A Little LESS Spice in My Life Today!

Cleaning out your pantry just got one step easier! McCormick’s has a great opportunity on their website to check the age/freshness of each bottle/tin of McCormick’s spice in your stash.

I know, I know…Martha would be horrified, but I don’t follow her advice to throw all spices out and start fresh every year. And truthfully, some have a shelf life that negates the necessity of this drastic budget attack.

The newer McCormick’s spices actually have a “Best By” date on the bottom of the bottles (thank you!). If yours have a code instead, check out:

http://www.mccormick.com/Spices101/HowOldSpices.aspx

If the address on the label is Baltimore (instead of Hunt Valley) or if your spice is in a tin…brace yourself. It’s at least 15 years old (except for black pepper)! Yikes.

If your stash passes this initial test, the website offers the opportunity to type in the individual codes from the bottles to obtain the manufacture date. How cool is that? They even soften the blow of the “bad news” messages with quips such as, “You tossed out the blue eye shadow ages ago; it’s time to toss your old spices.”

So maybe today’s quick task is to go through your spice shelf. You might have some surprises (and laughs) in store.

My next mission? Find some coupons for McCormick’s spices!