You say you opened a new sleeve of crackers, but had you just bought the box, or was it sitting on your shelf when the expiration date passed?

Opened a new sleeve of saltine crackers to use in soup. Crushed about 5-6 in my hand, noticing they felt stale. I decided it didn't matter since they were going in a non-cream soup and would be soggy anyway. I tasted one and immediately noticed a really disgusting taste. My first thought was that it tasted like motor oil. I picked them out of the soup, but the damage was done. I could still taste it, and threw the rest of the soup (and crackers, obviously). Thee crackers were past the expiration date by quite a bit, but since they were sealed I really didn't think it mattered. Guess I was wrong. The good news is maybe we've found a way to turn crackers into crude oil. Energy crisis solved.

When you crushed them in your hand and they felt stale...why would you put them in your soup? Just cant throw away the outdated stuff?