Box Vox

packaging as content

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November 15, 2011

Pensioners and Packaged Foods: Best Before …

BestBefore-1

“My wife’s 90-year-old grandmother — having lived through World War II — doesn’t believe in “best before” dates. It made eating at her house rather exciting. Sadly, she had to move to a home and clearing out her larder was as thrilling as being offered a snack. All the products here — going back decades — were, I believe, intended to be eaten.

James Kendall, “Best Before”

James Kendall’s photos of vintage (but still viable?) packaged foods, I can relate to on a personal level…

My late grandmother had a similar disinclination to discard foodstuffs. An elderly box of Nesselroad Pudding in her cupboard was an ongoing joke with my brothers and me.

Of course, in these days of reality television, all types of hoarding are undergoing a closer social scrutiny. Looking at my grandmother’s situation in retrospect, I now regret the smug superiority that we felt towards her housekeeping and her kitchen.

That certainty of ours — that my grandmother was crazy to think that anyone in their right mind would consider eating her box of Nesselroad pudding — was just a part of our being young and newly competent.

“Best before…” certainly does not constitute a drop dead expiration date. It’s more like a serving suggestion, really.

Best before or best by dates appear on a wide range of frozen, dried, tinned and other foods. These dates are only advisory and refer to the quality of the product, in contrast with use by dates, which indicate that the product is no longer safe to consume after the specified date. In spite of this, about a third of food bought is thrown away while still edible.

Wikipedia’s entry on Shelf Life

It’s easy to see why older people might want to push the envelope in this regard. It might even be an inescapable geriatric rule — that as we get older, the food from our kitchen will become increasingly less appetizing to our children. Whether this will be due to failing eyesight, financial hardship or simply our own declining standards of “freshness” is hard to say. Maybe all of the above.

BestBefore-2

Even if our children become freegans, their food will certainly be fresher than the food in these photos. But so what? Assuming the meal worms and pantry moths have not beaten you to that box of pudding mix: just dust off the top and you’re good to go.

If we can set aside our personal judgments about the “freshness” of packaged products, the importance of packaging in the lives of pensioners becomes more obvious…

(Why packaged food is preferable to home-cooked, after the fold…)

In the afterword of his book “The Total Package” Thomas Hine describes how his mother came to actually prefer packaged foods to lovingly prepared home-cooked meals:

“One day her sister brought a pot of stew. “The color is funny,” she said to me after my aunt had left. “You eat it if you like.” I ate the stew, which was delicious, while she ate a bowl of Campbell’s Home Cookin’ Soup.

… She seemed to be retreating into a world of packages, in which name-brand products not only replaced salesclerks but all of those who wanted to give her support.

You could see that she clung to the packaged products because she feared losing her independence. This was understandable, but it seemed to jeopardize her relationships with people who could help her survive.

… Only much later did I start to become honest with myself. The sense of independence my mother sought through her packaged products was not an illusion. I had been replaced, to be sure. But the frozen product in the microwave tray was not as difficult to live with as I am. …It didn’t disagree with her. She didn’t have to pay attention to its feelings, nor use energy she didn’t have to keep it entertained. And the package was predictable in a way that I was not. She welcomed my presence. up to a point, but she and I had long lived very separate lives, hundreds of miles apart, and neither of us was ready to be much closer.

… My mother’s devotion to packaged products was, at first, an insult. But ultimately it was a gift. It gave me permission to leave, while knowing that she could feed herself and be properly nourished. It let us both be independent. And who am I to say that her package-granted independence is an illusion and mine isn’t?

Thomas Hine
The Total Package

(See also Propo Packaging, Packaging & Moral Turpitude and Expiration Date)

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

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