Food waste is a terrible thing, but while it’s good to use everything we buy, there’s a line you don’t want to cross when it comes to the risk of food poisoning. Some chicken that’s on the brink of its expiry date is a pickle if you’re out of freezer space and are going away for a day or two, so can cooking meat extend its use-by date?
The annoying answer is yes and no. If you have a raw piece of meat and you cook it (properly), the worst of the pathogens that have grown on its surface should be destroyed in the cooking process. This buys you time as you can keep the cooked meat for a few more days.
Cooking meat before its use by date doesn’t extend the date, but it does give you longer to eat it. It will give you up to three days to enjoy cold cuts rather than having to throw the raw meat in the bin, which is a win for avoiding food waste.
This life-extending trick taps into the different definitions of food labels, such as “use-by” and “best before” dates, which may vary depending on where you live. According to the UK Food Standards Agency, “You can cook food until midnight of the use-by date listed on the product, and then cool and keep it in the fridge. This is because cooking kills any pathogens in the food and gives you a little more time to use it up.”
“You must eat the food within 48 hours or freeze it to eat later. If you freeze the food, make sure that you label what it is and the date it was frozen, so you don’t end up with a UFO (unidentifiable frozen object).”
It’s important to note that this rule only applies if the item’s packaging is still sealed, and it’s been stored per instructions, otherwise it might have already gone off. If you eat chicken that’s been kept by the radiator, for example, you’re going to have a bad time.
Similarly, it’s crucial that the food has not yet reached the use-by date. If the use-by date has passed and you failed to cook or freeze it, it’s no longer advised that you consume it anyway as the pathogens have likely built up to a degree that cooking alone can’t tackle.
Use-by date is different from “best before” – that’s more to do with quality than safety. If you’ve got a bag of frozen spinach and you let it linger on past its best before, you might have a slightly lackluster side dish on your hands, but it shouldn’t be harmful.
The “sniff test” has become popular in recent years as a way of using your senses to establish if food that’s past its best before date is still good to eat. Smells can be a useful indicator, but not all dangerous bacteria produces an odor, so don’t go dancing with diarrhea by trying to sniff test your way out of binning a steak that’s past its use-by date.
Oh, and if you find yourself faced with bright blue beef soup, our advice is steer clear.
For further advice on food safety, visit the UK Food Standards Agency website.
Source Link: Does Cooking Meat That's About To Go Off Buy You Extra Time?