Korean Job Discussion Forums

[TiGrBaLm]

Don't know if this has been mentioned before (a search yielded nothing)

When I arrived here 3 weeks ago I bought some Pepsi from the joint by my place. Got home, poured myself some and proceeded to enjoy...but lo and behold it tasted like someone had put DDT in it or something.

Next day, went and bought some Coca Cola, same nasty taste.

Checked expiration dates on both bottles and voila, both had expired sometime LAST YEAR

Turns out the only "fresh" drink down here is Chilsung Cider, everything else has expiration dates as far back as March 2006 (on a can promoting the 2006 world cup nontheless)

So, is this prevalent in the areas of high population or is it just limited to little villages where it seems people only drink chilsung cider?

What about other foostuffs?

[kat2]

I've seen it most on import items. Especially in hte little mom and pop import shops. Stuff expired more than 5 years! Ouch! I always check on anything not Korean.

[ilovebdt]

[tzechuk]

Korea does things slightly differently than other country.

Rather than posting the best before end date, they post the manufacture date... I am sure that that's the case with soft drink.. and they say you can consume it within 1-2 years (or something) from the date it is made.

I have a bottle of coke here. The date on it is 2006.11.27 and next to that it says *jae-jo* (제조) which means *made*. Then in the ingredients bit, it says *유통기한:제조일로부터 12개월까지*, which means (word to word) circulation limitation: from date of manufacture for 12 months. In simpler English, it means you can drink it within 12 months from the date it's made.

[ilovebdt]

[TiGrBaLm]

thats funny

the coke i drank tasted really bad, as did the pepsi and the kunshing cider

and the coke cans i saw with a march 2006 stamp were all rusted.

Well, I'm staying away from anything but chulsing cider, at least my caffeine consumption will drop drastically

[RACETRAITOR]

Coke expires?

[butlerian]

Yeah, generally, it is the manufactured date which is on the bottle, so that will almost certainly be the case when the date is more than a few months before. Sometimes, however, they do use BBDs, so it can get confusing.

[nobrand]

[brento1138]

[billybrobby]

I remember I picked up some bread and the lady at the counter looked at the date and told me to get some fresh stuff. I was thankful. Then she told me I ought to check the date before I get any bread in the future. And I was thinking, "well, thank you for that rather frank admission of incompetence."

[JongnoGuru]

Imported chocolates that have gone bad/chalky (sometimes even BEFORE the expiry date ) are not uncommon in Korea, and they've been a problem since the stuff first appeared here.

Way, way back in the Dark Ages, when foreign candies (and a million other foreign things) were nearly unavailable in this country outside of blackmarket ajumas and newsagents inside the deee-luxe 5-star Western hotels, I was ecstatic to find that our local supermarket (in Itaewon 2-dong) now carried Snickers, Mars and Hershey bars. Oh, rapture! I stocked up, as did all the foreigners of the village. I witnessed some of them break down and weep tears of joy such as one had not seen since the day Korea introduced bathroom tissue without visible slivers of woodpulp in it.

So bad was I jonesing for it that I ripped the wrapper off one as I walked home, preparing to eat it right there in the street. (Very much NOT the done thing in Korea of those days, eating something while walking in pubic. ) To my bitter horror, I discovered that not only that bar, but all the others were speckled or completely covered in that ghastly ochre tint, the unmistakable indicator of chocolate spoilage.

Crestfallen, and who wouldn't be?, I marched back to the shoo-puh, ideally to exchange mine for some unspoilt bars, or at least get my money back. I discovered that mine and all the bars in stock were past their expiry date. And being the civic-minded pain in the ass I am, I informed the manager of this fact and showed him where the date is indicated on the wrapper. He thanked me for the heads-up, refunded my money, and I left.

After walking a while, I decided to go back to the supermarket for some reason, something I forgot to buy. And what should I see, but three or four uniformed shop assistant girlies hovering over the imported chocolate bars, each armed with a price-sticker gun, going "puh-tack! puh-tack! puh-tack! puh-tack! puh-tack!" They were affixing price stickers over the expiry dates on all the spoilt chocolate bars.

[SeoulShakin]

Regarding the chocolate, that whitish colour that sometimes develops on a milk chocolate is not bad for you. It is still edible. Most of the time this happens when the chocolate has melted slightly, then re-solidified. It is simply the cocoa separating from the milk or butter or whatever. It looks nasty, true, but it is still edible. You won't die from it for sure. On the inside everything is the same, but the texture may be slightly chalky only on the outside. Nothing to panic about if you accidently ingest some.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/question711.htm

That link should explain what I tried to say in a better way.

[Ya-ta Boy]

[JongnoGuru]

Okay, the bars were CRUMBLY spoilt. Not just "bad on the outside" like SeoulShakin seems to be suggesting. These weren't just unsightly; they tasted bad. Food poisoning? I hadn't a scintilla of concern that eating it might give me food poisoning. I was, however, put off by the *beep* appearance, *beep* consistency, and *beep* taste of them, and sufficiently so to return them for a refund. Imagine eating coagulated, hardened clumps of powdered chocolate milk...