My daughters birthday is tomorrow so I planned to bake her cake for her. The buttercream recipe I have calls for heavy whipping cream. I just looked in the fridge and noticed that my cream had a suggested use by date of August 10. It didnt smell bad to me but my hubby swears that as soon as a product hits that date, you throw it out. I dont know if I'll have time tomorrow to buy new cream as I am makign the icing tomorrow morning before work. Help please!

Oh no don't throw that out. The date is something that companies are required to put on there but in reality it doesn't go bad for a few more days (some poeple even say up to 2 weeks later). I would taste a little bit but as long as it tastes fine then I would use it. HTH. SSB

I'm going to go with your hubby on this one. . .I'd buy fresh or use another recipe. It would make for a pretty miserable birthday to get sick from your cake!

Unless your hubby works at the store and knows something I don't know, he is wrong. THe use by date is the date that the store goes by. They have to get rid of the carton by that date. If it is not opened it is still supposed to be good for 7 more days. I have had whipping cream go bad before that date. I would put a little bit in a cup. dip your pinky in it and taste it. Milk and milk based products are ones that if they don't smell good they aren't good. If it is still very liquidy, smells ok and tastes ok, you are good to go. If you just used it a couple of days ago and it was fine and didn't smell and it still does not smell I say you are safe.

Now if your hubby is one that is going to pester you about it if you don't go buy another carton then just go buy one and use what you have anyway. if he sees the new carton in the fridge he won't say any more about it. He will just assume that that is the one you are going to use. Then of course find a use for the new one in two days and he will be none-the-wiser. This is not deceit. It is just simply knowing how to keep the peace in your household. You are not telling him that you are using the new cream. You are not lying. YOU do what you feel better about though. It would be a different story if it was a cake that you were selling. Not that you would feed anyone in your family anything inferior, but you can get by with things with them that you can't if you are selling something. I hope this is clear. No one wants anyone in their family to get sick. I got sick recently eating something that I thought had a funny taste to it and did not spit it out. I sure learned from that one and I am not about to tell someone else to use something that is not good. I have done this little test before myself and have never had a problem at all.

here in the uk they are on about doing away with use buy dates as they are missleading, if it tastses ok then i would use it if it was going to be eaten straight away.

'USE BY' dates indicate that foods must be eaten or thrown away by the date. After this date foods may be unsafe to eat even if they look fine because the nutrients in the food may become unstable or a build-up of bacteria may occur.

Symptoms can take anything from a couple of hours to a few days before becoming apparent. These can include nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, and fever.

It's been my experience that cream stays good (pasteurized heavy whipping cream) past the "use by" date as long as the 'frig is very cold.

Is it a use by date or a sell by date? There is a difference. If it doesn't smell bad or taste bad go ahead and use it. I have used whipping cream that is past the use by date several times when it was unopened and all was fine.

I just read an article recently about the use by and sell by dates. I will try to find and post a link to it. It was very enlightening.

Thankyou for your replies everyone. I decided that I'd better not take chances "just in case". I actually have no clue if it is a sell by or use by date as only the date is stamped on there with nothing else beside it. *shrug*