We all stock our favourite foods, often amassing a collection of snacks and edible treasures in our pantries and cabinets. It is a common habit, almost a form of comfort, to know that our preferred snacks and ingredients are readily available. But have you ever wondered how much is too much? When does our food hoarding cross the line into the realm of astonishing excess? In a fascinating exploration of the topic, a woman made shocking discoveries. A TikTok creator, Karinne, ventured into her grandmother’s pantry, only to find a number of expired food items, some even dating back to 1999.
Karinne shared a video in which she explained that she got curious about the large food stock in her grandmother’s pantry and decided to explore it, according to the Daily Mail.
As soon as she started exploring, she was astonished at the sheer quantity of out-of-date products her grandmother was holding onto.
As she delved deeper into the pantry, Karinne couldn’t help but comment on the alarming age of some of the items. She pointed out that her grandmother’s collection of foodstuffs was more akin to a historical archive than a functional pantry. She even humorously cautioned against consuming any of the delicacies, saying “See the thing is, my grandma got food - but if you eat any of this stuff, you might just die. Like, no cap," reports the Daily Mail.
Among the discoveries were items such as Pillsbury’s Creamy Surprise cream-cheese frosting, which had expired way back on December 27, 2014. Karinne also stumbled upon a Jell-o-branded No bake dessert in the flavour of Cherry Cheesecake, a product that had expired in April 2000, during the final months of the Clinton administration, she mentions.
On her journey through the pantry, she found more aged items, including a can of Italian-style breadcrumbs that were four-and-a-half years past their eat-by date, having expired in March 2019. A can of sliced pears in syrup, with an expiration date of 2002, prompted Karinne to exclaim, “This was before a lot of y’all was even born."
Yet, it was a clear glass jar of homemade preserved pears, its handwritten label dating back to September 1999, that truly left her horrified. She couldn’t fathom anyone attempting to consume it and wondered aloud, “There’s no way in hell someone can eat this."
Karinne reportedly decided to open the 24-year-old pear preserves which led to her gagging violently from the pungent smell coming out of the jar. She described it as “It smells like death."
The Daily Mail also explains that commenters on Karinne’s video couldn’t help but share their own tales of exploring their elderly relatives’ pantries, often with similarly shocking results. Some had encountered items dating back to the 1980s and 1990s, while others lamented the expired substances they had discovered.
