I stopped buying a lot of mass produced food because I wasn’t happy with the varying quality.
It’s either a factor of transportation and storage or poor manufacturing in the first place if a batch of cookies one week tastes fresh and the next week tastes already expired.
In that case, I had two batches with the exact same expiration date on them as well. I just don’t understand these kinds of inconsistencies, but I suppose that’s par for the course with modern manufacturing standards. The historic inflation levels make it even worse because companies are always looking for ways to lower production costs to boost profits and prevent themselves from raising their prices higher. A price increase is inevitable in today’s economy, but many companies are looking for ways to keep these price increases as minimal as possible even if the opposite seems to be the case. When my last two batches of store bought honey started crystallizing under the lid before opening them, I decided to get honey locally for better consistency. I found an amazing local honey farm that also works as a bee relocation service. They take problemsome honey bees from residences and bring them to the honey farm to live and thrive instead of exterminating them. Lately they’ve had new batches of honey for sale from some of the relocation hives, and the honey is just as delicious as the batches from their older hives. Regardless, I love the products from the local honey farm, I just wish they were cheaper. It’s hard to afford the honey when the cost of everything else is going up at the same time.