My mom who is in stage 4/5. She seems to have an obsession with checking food dates. On one hand this is good because she is thinking of safety even when she forgets so many other things alson with other strabge behaviors. The challenge is when I freeze her favorite bread and take it out to thaw. She says the date has expired and will not eat it. There are other examples of food that are thrown when food is perfectly good.... My mom lives with my hubbie and I and our grocery bill has soard. We are fortunate to have thre finacila resources...however I hate throwing away good food. I can never reason with her by explaining food dates when freezing food. She seems to have great pleasure in throwing many things out ina ddition to food. Is this just part of the disease? Any suggestions?

She has no concept of the fact that she is throwing out good food (and money). Can you put fake dates on them, maybe date things one year from the actual date they are frozen? And use file folder labels (or some kind of sticky label) to put dates on canned goods? That's just the first thing that popped into my head.

Marvis, I'll bet your mom was wanting to do something of value to the household, and came up with Food Cop.

Putting myself in your mom's position, I'm only going to be confused by your protests. Why can't you see we're helping out? We're no free-loaders!

I'm not so creative anymore, but I'll bet you are. It might take a little extra work, but the Food Cop will appreciate it.

My mom does the same thing! It's frustrating. If I take it out to thaw, she will say that it's past it use by date. She can't grasp the concept that because it was frozen it extends that date. I've given up on trying to reason because she can't be reasoned with. I just try to beat her at it by freezing left overs or bringing things home with me (she still lives alone) to use. She doesn't like anything in her frig to be over one day old!

I know this has to be stressful, but i cant help but to laugh. She would not get bord around my house. Everyone will tell you my pantry is full of out of date food. My poor husband took a strawberry cake to work on a wed. that was made on a sunday, i didnt know it was supposed to be refridgerated, so when he took it in the see thru container, all the guys he worked with were so excited and when he opened it, it was covered in MOLD!!!!!!!! your mom would of passed out........ i was thinking the same as MEMA to change the dates w/ some sort of sticky tab. Good Luck!!! send her my way if you need to keep her occupied for a while.. I guess they never had lunch get togethers at his work anymore, i haven't been told to send anything??!!! LOL

ps, canned evaporated milk will go bad if its never been opened!!!!!