Just don't eat there- EVER..

I like to go to my mom's and date random food that's in the freezer. The oldest is a frozen bag of fish from 2008.

frozen food doesn't go bad, it doesn't taste quite as nice as it would have pre freezing but it can be kept and used indefinitely, it's only after defrosting it you should use it within the next day or so, how is this not taught in schools, you shouldn't have thrown it out, if you don't want to eat it fine but she could have cooked and eaten it, you've just cost her quite a bit of money

your mom is right, it technically doesn't go bad because it won't ever spoil, it's just gross in our heads. but the quality will decline overtime, so yes you can eat a 5 year old or 10 year old freezer steak but it probably will be dry unless it's completely vacuum sealed. expiration dates mean nothing usually, it's pretty much a sure way for food companies to not get sued when somebody who doesn't pay attention to food quality. I've known people to eat spoiled moldy food thinking it's fine because they don't believe in expirary dates, but out of those ppl somebody will get sick eventually and will try to sue

I did this at my mom's house a few years ago too. everything was a couple years old and very badly freezer burnt and my mom told me the SAME THING.

She's right. As long as the food isn't opened and directly exposed to the cold air to get freezer burn, it won't go bad.