食物到了保质期真的就不能吃了吗？

美国马里兰州的男子Scott Nash就一直想知道这个答案。

Via The Guardian

三年前，他有了一个疯狂的想法：吃了过期食物，会怎么样？

他的第一个试验品是一杯过期半年的酸奶。（非专业人士请不要轻易尝试。）

He had forgotten the yogurt in the fridge of his old cabin in Virginia in the Spring and only found it again when returned in the Fall. By that time it was already half a year past its expiration date, but that didn’t stop him from mixing it with his smoothie and chugging it down.

春天的时候他在弗吉尼亚老家的冰箱里放了一杯酸奶是直到秋天回家时才发现还有这样东西。等他发现这杯酸奶的时候，它已经过期半年了，但是他依旧把它拿来做奶昔，并且一饮而下。

It didn’t taste funny and he didn’t experience any health problems after consuming it.

它尝起来没什么怪味，而且吃完之后Scott也没有感到任何不适。

Via The Guardian

明明过了保质期却还能吃？让Scott对“保质期”这三个字产生了深深的怀疑。

The Food Product Dating system for food (and non-edible goods) needs to be revised.

食品（和非食用产品）的日期标注系统需要重新定义。

And these dates need to be set to match reality. Some items don’t need a date at all – like salt, canned goods, and baby wipes.

保质期需要与现实相匹配。有些物品根本不会过期，比如盐、罐头食品和婴儿湿巾纸。

Via odditycentral.com

在一年的实验中，Scott和他的家人一起尝遍了各种过期食物。

During the year-long experiment Scott Nash and his family ate anything from tortillas that were a year past date, yogurt that was seven, eight or nine months past date, meats that were weeks past their expiration dates, and heavy cream that was a few months past the dates stamped on its label.

在为期一年的实验中，Scott Nash和他的家人吃了过期一年的玉米粉饼，分别过期七、八、九个月的酸奶，过期几周的肉，过期几个月的奶油。

At one point, he even used the butter that had become moldy after being left for months in the fridge. He just scraped off the mold, and used it for cooking. And everyone was fine.

有一次，他甚至吃了在冰箱中放置数月后发霉的黄油。刮掉表面的毛毛，继续用它做饭。每个人都活的好好的。

There was also minced beef (15 days old), smoked trout (24 days past sell-by), smoked turkey (six weeks past use-by), chicken broth (more than three months past best-before) and roasted tomatoes (seven months past sell-by). Still nothing happened.

还有放了15天的碎牛肉，过期24天的烟熏鳟鱼，过期6周的烟熏火鸡，过期3个月的鸡汤，过期7个月的烤番茄。照旧啥事也没有发生。

Via The Guardian

有时候Scott也会扔掉一些东西，但是他凭的是经验，不是包装袋上的保质期。

Nash admits that some foods do go bad and have to be thrown away, but there are better ways to tell than checking the expiration date on the packaging.

不过Nash也承认，有些食物确实很糟糕，必须扔掉，但有更好的方法来判断这些东西是否过期，而不是看包装上日期。

If something looks, smells or tastes funny, you probably shouldn’t eat it, but most people suffer from something Nash calls “consumer anxiety disorder” which makes them discard perfectly good products just because of an arbitrary date.

如果某些东西看起来或者闻起来有点奇怪了，你就不应该吃它了。但是Nash觉得大多数人患有“消费者焦虑症”，这让他们仅凭包装袋上的日期就浪费了好东西。

He also warns readers about “Planned Obsolescence”, a strategy that corporations use to encourage consumers to throw away perfectly good products, so they buy new ones.

他还警告读者“定时过期”是商家的阴谋论，是企业用来鼓励消费者丢弃和浪费食物的策略，为了让他们再买新产品。

Via odditycentral.com

你觉得过期食物可以吃吗？

资料/图片：odditycentral.com，The Guardian， 网络