The old cake mix

I was helping my Opa clear out some stuff in his house, and he gave me a handful of boxed cake mixes. He doesn't use those, so they went with me. Just looking at the dates, it's obvious that he doesn't use those.

This one says "Best if used by April 22 2013"

My aunt and uncle who were present at the time recoiled, the contents of that particular pantry having been stocked and subsequently forgotten by the late Joanne, and we cleaned out what we could.

I didn't throw it out. I decided to see if it was still good.

I know what you're thinking. That's gross, right? I can understand, but hear me out. You can find YouTube videos of people finding, and then eating, old food products. Tuna from 1865 was discovered and tested, finding it was still safe to eat. 

Some foods, namely fresh food like fruit, milk, etc, absolutely have a time limit on them. Your nose will tell you. But the rest of it can last much longer than the label. Heck, the date on the label is a legal requirement. If the company makes a batch, keeps it in storage for a year, and it's safe to eat a year later, they can label their foods as good for one year. If they keep it for two and it still tests good, they can say two years on the label. Most companies don't do that because storage takes up space, and who's going to keep food that long?

Oregon Freeze Dry, that's who.

They make Mountain House freeze dried foods. Great for camping, even if a little pricey. Their labels, as of this writing, say the food is good for thirty years.

Knowing this about food, especially dry food laced with preservatives, I decided to take that cake mix and put it to the test.

See that? Right where it says April 2013? And right below it was the finished product, baked in 2023.

The dry mix passed the sniff test, so I went ahead and added what it called for, while deciding on the bundt pan. It wasn't the most aromatic when baking, but it was a 'classic white', so that was to be expected.

I ate it. It was good. I survived with no side effects or other negative repercussions. Go ahead Pillsbury, tell people it's good for ten years.