Cooking For Engineers

[Michael Chu]

re: whoa!

Once the orange juice has been opened, it no longer has an indefinite shelf life and should be refrigerated. That OJ spent the night at bacteria and microbe producing temperatures and if you drank out of the container previously, then a culture of bacteria has been introduced into a sugar and water rich environment....

[Guest]

This morning I downed a bottle of orange juice. This glass bottle had been sitting on a coworker's desk for two years. It had been pasteurized, so I was not worried about getting sick, although it had turned brownish.

On the label was written the words 'Improved Taste'. They weren't kidding - it was still pretty good.

[Andrea]

i was getting ready to drink my OJ that expired 11 days ago, until i read the last bit of your post. now i'm scared. i think if i add some vodka, the alcohol will kill off anything nasty.

[Taamar]

OJ is unlikely to 'go bad' except that it might ferment. Its high acidity makes it fairly safe from bacteria.

[Guest]

I tasted (unknowingly) a 6 year old opened (albeit refridgerated) bottle of Pepsi. Needless to say the flavor was completely different then expected. It was similar to carbonated water... perhaps that's what battery acid tastes like?

[Looking for mayonnaise]

Hmm... I started out looking for tarter sauce, found mayonnaise and now old orange juice. It's kind of funny, but I have an old can of orange juice that has been refrigerated for maybe 10 years. I might have owned it for longer, but curious if it is still good. I had been holding onto it because I needed to find a good use for it. You see, it (meaning a previous can) has somewhat of a bitter taste, kind of like it had too much of the inside of the peeling in the juice. Now I am really curious, has it also turned brown? It is inside of a can, so it is in a dark place and it has been refrigerated, but it is now very old. What I had been thinking of using it for would be to reduce it and use it in a BBQ sauce. But now it makes me think it could now be a rather large orange beer or something even more terrible tasting.

Of course I have been told by some people I use to work with that shelf life or dating things is only for America. They tell me that in their countries nothing ever expires. You see, I am fixing to make some lemon pickle and thinking how the spices that were givin to me to make that are now over 10 years old too. Haven't used them in about 10 years either.

Found this web site today and been reading about making mayonnaise, Costco cookware, some test recipes and now old, past shelf life orange juice. Sounds like your juice is not that old, maybe you should take a sip. Mine is in a large juice can, so if I open it, it will have to be finished within a week or perhaps tossed right away.

I must admit though, this is a rather cool cooking web site.

[Guest]

Heard a news broadcast about orange crops not doing so well in California, then noticed the price of oranges went up. Saw a sale on Dole orange juice, looked at the expiry date, it said Feb 22, 2007, so bought two. Consumed one before Feb 22 then started chugging the other on the 22nd.
Woke up heaving in the middle of the night and having coughing fits, ears ringing, and started heaving heavy. Cough hurts my chest and feels like it is closing in, the taste in my mouth is awful, painfully dry.
Im five months pregnant and when I looked at the bottle again noticed that the expiry date on that container was Dec 24, 2006. Im drinking plenty of milk and sucking on honey, but am worried now due to all the pain and acidicky feeling.
My girlfriend told me that's why you should always look. It's been 21 hours now and I feel like a volcano or dragon, and am worried about the baby.

[Michael Chu]

[2embarassed2tellU]

Well I just had a baby and I was anemic during pregnancy and still am so I have to take iron pills with orange juice. Well the orange juice has been in my fridge since atleast Feb. 22 so it's oldddddddddd. Anyway I just now decided to start taking my iron pills again because I was getting a headache and I swallowed the beer tasting nasty a#$ orange juice about 10 minutes ago.....as for what's going to happen I'll let you guys know. Hope I'm able to make to the computer after this lol!

[Michael Chu]

[Guest]

I just downed a half gallon carton of Orange Juice that had a sell by of March 12, 2007- flavorless, but still orange.

[ooooop]

Grin, the info is now at http://www.fcs.uga.edu/ext/pubs/html/FDNS-E-34-2.html
about 2/3 the way down the page under Frequently Asked Questions About Food Dates and Storage.

Re: old orange juice: While doing major yard work on a very hot day, and having skipped lunch which caused blood sugar, i.e., energy, to drop to zero, I drank some Tropicana in plastic bottles that had turned dark after a year unrefrigerated. No ill effects except in my mind worrying about the sweet juice that had little acid to ward off bacteria.

[ooooop]

Oh sorry, I forgot. The biggest thing I was worried about was how much plastic leached into the juice.

[nicu]

Batteries don't taste like pepsi nor vice versa altough pepsi max has a different taste

[Guest]

I just had 14 day expired OJ for breakfast today because it was still in the Vending Machine and I payed a freaking dollar for it. Welches brand, and only 10oz I think I got jipped. Anyways I found this site looking to see if it was a smart move and it still had its yellow/orange color, but damn did it taste awful.

Like drinking orange flavored acid, this stuff was terrible and suffice to say im still tasting it in my mouth. Now maybe it was fine and Welches is just a disgusting brand of OJ. You think if I left a note I could get my dollar back for getting 2 weeks expired Orange Juice?