OOD flax seeds, good or not?

[peejay]

I'm hitting my low-carb diet again having lost loads a few years ago (25kg) but slowly put most back on again due to slipping into bad habits but am needing to satisfy a craving for desert of some description & last time around I actually really enjoyed my "one minute muffins" made from ground flax seeds (the bread is rather tasty too).

I have a packet & half in the cupboard, but the date on them is March 17. Do we think they'll be ok to use? I know the ground seed can go rancid pretty quickly but the basic seeds I'd hope should be ok?

Got some on order for tomorrow's shopping but really wanting one now that I've thought of them...

Thoughts?

[jansman]

I don't see why not.Grind some up and try them,you have one of two chances?

[peejay]

I ended up bottling out & waiting to get a new pack in the end but whilst doing so & contemplating chucking the old it occurred to me that I shouldn't be too hasty chucking old foodstuffs, so long as I have the storage capacity to keep it.

My reasoning is, if the apocalypse hit tomorrow, and you had nothing else, it'd be better the nothing at all (except for the obviously nasty bad stuff) so I'll stop chucking stuff that /might/ be a bit less than decent quality until a) I build up a sufficient stock of whatever it is anyway as to be pointless to keep, or b) I simply don't have the room to keep it.

Kinds of things I'm thinking of are old bottles/packs of herbs & spices etc. We often buy them but only use a little, only to languish in the cupboard for a number of years, I'll just shove the older ones into an in-case-of-emergency box & take the same attitude with other stuff.

Thoughts?

[Deeps]

I ended up bottling out & waiting to get a new pack in the end but whilst doing so & contemplating chucking the old it occurred to me that I shouldn't be too hasty chucking old foodstuffs, so long as I have the storage capacity to keep it.

My reasoning is, if the apocalypse hit tomorrow, and you had nothing else, it'd be better the nothing at all (except for the obviously nasty bad stuff) so I'll stop chucking stuff that /might/ be a bit less than decent quality until a) I build up a sufficient stock of whatever it is anyway as to be pointless to keep, or b) I simply don't have the room to keep it.

Kinds of things I'm thinking of are old bottles/packs of herbs & spices etc. We often buy them but only use a little, only to languish in the cupboard for a number of years, I'll just shove the older ones into an in-case-of-emergency box & take the same attitude with other stuff.

Thoughts?

I'm currently using a bottle of tomato sauce that was best before 2015, its fine, I'm sure we've got something else on the go (cannae mind what) that's equally out of date and is fine. Oversights on my part for not managing my stores well enough but no issues here. So far.....

[Arzosah]

I've heard that seeds and nuts may not be too good to eat too far out of ood dates because the oils can go rancid, which makes them the same sort of health risk as transgenic fats etc. I'm a vegetarian, so I store mine in the freezer. It occurs to me, though, that if you need to use up badly ood seeds, one way to do it would be to sprout them, or at least to start the process, which might be a bit like malting?

[nickdutch]

The whole seeds can get bacterial infections that can create a mouldy taste from time to time. If that is the case the entire batch might be affected so that's why its good to use small sealed batches.
If you grind them, get them wet an let the powder soak for a few minutes then dehydrate them you get good flax crackers, but I dont recommend that with whole seeds as they can clog up your intestines (from experience!! The colonic hydro-therapist had to help get them out!)

[Brambles]

That's too much information right there, Nick.

[ForgeCorvus]

Something related that I caught on TV recently.

A lot of people seem to be eating Chia seeds as part of their Detox/Health-kick, quite a few are consuming them whole rather then grinding them..... Problem is they're tough little blighters and the human gut tends to pass them in the same state they went in.

[nickdutch]

My guess is that if you soak the chia seeds, you are making a gel. The gel does the digestive system some good and might itself be the source of the main nutrition of the Chia seeds. you can make an instant "jam" with ground chia seeds, water and fruit inn a blender and it will go all jelly like and you can spread that on your crackers. So if you don't buy much jam you can just have some chia put aside and do something fun with fruit. Not sure about citrus fruits with it, but berries, banana and ( possibly) low acid fruits like apple an pair might work well.

Chia crackers like flax/linseed crackers dries in the dehydrator are good with nearly any dip or nut butters.