If a can of tomatoes says 'better if used by'---and says 'Mar. 07'-and have been in a dark, cool place,!
Answers: are they still good to eat? HOW TO CHECK? We opened and the smell was fine, but we weren't too sure of the tomatoes. Canned Organic tomatoes.
Whenever you have an past pull date can:
1) look the can over, is the top, bottom, or sides bulging? If yes, throw in the garbage. If can is good, proceed.
2) Use a hand crank can opener and listen for a hiss when you break the seal. A hiss means that the contents are still vacuum packed. No hiss--throw away. Hiss--continue on.
3) Pour out contents and look at the inside of the can. Is there discoloration (black or brown ring around the inside of the can)? If there is discoloration on the inside of the can--throw out the contents as they may have started to spoil or the metals in the can have started to leach into the contents. If there is no discoloration--all is good, go on
4) Do a visual inspect to make sure that contents look as you would expect (no discoloring, breaking down, separating, etc.). Also, do a smell check--do they smell as they should? If the contents fail either visual or smell check--throw away.
If the can of food passed all of the above tests, it is still good to use.
no yuck its bad
If it does not have a funny smell to it and it is not discolored, you can eat it. Why don't you take one out and cut of a small piece and taste it,if it doesn't taste strange go ahead and use it.
It should be fine as long as the can was not damaged. Most canned foods have very long shelf life (years in fact), and the "better if used by" date is used by the manufacture to get you to throw out the old stuff and buy new. Tomato has high acid content anyway, so you should be just fine to use them as long as they don't look funny (discolored from what you are used to seeing) and smell bad.
usually its the container that the product is in.....haven't you noticed on expiration date on your bottle of water? its the plastic bottle that will expire not the contents you might take caution if in a metal can it could add more aluminum than you need please be carefull have a great new year!!
If they smell fine and look fine I'd go ahead and use them. That whole better if used by a certain date in no way indicated that the food is unusable after that point.
Personally I think the food companies are counting on people throwing away perfectly good food and buying more.
I'm still using mine. They are in sealed tins. If they were in these new cardboard cartons I would still use them a few weeks after the best before but I would use caution with them