Can I use a Chorizo sausage if I wrap it in tin foil when its at its sell by date. It says that it will keep for only 5 days once the packet is opened.

What type of chorizo? Cured and ready to eat or fresh and requires cooking?

Why do you think til foil would help?

Put it in the fridge to helpit last.
Freeze it if you don't know when you're going to use it.


If it's the cured type (like pepperoni/salami) then it should last weeks if not longer.

Yes it'll be fine.

thats all I needed to know. It is cured but it says eat within 5 days after packet is opened, so I just thought if I wrap it in tinfoil it would seem as though the packet hadn't been opened

5 days is just the supermarket covering their arse.

I often have wrapped up cured chorizo in my fridge for up to a couple of weeks after opening the packet. It'll be fine for ages.

Packaged meats don't have ordinary air in the packet, what's in there is a mixture of gases to stop bacterial growth. Once you open the packet, that gas goes and no amount of home made wrappings will replicate the conditions of the packet.

Nevertheless, a chorizo will keep for ages once unwrapped. It is cured meat, for one, plus the skin acts as a natural wrapper.

Why are people so obsessed with and scared of sell by / best before dates? I know people who will even throw out perfectly good potatoes because of some imaginary date on a bag.

As already said, Chorizo is a salami type preserved meat that should be okay for months. If it looks and smells okay then it probably is okay - stop being frightened by the Nanny State and use a little common sense!

I guess it's because these days nearly everything comes in a packet with a date on it

In the olden days you got your fruit and veg from the greengrocer.......everything was loose, you bought it by weight and the greengrocer either put it straight into your bag or put it in a paper bag first.......there was no date on a carrot !

Similarly at the butchers.........you bought by weight and the butcher just wrapped it in a piece of paper

I used to buy loose chorizo at a Deli........they weren't in a bag, just loose on a slab on the counter......I'd buy one and have half on Saturday and half on Sunday.......chopped up and mixed with tomato, olives and olive oil in a bowl, eat with crusty bread......

Beats me Paulie. I was speaking to someone just the other day who seems to imagine that foodstuffs turn instantly to poison the moment they reach the date on the packet. Its as if they believe in some sort of malign magic. How do they think human beings survived until this era?

The chorizo will be fine for weeks if not months OP. I have one in the fridge that I have been cutting into since before Christmas. What will happen though is that it will get dry so if you plan to serve it as anti pasto then I would buy it fresh. But the open one will be fine in cooked dishes for ages.