Millennial daughter audits parents’ fridge and finds the one health hazard Boomers simply can't let go of

Ali Riley (@rileythree on Instagram), a former footballer, was at her parents' home in Los Angeles when she casually foraged in the fridge. Upon looking, she found something to eat, but thankfully, she checked its expiry before digging in. Riley couldn't believe what she saw; the product wasn't just expired, it had been lying inside the fridge for nearly nine years. One after the other, she began checking almost every consumable and found most of them had expired years ago. Riley posted the video on January 7 and was shocked to know that her parents aren't alone in this.

"It's still good; I use it," her mom justified, while her dad was just shocked, realizing that he'd been surviving on expired products. Riley stumbled upon some curry in the refrigerator that apparently "lasts forever," according to her mom. She also found a bottle of ketchup that had expired in 2022. "It's natural; it's tomatoes," came her mom's reply. One after the other, Riley and her dad started clearing the fridge and found that it was, in fact, a dumping ground for expired items. They even found food items that had been lying in the fridge for more than a decade. "It's not going to kill you; I use it all the time," her mom said, justifying again.

Riley's mother, like any typical Boomer parent, kept defending the expired products; she repeatedly told her daughter how she used them almost daily. In fact, when Riley put all the expired products in the bin, her mom went as far as to dig them out of the garbage. "Apparently, it’s not expired if she uses it all the time," the athlete wrote in the caption. Investigating "Boomer Fridges," The Urban Hermit writes, "Your parents’ fridge is stuffed, absolutely filled to the brim, with food. And yet not a bit of it, not one good goddamn morsel, is edible. Instead, you’re confronted with a wall of perishables, most of them dating back to Obama’s first term." This habit of hoarding is typical of Boomers, who also can't seem to let go of material items. "Boomers grew up in a time of economic prosperity by parents shaped by the Great Depression. They are also collectors, whether Hummel figurines (porcelain figurines) or a souvenir from every vacation," Lark told Newsweek. This 'shortage mentality' reveals the high level of difficulty Boomers face in discarding things that may still be of some use.

It's not just Riley's parents, but a lot of Americans use expired food products, and one of the biggest reasons is inflation. A survey of 2,000 US consumers found that nearly half (46%) of surveyed Americans are apparently eating expired food products. Among those, 38% said they even remove the "bad bits" from food and would continue eating them until they are over. The survey also found that potato chips/snacks, cereals, cookies, and candies are the top food items that are most likely to be eaten past expiration dates. Moreover, 39% confessed that they would even eat bread after it had expired, while 23% said the same about consuming milk past its expiration date.

Netizens couldn't stop laughing at the elderly parents who kept justifying all the expired products in their fridge; for instance, @yvonne pointed out what Riley's father was wearing, and commented, "Dad turning around wearing the Rio 2016 shirt is peak comedy. The whole family is mentally living in the late 2010s." Similarly, @jo3ysan said, "My mom is like this. I cleaned out the fridge and bought new things. She then cooked food and said it tasted different. Uh, yeah, the difference is freshness." @homewithlindseyd shared, "My family plays a game at my parents’ house where all the grandkids get one minute each to race to the fridge and pantry. The object is to find the most expired item!"

You can follow Ali Riley (@rileythree) on Instagram for more lifestyle content.

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