....and be a smart person and throw away what is expired
I understand what you mean but the advice to 'throw away what is expired' is just plain silly. Throw away what has spoiled, use the rest. Make sure to rotate your storage - first in first out - and use what you rotate out. Expiry dates are theoretical limits, not absolute cut-offs. This goes for not only food but also for medicines, most pharmaceuticals work just fine after the expiry date [1].
I had a friend who used a couple of cans in his emergency stash a while after the expire date. He then had two problems. It does pay to look after what you stash. If nothing else just rotate stuff so you don't run into problems.
[1] http://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/drug-expiratio...
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