Meat expiration dates

quote:

---

But are these going to be safe to eat?

---

Yup

look at the meat and smell it to confirm its good

ex dates are a suggestion not a firm throw out date

aged beef is more tender so dont overthink it

quote:

---

But here comes SixthandSupperClub to tell you there's mutant bacteria on it

---

Rent free, baby! Living in your head, I love it!

I would go buy extra stuff just in case. I wouldn't call chicken fresh if it's past the sell by date considering how long chicken lasts thawed out.

Buying meats a week in advance to just sit in my fridge all week is just something I don't do

Odds are your chicken was previously frozen

Ask that dude who ate those green steaks a while back. He should know what you're in for.

quote:

---

Hosting a football watch weekend for college football for a few people and did my grocery shopping last weekend.

---

That's a long time before you were planning to cook the food. I can understand buying meats like hot dogs, for example, with a longer shelf life, but not chicken or steaks. You will probably be fine, but the steaks' sell by date of Aug 31 when you aren't cooking them until the 4th is too long for me. I would have put those in the freezer.I wouldn't serve them to guests. I err on the side of caution, though.

You have a choice, cooks the steaks well done are be accused of making everyone sick.

FYI - A meat processor must pick their use by date and tell the USDA what that date is. It can be any number of days, as long as it’s backed up with science. In order to do this, you run microbiology analysis (bacteria samples) and create a study that shows that on X days, the microbiological analysis proves the meat is safe and is used as the reasoning behind X days the processor uses as their use by date.

This is not for raw meat, but I know one processor who makes a cured refrigerated cooked meat product. They have analysis that shows it’s safe for over a year while most products from other companies can only use 90 days. They don’t use a year’s worth of days on the package though because they know the consumer will see they have a year and think something is wrong with it. They know it will scare them off. And the reason the meat has a shelf life for so long is because of new processing techniques which allows them to use new packaging techniques. It’s not because of preservatives or chemicals (other than the same sodium nitrite cure everyone uses).