Is it okay to eat expired food from the food shelf?

Dried foods and canned foods are good well beyond the date stamped on the package/can.

These dates are "sell by" dates, not "OMG your food is going to kill you" dates.

Dried goods like instant potatoes pouches of instant sides, Rice-a-Roni, pastas, Hamburger Helper, Mac&cheese, stay fresh well past the date. Certain foods might go stale like crackers or cereals, tea and coffee, but they're not poisonous, just flat.

Canned goods are not going to spoil for years unless the seal is broken or a severe dent causes a microscopic crack. But cans that are intact and a year out of date are okay, they're not poison.

Look again. I bet the word "expired" does NOT appear on any of the foods. Why? Because in the US, ONLY baby food and formula has an actual expiration date. Everything else has best if used by dates which mean NOTHING. They are a guarantee by the manufacture of how long taste and flavor is guaranteed, NOT safety or spoilage.

The food you got is perfectly safe to eat unless it tastes nasty.

Toss it all into the garbage.

I went to a church on Tuesday (03-24) & got 2 boxes of food.

When I got it home & sorted through the boxes, almost all items were a month or more beyond the dates. The one item that wasn't was close, 2 days away. It was a can of pinto beans. I had tortillas, chicken, cheese & sour cream from another church box the day before, so we had burritos.

Not much you can do about this. A LOT of stores give their expired or almost expired foods to food shelves, pantries, banks, etc. The local grocery store chain, Stater Brothers here in Southern Calif, is NOTORIOUS for doing this. They deny it at the stores & corporate. Most of the stuff in my 2 boxes were from that chain.

It is not expired - it is best used by date - nothing wrong with canned goods a month or six out of date.

If it is canned or dried then yes.

try it an find out