How long do pellets and boilies keep for?

[coelacanth]

<blockquote class=quoteheader>Oldschool Paul wrote (see)</blockquote><blockquote class=quote>

But rancid to us may in some instances be attractive to some fish [img]/forum/smilies/wink_smiley.gif[/img]</blockquote>


No, rancid to us means can be thecause of a liver disease in fish called ceroidosis, basically has a similar effect to cirrhosis.

[trev (100M bronze)]

<blockquote class=quote></blockquote><blockquote class=quoteheader>Phil Lambert wrote (see)</blockquote><blockquote class=quote>

Personally I wouldn't keep shelf lifeboilies more than about 6 months. </blockquote>
<blockquote class=quoteheader>Windy wrote (see)</blockquote><blockquote class=quote>I binned my bags of two year old donkey chokers and will have fresh supplies for this years Catfish fish-in.

</blockquote>

Phil how long is shelf life then ? Is it less than 6 months ? Surely shelf life means just that.

Windy shall I put your name on the list then ? Ill get you a nice comfy swim next to Cakey

[Day Breamer]

Rancid can simply just mean 'offensive'.

Ive caught fish on baits that i personallythought smelt offensive (likeuncleaned maggots for excample)or if you prefer... they smelt rancid.

[Phil Lambert]

Trev, as has been mentioned, the bait companies seem reluctant to put a 'use by' date on their shelf life boilies (perhaps they don't know what that date would be?). As I mentioned, we don't know EXACTLY what goes into them or what preservatives they use. Different, no doubt, for each company.

I'm just erring on the side of caution. Some old boilies I've had have gone a tad soft after long (8-9 months) storage - even when stored in a bait fridge. Considering they are firm and hard when you open the packet I would put this softening down to some sort of decomposition of one or more of the ingredients. As Red Army said, perhaps it's just a confidence thing, but it would be nice to get a little heads up from the manufacturers. Something like 'best within three months of opening' would help.

[marie marling]

the best before date on bait packs would stop some shops floggin old bait that might have been there for over a year [img]/forum/smilies/i_dont_know_smiley.gif[/img].

[Red Army]

That's most probably one of the issues Marie the other thing is that to be able toassign a shelf-lifeto a product they'd need to study in some ways its degradation set specifications and once those would no longer be met establish the shelf-life...takes time and money [img]/forum/smilies/i_dont_know_smiley.gif[/img]

[trev (100M bronze)]

Phil I totaly agree with you, I was just playing devils advocate thats all. If bait had a sell by date or a use by date then retailers would end up with lots of out of date stock that they would be forced to sell at a reduced rate.Marie and Red have commented already, however if bait had a rolled on or manufactured ondate we could use that as a guide to how fresh and new the particular bait was.

In the shop there is nothing stopping the saturday lad just piling the new batch on the shelf in front of some other packets of the same product. If there was a date on the packet it would at least give him and us a clue as to what to put at the front. Supermarkets do it every night its called fronting the store. I suppose if one bait company were to put adate on then the others would have to follow suit.

I would certainly change my bait allegencies to a forward thinking company who put dates on their products because I would know that I was getting the freshest possible. Unless of course I make my own boilies.

[Red Army]

Agree a manufacturing date would make sense, wouldn't cost the shelf-life study and wouldn't leave the retailers with out of date stocks. Up to us then to decide if we're happy buying baits 3 months, 3 years or...30 years old but at least we would know what we buy [img]/forum/smilies/smile_smiley.gif[/img]