Dried Herbs and Spices
If you think that dusty bottle of oregano from your grandmother’s recipe collection is still good to go, think again. Expired dried spices likely won’t make you sick, but they will lose most of their aroma and flavor over time. Crush or rub a small amount in the palm of your hand. If the scent is weak and the flavor is lackluster, it’s probably a good time to replace them. Dried herbs typically last 1–3 years. Ground, or powdered, spices typically have a shelf life of 2–3 years. The problem is that most of us hang onto these flavor enhancers far beyond their prime, slowly cooking with expensive dust instead of vibrant seasonings. A vibrant color generally means a vibrant taste, so if your spice has lost its vibrant color (or changed colors) then it has most likely also lost its flavor. If your spice started out green, chances are it will turn yellow or brown as the essential oils in the spice evaporate.
All-Purpose Flour
That bag of flour shoved in the back of your pantry might look perfectly fine, but appearances can be deceiving. The USDA estimates that an unopened bag of flour can sit in the pantry for up to a year after purchase, with opened bags lasting up to eight months. However, if you’ve stored flour properly and it doesn’t show any signs of turning rancid such as a foul smell or mold, it’s most likely still safe to use after the best-by date. Most of the time, using expired flour won’t make you sick. The real issue comes with quality and performance in baking. Expired flour won’t have the same quality in flavor and texture, so your recipe won’t turn out the same. If it looks yellow or gray; shows signs of mold; if it’s developed hard moisture lumps, or if you see evidence of insects, discard it. In addition, if the flour smells unpleasant (sour, musty, or just plain bad), don’t use it. The simple “sniff test” can save you from ruined cookies and disappointing cakes.
Baking Powder
Here’s where things get sneaky – baking powder is one of those ingredients that can silently fail on you. Yes, you can still use baking powder after its expiration date. Baking powder doesn’t spoil or become harmful to ingest after the expiration date. However, its effectiveness in leavening baked goods may decrease over time, resulting in less than desirable results. The chemical compound—often a combination of baking soda, cream of tartar, and cornstarch—is only supposed to last somewhere from six months to a year. It’s sensitive to moisture, so any unexpected humidity could ruin your can. To test if baking powder is still active, mix a teaspoon of it with a small amount of hot water. If it fizzes vigorously, it is still good to use. Your flat pancakes and dense muffins might be telling you more than you realize about what’s lurking in your pantry.
Self-Rising Flour
Self-rising flour is essentially regular flour’s high-maintenance cousin, and it ages much less gracefully. When it comes to self-rising flour, which contains baking powder, expired flour will create baked goods that don’t rise. While the flour itself remains stable, its added baking powder gradually loses potency — just like the can of baking powder in your cupboard does. Yes, you can bake with self-rising flour after its best-by date; but your baked goods may not rise as well. Self-rising flour is technically a refined white flour, but it’s the self-rising part that makes it less shelf-stable than other varieties. The leaveners, typically in the form of baking soda or baking powder, lose their potency over time. Bob’s Red Mill recommends using up your self-rising flour within a year of purchase for maximum efficacy. Think of it as flour with a built-in expiration timer that you can’t see.
Whole Grain Rice
While white rice can practically last forever when stored properly, brown rice and other whole grain varieties are living on borrowed time. Whole-grain (brown, red, or black) rice deteriorates faster than milled rice (white, parboiled or pre-cooked) because of the oils in its natural bran layer. When stored in an airtight container, whole-grain rice has a shelf life of 6 months. To make it last longer, stash it in the refrigerator or freezer. Meanwhile, if stored properly, milled rice (white, parboiled or pre-cooked) will keep almost indefinitely on the pantry shelf, so says the USA Rice Federation. That bag of brown rice you bought for your health kick last January? It might be time to give it the sniff test. Rancid rice has a distinctly unpleasant, oily smell that’s hard to miss once you know what to look for.
Canned Tomato Products
Those cans of diced tomatoes might look invincible, but they’re actually some of the more temperamental items in your pantry. Canned tomato sauce or tomatoes keep for 12 to 18 months—the natural chemicals of high-acid foods such as these continually react with the container, causing taste and textural changes and lower nutritional value over time. Fun fact: NPR said that in 1974, National Food Lab tested a can of corn, “vintage” 1934, and found it perfectly edible—albeit lacking in as many nutrients as a, let’s say, younger can of corn. Despite this news, we think that when it comes to decades-old food, it’s better safe than sorry. The high acidity in tomato products means they degrade faster than other canned goods, slowly developing an off taste that can ruin your favorite pasta sauce. Keep them at room temperature in a dark place (as you would with oils and spices), like a cabinet or a pantry, and avoid buying bulging, rusted, leaking, or deeply dented cans as they have a higher chance of being spoiled.
Whole Wheat Flour
Whole wheat flour is the overachiever that burns out fast – packed with nutrients but cursed with a short shelf life. Like rice, whole-grain flour doesn’t last as long as white flour because the oils from the germ and bran become rancid with age. Whole-grain flour will keep for about 3 months and white flour will keep for 6 to 9 months. But there’s a major con—they go rancid quickly. Most types of nut flour will go rancid in a few months in the pantry. The natural oils that make whole grain flours nutritionally superior also make them prone to developing that distinctly bitter, unpleasant taste of rancidity. These include any flour that retains its bran and germ when milled. Since whole grain flours are more sensitive to poor storage conditions than refined flours, we recommend you do the following assessment for any whole grain flour you’re using, even if its best-by date hasn’t passed yet. Your nose will be your best friend here – fresh whole wheat flour has a pleasant, nutty aroma, while rancid flour smells sharp and off-putting.
Opened Dried Pasta
Even though dried pasta seems practically indestructible, once you open that box, you’ve started a slow countdown. Pasta is a staple of every pantry, and when stored properly, some say it can last indefinitely! However, for the best quality, the USDA and most sources recommend keeping pasta no more than 2 years. Store it in an airtight container (the sealed box is also fine) in a cool, dry place, as the pasta is affected by extreme temperatures and humidity. Toss expired dried pasta if the noodles appear blotchy or discolored or if you find insects, egg cases, or larvae in the noodles—obviously. While the pasta itself might not spoil in the traditional sense, opened packages are vulnerable to pantry pests and moisture. That innocent-looking box of spaghetti could be harboring tiny visitors that you definitely don’t want in your dinner. Plus, some people see a “best by” date and think the food isn’t okay to eat anymore, when that label is typically signaling a food item’s peak quality, not an “expiration.”
Opened Soy Sauce
That bottle of soy sauce might seem immortal, but once opened, it’s actually on a timer that most people ignore completely. However, once opened, air tends to change things a bit. It’s best to use it within 3-6 months of opening for the freshest flavor. So, if you’ve cracked open that bottle of Kikkoman sitting in the pantry and let it stew for a few years, don’t expect it to taste so great. A couple sites I looked at (since I know Soy Sauce does have a long life) said 6 months after opening, 2 years if kept in the fridge. While unopened soy sauce can last for years, once you break that seal, you’ve introduced air and potential contaminants that slowly degrade both flavor and quality. It seems on things like that, the expiration date is not a safety feature, but the manufacturer’s estimate at how long the food will remain at its peak quality. As long as the seal has not been damaged, they should be safe to consume. Your stir-fries deserve better than flat, lifeless soy sauce that’s been open since the Obama administration.
Do you really know what’s hiding in your pantry’s dark corners?
