When Good Food Goes Bad

Do you remember the Far Side cartoon? Where the potato salad has a gun and is holding up the ketchup bottle inside the fridge. Hilarious, right? Ha ha ha. It's all fun and games until someone eats that bad potato salad and ends up with food poisoning.

I thought it was menopause. I had waves of nausea, along with hot flashes, abdominal pain, and dizziness. I even went to the store and purchased some black cohosh, in order to combat the hot flashes. But my symptoms only occurred after I ate a certain dish, of which I had made SO MUCH, I ate it several days in a row. This dish included lots of fresh veggies, along with some quinoa. I made the quinoa from scratch, from a large bag I purchased at Costco. A few years ago.

How long does quinoa last? This was my next question. So I googled it. The answer: 2-3 YEARS past the expiration date on the package. When I checked the package, I discovered mine had expired back in 2013! Uh oh.

Of course, I never thought to check a package of dry goods for an expiration date. I figured that stuff probably lasts FOREVER. But quinoa is a seed. Seeds contain oils. I keep most of my nuts and seeds in the freezer to prevent them from going rancid. I'm very careful about this because rancid nuts can be extremely toxic. (I got very sick once from macadamia nuts. I am not allergic to them; I think I must have gotten some old ones.) It never occurred to me to keep quinoa in the freezer, but in the future I will do so!

I dumped the rest of the old quinoa into the compost. Sad. I hate wasting food.

For those of you who shop at Costco, this is one of the hazards of buying large quantities. Although we gave up our Costco membership more than a year ago, I'm wondering now how much stuff in our pantry has gone bad. I will also throw out a bunch of old seasoned seaweed packages. The oils used in the roasting process have gone rancid. The date on those packages? 2016.

Do you know how long various pantry items last? If not, I recommend that you do a little research before assuming your stored goods are still safe to eat. And keep in mind, hot flashes accompanied by nausea might NOT be menopause!