I was hoping the answer was “never,” or at least “six months from purchase date.” The prospect of eating bad pudding was one that I feared had regrettable consequences, namely digestive ones. Unfortunately, I was in the mood for pudding, and consequences were being outweighed by gluttony.

I discovered a four-pack of pudding cups in the back of the fridge next to a box of Chinese leftovers and the Arm & Hammer baking soda. Normally, I operate under a strict policy of not eating food items that I neither recognize nor remember buying, and the chocolate pudding fell loosely into both categories. I vaguely remember my mom giving me some extra pudding awhile ago. Maybe Christmas?

Obviously, there was only one way to find out if the pudding had gone bad or not: throw it down my gullet. I figured that the worst that could happen is that the pudding would taste like leather and give me heartburn for a week. I was willing to accept that risk for the sake of scientific research and my own pudding craving.

The first bite was the hardest–not in texture (though it was kind of chewy), but in psychology. I had to convince myself that the pudding was just regular pudding and not the kind of pudding that sits around in fridges waiting to give diners the crud. Once I swallowed the first bite, every bite after was significantly easier, and before I knew it, I had eaten the whole thing. Better yet, I felt no adverse affects. So I had another.

Problem solved, mystery answered, hunger satiated. Now about those Chinese leftovers…