Here are several situations:
1. The best use date was 3, 6 or 12 months ago.
2. You found a bug in a bag of ....
3. There are a few rotten spots on.....(eg. tomatoes, bananas, apples, etc)
4. A can of ....expired last year.
5. Frozen meat in your refrigerator has no label, but you know what species it came from.
6. Cheese has all sorts of green thing on it.
Thanks,
I need your help

1. The best use date was 3, 6 or 12 months ago.
2. You found a bug in a bag of ....
3. There are a few rotten spots on.....(eg. tomatoes, bananas, apples, etc)
4. A can of ....expired last year.
5. Frozen meat in your refrigerator has no label, but you know what species it came from.
6. Cheese has all sorts of green thing on it.

1.) Depends on what it is. Acidic stuff, no. Dry, unopened bag stuff, no. Eggs, yes.
2.) Depends on what it is. Infested with bugs, yes. The occasional hitchhiker in produce, no.
3.) Nope, cut 'em off, enjoy. Soft bananas are actually quite good.
4.) Can? Not likely. If the thing ain't blowin' up like a balloon, it's dinner.
5.) Frozen meat still in the freezer or frozen meat in the refrigerator? Frozen meat in the freezer, up to a year, so long as there's no freezer burn. Even if there is, chili/stew time. Meat in the refrigerator? I've kept beef in there, in packages, for up to a week. It's called aging. So long as it's gray spots and not black or green, it's damn good.
6.) Cheese is already bad. Mold on cheese may make it taste less than it was originally intended. Sometimes this is a good thing. In the case of Stilton, which I'm not a fan of anyway, the more, the better. If it's cheddar, it may be a bit funky, but... see #5 about chili.

I hate wasting food, and I cook quite well. Ask me sometime about what I called "dumpster chili" that I won a chili cookoff with. Yes, it was perfectly safe to eat. And it was delicious.

OK...what is dumpster chili?

+1 to all of the above. If you can remove the offending parts, then the rest is just fine. If there's a general bad smell, swelling, an infestation, then probably time to take a loss.

Damn, that's good stuff Kyle!

Let me be a little more practical.
Lets say that you have a bag of frozen (1) chicken, (2) ground beef or (3) fish sitting in you freezer without any labels or information about purchase date and you are deciding what to have for dinner.
Do you:
(1) thaw them out at room temp,
(2) thaw them out using a microwave,
(3) ask who is coming to dinner or
(4) order a pizza.
Thanks,
Bub

Assuming no freezer burn, and the bags are sealed tight, thaw them submerged in cold water, changing the water every half hour. Then give 'em the sniff test.

A fridge thaw would be even better, but we're pretending we're short on time, no? The rate on cold water thawing depends, but it's about 1lb/hr.

If you don't have that long, then time to call Pepe's for a large pie--just let it thaw in the fridge and try again tomorrow.

I growl at it...if it don't growl back, it's dinner.

Haha, im the opposite. I only eat it if it does growl back

In seriousness though, i would probably get rid of it in all of those situations. I never did buy into the whole "its bad to waste food" thing, to my wife's dismay. She is pretty much the opposite.

I dont like wasting money though, so i try not to buy anything expirable that i dont plan on eating within a couple of days. I generally subsist on oatmeal & dried fruit, and the occasional small animal that wanders too close.

"Do you have anything to eat in the fridge?"

"Um, yeah, there oughta be some Chinese in there somewhere, help yourself."

"Great! Here it is. Oh cool, I love the Hong Kong Grill! I thought they'd gone out of business two years ago though?!"

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and suggest that you wheel your fridge, contents and all, out to the street, go to Home Depot and buy another one, then go buy some fresh food and start over. And here's a novel idea, buy fresh food and eat it, then go buy some more

Its all fun & games till someone dies of botulism...lol

Thaw chicken under refrigeration or in a clean sink with cold running water. Fresh chicken definitely needs to be used or discarded by the use-thru date. I wouldn't hold fresh chicken under refrigeration more than 3 days and 41 degrees or lower temp. A higher temp cuts at least a day off that time.

Eat Safe!