Geoff,

I prefer these maxims. When it doubt, throw it out.
If it’s green and furry, throw it out in a hurry?
You bruise you lose.

While we have radically different approaches to “shelf life” we share a dislike of wasting food. Rather than trying to reduce waste through increased consumption and saving items as long as possible, we are trying to reduce our inventory of perishable items to a minimum. If we are not going to eat it, don’t buy it or throw it out. This reduces options and thus reduces further waste from other items going bad. We are experimenting with pre-planning meals, making more trips to the store, and cooking smaller meals. We fall short a lot, but we are learning. Our goal would be to eat all of what we buy, have few or no left-overs, and use a “just-in-time” approach to meal preparation.

Interesting website and great for stuff that doesn’t come with a ‘use/sell by date’, but I can’t see myself going online to check if my pizza sauce is still good. Generally I default to the following rigorous criteria:

1–Does it have hair on it? Is is supposed to? Nope. OK, throw it out.
2–Has its container become pressurized from gases given off by its own decay? Yes? Pitch it.
3–Does it have a sweet or sour taste or become discolored? If so, taste it and give it the Johnny Cochran approach: If it tastes OK, eat away.

Also, for bruised apples or moldy cheese, just cut/bite off the bad part and salvage the rest. I often find the use/sell by dates to be too conservative. Following the above guidelines will help prevent any food borne illness while helping to develop an iron stomach like mine. My only problem now is feeling like I must eat everything to prevent wasting it.