Why does 1000 day aged Gouda have a use by date of 30 days?
In: 12824
“Aging” as it refers to food is a process with specialized conditions. Sitting in your fridge (after warming up in between the store and there) is not the same as aging for another thirty days.
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The cheese paste is no longer protected by the rind from mold, drying, or oxidization. It’s been handled by cheesemongers, wrapped (usually) in crappy off-gassing plastic, and subjected to whatever microbial excitement loves in your fridge. Also, cheese doesn’t just get consistently better as it continues to age. Your 1000 day Gouda is about as good as it’s going to get. Aged Gouda past its prime gets waxy, crumbly, and tastes a bit like burnt soy sauce.
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that gouda spent the last 1000 days in the perfect environment for it – as soon as it left that environment, it began to get old and die. industrial levels of packaging and refrigeration kept it stable long enough to make it to your house, but by the time you open it, slice it up, and put the leftovers in the fridge?
it’s got literally days to live. as soon as it was removed from its preferred environment, and as soon as you took it out of it’s technologically-guaranteed stasis, its days were numbered.
this is your fault, OP. you know what you have to do. don’t let its sacrifice be in vain.
The biggest reason above all else that food has use by dates, is to help mitigate legal risk to the retailer or manufacturer as long as they sold it to you before then. Obviously for some foods those dates aren’t far off from the real amount of time it takes for that product to let bacteria thrive once it’s exposed to oxygen. For most though they’re good much longer. Most cured meats/deli meats, bacon, eggs all kinds of stuff is fine much longer than the box will say. It’s about how cold and full your fridge is, how well contained it is, if it’s leftovers did you make sure it wasn’t hot before you put it in the fridge? Is there a lot of moisture etc. For the most part if it doesn’t smell bad or appear bad, it’s probably not. That’s a case by case assessment, you can’t guarantee anything without knowing the circumstances yourself. You also can’t help it if a product came contaminated with mold spores, the process started before you bought it.
While being aged, the cheese is stored as [whole wheels](https://media.istockphoto.com/photos/cheeses-on-the-shelves-at-a-dairy-farm-picture-id174830694?k=20&m=174830694&s=612×612&w=0&h=deSirE1EjxWEiRYmXA7BAPA0RuxZgRJ1YZf5r3r2vvc=) protected by a [hard outer rind](https://dfwblobstorage.blob.core.windows.net/ewcmediacontainer/eatwisconsincheese/media/content/cheesemasters-2019/gouda-header_2.jpg), or sometimes even a [wax casing layer](https://www.grocery.com/store/image/cache/catalog/mill-dance/igourmet-B0065WOTOK-600×600.jpg). It is also stored in the perfect conditions of cleanliness, humidity, and temperature.
Once the wheel is cut open, the clock starts ticking because now the protective outer coating has been sliced, *exposing the actual cheese inside* to the elements. That includes mold/spoiling as well as temperature, oxidation, and drying out.
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