Personally, I'd like to think that my son would not eat a day-old sub sandwich.

In fact, when it was suggested that his stomach flu might actually be food poisoning brought on by stale bread and dried-out deli meat (no veggies or condiments, phew!), I scoffed. It seemed so preposterous that when I raised the issue to a friend, it was because of the ridiculousness of the presumption, not because I thought it had actually happened.

That sandwich, which should have gone straight to the trash, not into my son's mouth, had clearly gone beyond the point where it could be considered food. My son says he agrees with me. I choose to believe him.

But I also brought it to a panel.

As it turns out, there appears to be a gender discrepancy over the "expiration date" of food. We're not talking about date stamps on unopened packaged food, but food that's already been prepared or opened perishables that have passed the date that they could have legally been sold but don't appear to have anything wrong with them.

It was an interesting conversation. Women, for example, will buy fresh meat that's marked down 30 percent so it'll be sold before it's whisked off the shelves. But it's prepared that day or frozen. I've done both. Men, on the other hand, turn up their noses at the bargain meat, but seem to turn off their noses when they decide to eat leftovers that have passed their prime.

The men said they want what they want. Women are willing to make concessions at the checkout counter, but not at the table (except in the case of chocolate, which can be opened and eaten no matter how long it's been lying around).

There seemed to be no clear divide on bruised fruit. Most adults would eat around brown spots; girls would be more likely to declare the entire piece of fruit ruined; boys might not notice the discoloration at all.

But would you eat a piece of fruit that had mold on part of it (discarding the mold, of course)? Guy thing, although I might make an exception for strawberries, in which case the amount of mold would factor into the decision of whether or not to toss the whole thing in the trash.

Day-old pizza is perfectly acceptable to most if it's been refrigerated, but pizza that's been on the counter all night? Men seem to give it a longer shelf life, which brings me back to the sandwich.

Moms would like to think that no one would eat a meat-and-cheese sandwich that had been left out for more than a day. But according to my extremely unscientific poll, we might be deluding ourselves. Grown men — of ages spanning four decades — seemed to agree that it's entirely possible that a 12-year-old boy might eat an old sub.

I'm going to go on believing that my son didn't do it, but at least I can take comfort in the fact that if I'm wrong, at least he's probably learned not to do it again.