Things that have gone bad taste bad on their own, but if you put something bad in a meal that disguises that flavour you're unlikely to notice.

It's one of the reasons why hot countries often have spicy, highly flavored foods. Before refrigeration people could use poor quality meat for longer by covering up the taste, and it didn't kill them because lots of spices have anti-bacterial qualities.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4861184/

You can smell the ingredients before you cook spicy food..

But yeah, it can be masked.

It's a bit worrying to see people repeat the incorrect "you can smell it if it's risky" advice.

You will be able to smell if food is rotting. USE BY dates aren't just about rotting though, they take into account commonly found bacteria in different food, and correct storage.

You won't be able to smell most types of food poisoning bacteria, and the risk of poisoning goes up after the use by date.

https://www.food.gov.uk/safety-hygiene/best-before-and-use-b...

Also, the uses of preservatives, refrigeration and antibacterial agents means that the way food goes bad today is very different than the way food went bad when our noses evolved.

For example, flies circling round meat would make most people instinctively think twice before eating it. In most environments, they will appear within a few hours of the creature dying. In your fridge, the flies won't hatch, taking away a vital signal marking the age of the food.

Side note: I personally follow best-before dates. Not because I have a rational fear -- I might have some irrational fear -- but also it just makes my life simpler.

Not having decide if something has gone bad reduces decisions I have to make :)