Can miso go bad? (I ate some 7 year old one)

While rooting around in my cellar I dug out a jar of dark Miso premade by Clearspring. It claims to be unpasteurised and organic. Only, I bought it in like 2010 and it had a useby date somewhere in 2012. It still looks completely fine though. Since' I'm generally not to finicky about older food and use my own smell and taste to determine if things are still edible, I'm feeling like eating it. But Miso is an aquired taste and my palate is not yet developed to the the stage to diffentiate between "mmm, strong" and "oy, off" flavours in miso. What I think of as mmm, might still be spoiled or gone bad and I might toss it due to strong flavours that are new to me, but not neccessarily bad.

So, can miso go bad?

Well folks, I just decided to take the plunge and plonk some into my lunchtime parsnip soup. It was wonderful. Very dark-earthy tasting and going well with parsnips on that account. So it seems the stuff is practically immortal. If I was wrong, then this will be my last post  

here in France even the water by law has a sell by date . As its totally dry and not meat  I would not worry

Kat deZwart wrote:While rooting around in my cellar I dug out a jar of dark Miso premade by Clearspring. It claims to be unpasteurised and organic. Only, I bought it in like 2010 and it had a useby date somewhere in 2012. It still looks completely fine though. Since' I'm generally not to finicky about older food and use my own smell and taste to determine if things are still edible, I'm feeling like eating it. But Miso is an aquired taste and my palate is not yet developed to the the stage to diffentiate between "mmm, strong" and "oy, off" flavours in miso. What I think of as mmm, might still be spoiled or gone bad and I might toss it due to strong flavours that are new to me, but not neccessarily bad.

So, can miso go bad?

I dont think so, zach bush MD who ive just discovered and wow everyone must watch him ...reckons if you go to japan buy some 7 yr old miso...its at the end of this video https://youtu.be/m_H-hFC_bzE

He says s the 7 yr old miso has so many back generations of helpful bacteria vs own fermentations.

I really recommend his video on gylphosate or roundup and its effects...zach is just astounding, Ive just discovered him, seriously watch it: https://youtu.be/HL6OPzQe9Is

I often find mold on my miso, and kind of dig that part out and eat the rest.
In Japan I did a ceramics apprenticeship and at my teacher's rural studio I once had the undignified job of kitchen muck-out before a big studio open house. It had never been done in the 30+ years he had been there. Much crazy and disgusting stuff was found, pickles still in crocks that had long turned unrecognizable, fossilized mice, lots of mysteries. We found many vintages of miso, if it is still recognizable as miso and doesn't smell like ammonia you're good. Once it starts to smell like vinegar or ammonia (or something even worse) it's best jettisoned. Then you get to the phase where it is not really recognizable as miso, like dried out and looks like black grout, definitely let that go. It can keep for 7 years, under the right circumstances, but it won't keep forever.