......Don't really know if that works, or if it would function correctly for as long as it says....

Good luck!


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## Sofia Cooper (May 25, 2010)

MaidenScotland said:


> In Cairo you can drink the water from the tap.. it is safe and in fact is cleaner than E.U regulations demand, the AUC used to test the water every day but I don't know if they do this now. However it is so full of chemicals to clean it up that it tastes like the swimming pool.
> The chemicals may upset your stomach but you would get used to it quickly. I do drink from the tap occasionally and no harm comes to me. Bottled water here is very cheap, a case of 12 large bottles costs about 20 Le... the same as you would pay for one bottle back home.
> I believe Sharms water is a different matter all together.
> 
> Maiden


 Thanx for the advice, yes and the bottle water is cheap enough ,,, i think it was the Sharm water that made me so ill , as i was careful but not careful enough , as some days i without thinking did manage to swallow some of it ........i went off the Cairo and my bad stomach started even before i got there , so i cant blame Cairo water, if for whatever reson i end up with no bottled as long as i know it i need to drink the tap water it will be safe enough 
Thanx again


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## Beatle (Aug 14, 2009)

Sofia Cooper said:


> Thanx for the advice, yes and the bottle water is cheap enough ,,, i think it was the Sharm water that made me so ill , as i was careful but not careful enough , as some days i without thinking did manage to swallow some of it ........i went off the Cairo and my bad stomach started even before i got there , so i cant blame Cairo water, if for whatever reson i end up with no bottled as long as i know it i need to drink the tap water it will be safe enough
> Thanx again


Tap water in Cairo seems to be safe enough to drink (I haven't had any problems when I have drunk it) but it tastes horrendous with all the chemicals!


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## Sofia Cooper (May 25, 2010)

Beatle said:


> Tap water in Cairo seems to be safe enough to drink (I haven't had any problems when I have drunk it) but it tastes horrendous with all the chemicals!


I wil try and see ..how it tastes.....and i will only if i run out of the bottled stuff ........just needed to know it wasnt going to destroy my insides loooool


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## mardini (Apr 29, 2010)

moataz123 said:


> Mainly, I advise everyone:
> 
> 1- Not to buy frozen meat products, partly because it's 90% not meat put other filler components, and partly because it had been for sure frozen and refrozen several times specially in summer. Better to find someone (a butcher) that will give you expensive fresh meat and you do with it what you want.
> 
> ...



Thank you Moataz, I will personally take your advise, good people like you make it easier for me.

Thumbs up.

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