• pruwyben@discuss.tchncs.de
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    21 days ago

    Some tourists in the Museum of Natural History are marveling at some dinosaur bones. One of them asks the guard, “Can you tell me how old the dinosaur bones are?”

    The guard replies, “They are 65,000,011 years old.”

    “That’s an awfully exact number,” says the tourist. “How do you know their age so precisely?”

    The guard answers, “Well, the dinosaur bones were sixty five million years old when I started working here, and that was eleven years ago.”

  • AccountMaker@slrpnk.net
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    21 days ago

    From what I heard, salt is usually packaged with iodine or some substances that prevent clumping that expire over time. So after some time the salt won’t have those anymore, but it should be safe to consume. Salt cannot spoil because bacteria cannot grow in salty places.

    Don’t know how plastic containers relate to that sadly.

    • user134450@sh.itjust.works
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      21 days ago

      sodium iodide does not prevent clumping. typical anti-caking agents in salt are: fumed silica, potassium ferrocyanide, alumosilcate salts [Na+ | Ca2+ | K+] and sometimes, more frequently in organic products: simple carbonate salts (also [Na+ | Ca2+ | K+]).

      I know there are people who are afraid of anything with with the word “cyanide” anywhere in the description but ferrocyanides are really quite harmless. they are so harmless in fact that they are a common component of chemistry kits for little kids to make prussian blue.

    • psud@lemmy.world
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      21 days ago

      Iodine in salt is a health measure, people were not getting enough iodine, so they added it to the salt

      But that’s not going to degrade.

      • TheRealKuni@lemmy.world
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        20 days ago

        I get plenty of iodine, you just have to live in Pripyat and you can breathe the stuff!

        Just get a taste of that fresh, metallic air!

  • Zerush@lemmy.mlOP
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    22 days ago

    Well, I understand that with some years in an plastic bowl, the salt may absorb some substances and microplastics. But about Honey, what comes in glass jars? There they also put an expiration date, even though still edible honey has been found in several thousand years old Egyptian tombs.

    • Wxnzxn@lemmy.ml
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      21 days ago

      The expiration date - unless it’s a different legal definition where you are from - is not really about being edible, but just signifies the guarantee the producer gives, basically “up until this date we will guarantee this product will maintain the expected quality”. In this case, I think it will be them not guaranteeing that the salt won’t have drawn water from the air and clumped up or something like that.

      • user134450@sh.itjust.works
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        21 days ago

        i think what you are describing is the “best before date”. the expiration date instead works as OP describes it: after the expiration the product should be tossed.

        i usually see expiration dates on fish and meat. afaik honey never comes with an expiration date; the best before date is probably only relevant for the taste of the honey, not for its safety.

        • Wxnzxn@lemmy.ml
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          21 days ago

          Oh, true, I did not realise “Best Before” exists in that way, due to English not being my first language. But yes, that makes a lot of sense.

    • 5oap10116@lemmy.world
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      21 days ago

      As a plastics engineer, I would be more concerned with the heavy metals in Himalayan pink salt. Also, any microplastics wouldn’t be “absorbed”. If anything the salt would abraid the container through shaking which could scrape the walls and grind out some small particles over time. That being said, the plastics used for these types of applications are relatively virgin and frequently don’t contain any additives aside from possible colorants or glass fill or something line that.

  • HonoraryMancunian@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    Anyone else hate it when products fluff themselves up with dramatically grandiose blurb? FORMED BY THE PRIMAL SEA shut the fuck up

    • Hackworth@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      Part of my job is to write that kind of copy. If you take it seriously, you’ll drive yourself nuts.

      • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        You should start every one with “originally formed inside of an actual star” or something similar.

        • Hackworth@lemmy.world
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          22 days ago

          Wrenched from the platonic forms through seething quantum foam as the Demiurge’s machinations reach fruition, our custom-made mounting clamps won’t fail you like your precious god.

  • BeigeAgenda@lemmy.ca
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    21 days ago

    More than 250 million years of shelf life, I think it can last a few million years more.

  • lurch@sh.itjust.works
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    22 days ago

    if you think microbes got in that can survive in salt and are harmful to humans (which is unlikely), you can bake it in your oven a bit (without the container)

  • olafurp@lemmy.world
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    21 days ago

    For a proper answer you’d have to look up the plastic type and check for conditions where it would degrade. Plastics vary a lot by type and conditions of storage and exposure to sunlight.

    As an example you could probably keep a container of polypropylene (code 5) or HDPE (code 2) with salt for at least 5 years in a dry dark place without any concern. Salt can still scratch the outside of the container and cause minor plastic pollution if shaken every now and then for 5 years.

    However, if you want to make the salt last for your whole life then a glass/ceramic/stainless steel containers are the way to go. The life of the salt would then be mostly limited by moisture in the air so if you manage to make a design of the lid to allow airflow around a package of silica or rice you’ll have your forever container.

  • taiyang@lemmy.world
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    21 days ago

    Oh yeah, will my sea salt says it’s GMO free.

    No really, I have sea salt that said no GMOs.