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Why do I have to 'consume with 24 hours'?
simondsUU933w
Posts: 4,176 Forum Member
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I buy a pack of 2 fresh chicken fillets regularly but only eat one at a time.
It says once opened, consume within 24 hours - can anyone explain why? I always wrap the remaining one in cling film and keep it in the fridge so why can't it last until the best before date?
Thanks!
It says once opened, consume within 24 hours - can anyone explain why? I always wrap the remaining one in cling film and keep it in the fridge so why can't it last until the best before date?
Thanks!
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I'm no scientist but I think thats why.
Carbon dioxide, it's not just inert, its mildly bacteriocidal.
OP If it says it's suitable for home freezing on the day of purchase, you could bag up the spare one and put it straight into the freezer when you get home.
Why is it suitable for home freezing on day of purchase never after?
For the same reason it says "consume within 24 hours". Nothing is ever exact to the minute as the exact conditions vary from case to case, these statements are really more like rules of thumb.
I've often ignored that advice with no ill effects.
I think they're changing that to freezing before the use by date.
It's perfectly safe to freeze food up until the "Use By" date, as after all your fridge is no warmer than the shop's, and you could have bought it from the shop on any day up until the "Use By" date. The imprecation to freeze on the day of purchase dates back to an era when fridges were unreliable and inaccurate, and therefore couldn't be assumed equivalent to the shops'. I thought that packaging today was supposed to say "before the Use By date" rather than "the day of purchase" to try to reduce waste, but I could be wrong, and I don't have any packaged meat around at the moment.
Same.
If something is 'off', you will know about it.
Otherwise, happy days.
Especially for raw meat, if the thing is about to be cooked in 200 degree heat for 20 minutes it certainly wont harm you afterward even if it did have an unhealthy concentration of bacteria beforehand.
However, you're perfectly right. You don't even need to wrap the remaining chicken in cling film (actually I'm wondering if that's worse than just covering it. Honestly no advice - you'd need to google it) it'll be fine most likely. Food will rot eventually, but you can smell it. I do not suggest you do this but even partially rotten food can be eaten without life-threatening results. Chicken is prone to salmonella but salmonella is all around us and there are different strains of it, however what is most likely to spoil your food is just some opportunistic bacteria. Thing is, we can digest bacteria just as easily as we digest poultry. Again, not recommending it, just pointing out the facts. We actually eat, for instance, so-called "blue cheese" but would turn our noses up at, for instance, blue bread. Logical? Not really.
A piece of chicken can potentially be kept in the fridge for weeks, months or years without rotting. It's statistically highly unlikely but it is possible. There is no mechanism that routinely makes meat bad after a certain length of time, it takes actual bacterial infection to spoil it.
As others have said, as long as you are reasonably healthy, just rely on your senses. If it looks OK and smells OK it probably is OK. I rarely bother with sell by dates on anything and I've never been ill. Once you free yourself from the tyranny of sell by dates you'll throw much less food away.
foil is better
and pat with a paper towel before wrapping
I'd keep a fresh chicken fillet like that for 3-4 days
The chances are that the chicken will be fine for a few days, especially if it has been kept wrapped and in a fridge, but if you do get the runs after eating it 3 days later then it's not their fault.
Most places use nitrogen now.
Its never done me an ounce of harm!
Day 1: Open packet. Cook one, freeze the other.
Day 2: If you want it for tea, take it out and leave it in a bowl to unfreeze. Otherwise, you have safely frozen your chicken so you can use it a month later, if you'd prefer.