Using Expired Foods and Other Products

Those "sell by" dates are more about when the store isn't allowed to sell them by vs when they are good until.
I remember reading an article about this. While there are some things that really do go bad on or very close to that date, other things are good for a good long while after the fact. You can buy day old bread at the grocery store for instance.
It really depends on what it is and how past it's date it is.
The baby food jars, are the tops still air tight or have the buttons in the middle popped out or look like they are beginning to bulge? How far past the date are we talking? If the jar is intact and it's not to far off it's date I'd still use it.

No.

I had a gift given to us when my grandson was on stage 3 baby food. A friend was moving and she had almost a whole box of it. It was set to expire in a day or two.

I called the company number on the side and asked to speak to someone about baby food expiration dates.

The lady told me that baby food is nothing more than flavored goo. That it is only a tool for teaching a baby to chew and swallow. Baby's are not supposed to depend on baby food for nutrition, that is supposed to come 100% from formula.

She said what little nutrition the baby food had in it to begin with is exposed to light just sitting on the counter and that the light starts to take the nutrients away. So sometimes by the time it hits the store shelves it doesn't even have any nutrition in it at all.

Baby food is not for nutritional use, it's a tool to teach a baby to chew and swallow.

So don't feed your baby any sort of baby food if you can help it. Use your own table food. Use a food processor when they're younger then use a good food chopper like Pampered Chef when they get older.

I wouldn't. They are going into s baby whose immune systems aren't built for it. I don't eat expired foods myself so I wouldn't feed them to my kid

Having worked at a grocery store for over a decade I learned there is a difference between "sell" by or "use" by. A "use" by is an expiration date. I wouldn't go much past it if the type of food will make you sick to do so. A "sell" by still has shelf life and depending on what the product is, it can last from a week for non frozen perishables to months or years for some types of canned goods.

My personal opinion...I wouldn't give either to a baby. Just in case. But I am also in complete agreement with Gamma G and Changed4 about not using jarred baby food at all.

Probably. "Sell by" dates aren't necessarily "expiration" dates.
Test it yourself. If it isn't funky, go for it.
I will say, I am pretty lenient on that kind of stuff. I let the product, not a stamp tell me if ok to eat - My husband is a stickler though. For example, I had a tub of lettuce & greens. I had them for a week or two in the crisper - not wilted, not mushy, but because we had them for "so long" my husband wouldn't eat it. meh. more for me, I guess. That said, I have bought a "fresh" gallon of milk that soured in like a day - I took that sucker back with my receipt and showed that the exp date showed fresh.

Yes, I would definitely use baby food that was a little past it's due date. Since the food is not fresh produce to begin with, I can't see the date being that specific.

For formula, I guess it would depend on the type. I'd be more likely to use a powdered one past it's date than a liquid one.

Only if you taste it first.

Formula, no
Baby food over by a day or two, yes. More than a week, no.

For me, it depends upon how far out of date the item is. My limit for medications is a year out of date. For canned foods, I'm okay with 6-8 months, but I still do the smell and taste test....our noses are surprisingly accurate and scenting bad food. For fresh, I use my eyes, nose, and taste to test. I've used eggs that are over a month out of date (if you turn them over every week, they last a month longer).