Anxiety or food poisoning??

[Fay13]

Hi,

This morning I had cereal, and thought the milk tasted slightly odd (not necessarily bad, just different) but it smelled ok in the bowl, so i ate about half of it. I then went and smelled the milk still in the carton and it definitely smelled off, it wasn't a horrendous smell that made me recoil and gag or anything, but a definite sour smell. It went out of date yesterday, something I didn't notice when I poured it as I got the dates mixed up.

I have a really bad fear of throwing up and and worried that the milk will make me sick. My stomach hurts and I do feel sick but I'm trying to tell myself that it is anxiety, not the milk. Ironically, the only reason I kept eating the cereal was because I was telling myself that the milk was fine and I needed to stop being so anxious about what I eat (I tend to have a fairly restricted diet due to anxiety).

I didn't have that much of the milk, and it was 5 hours ago now. Am I safe now do you think? (Even just typing this has made me realise that I am probably being silly, which has helped!)

[Gary A]

If it was only one day passed its best by date, it's highly unlikely to cause severe food poisoning. You may feel a bit quesy for a while after it as your body processes it, but the chances are if you were going to throw up, you'd have done so already.

Drink plenty of water and eat some peppermints or drink peppermint tea, this will settle your stomach. You'll be absolutely fine, don't worry.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Even where a product has a legally enforced need for a Use By date e.g.fresh meat, fish, cheese, etc it is not necessarily dangerous to consume. And besides, the retailer can sell it up to the end of that day so it is possible to eat it after that with a 24 hour establishment.

Some products can still have the smell test applied, which is encouraged, and some food experts have written articles explaining which foods are definitely a no go e.g. shellfish but said smell testing is perfectly acceptable in others with a Use By date.

I eat Quark cheese which has a Use By date and have eaten it up to 2 days after because I checked out the guidelines on it's degradation which explained how it keeps longer. So, if you really wanted to you could find the articles about Use By dates in foods which explain which products are still safe but I believe you will be fine.