I've never met an expiration date I didn't like.

I think this is about my mother.  I think I learned from her that expiration dates were for sissies, although she wouldn't have used that word.  She might have said they were for people who were too cautious and unaware that we all need to develop our immune systems.  She provided us with a daily bowl of germs.
So, when I accidentally left the potato salad out for two days--in a vacuum-sealed plastic container, mind you--I wasn't quite sure what to do next, so I wrote to Marion Nesles of the SF Chronicle food and health section.

If potato salad is vacuum-packed, how long can it be left out before it goes bad?   I accidentally left it out two days, and before throwing it away, I want to be sure that’s what I should do.  My feeling is that it’s so full of preservatives and so tightly packed that I wouldn’t keel over and die if I ate it now, but I don’t want to be foolish—except about eating something that’s so full of preservatives.  It does say “Perishable Keep Refrigerated on the lid, but I think that may be just to make us feel there’s some freshness to it.  It says “Use by July/22/13” and then on the bottom in small print it says “Once opened, use product within 5 days.”

He wrote back before I even had time to open the container.

Here’s how I think about such questions:

Does it have mayonnaise or any other excellent bacterial growth medium?  If yes, out it goes.

Is this the only food you have available to eat?  If not, out it goes.

Why take a risk?  It’s just potato salad.

Thanks for writing.  Marion Nestle 

 

Then I wrote back to thank him for so quick a response, not adding that if he'd been a little slower, I could have been the risk-taker my mother believed in being.  

In Shit My Dad Says (No, I didn't write it.  Justin Halpern did.), when he's asked whether some food is still good, he says, "How should I know.  Eat it. You get sick, it wasn't good."

Then I think of  Tender to the Bone, a memoir revealing that Ruth Reichl's mother served spoiled food, bargain food dangerously past its expiration date, thereby raising a hardy daughter with a hearty appetite and inspiring her to become a cook!

Here are the questions I ask:  Which is worse, dying or letting potato salad go to waste?  Dying is worse. 

Which is worse, getting sick or letting potato salad go to waste?  It depends on how sick.