The biggest deal in Japan right now is the Fujiya expiry date scandal. Yesterday, the president of the famed candy company resigned because people found out that they were making cake with expired milk. I don't buy Fujiya cake, but I do love those Milkys.
Personally, I'm not too wary of expiry dates. I know companies usually mark them earlier than they really go bad, so sometimes I eat yogurt that's a week past. Sometimes, things go moldy or stale before they reach that date anyway, and in those cases I'll just chuck it.
But then again, there are people like my brother, who will not touch anything a second older than that date stamped on the natto box.
NHK interviewed people on the streets re: the Fujiya scandal, and it seemed more people agreed with my brother than with me. "I am horrified!" One woman said. "The expiry date is the one thing that I am very careful about." "I worry about our children's health," another said. Other voices echoed the same traumatized sentiment.
I think this scandal has officially established that, in Japan, expiry dates DO matter.
In my family expiry dates seem to be mild suggestion rather than a sign the food is no longer edible. On occasion I have been encouraged just to cut the moldy bits off the cheese and veggies because "the rest is still good."
Posted by: Jane | January 16, 2007 at 09:35 PM
Natto, to me, is expired all the time, even when it's fresh. I can't tell you how many white people in Japan try to prove their "Japaneseness" by choking down pound after pound of that retchid stuff.
I tell people that I am half-Japanese...the half that don't like natto.
Posted by: Stoob | January 17, 2007 at 06:30 AM