Meat One Day Out Of Date

[Chadwick Bosse]

Itcan be really confusing to look at an indicator date on a package and see a variety of different terms. If there is a misunderstanding of what the date means, the safety of the food product and those consuming it could be compromised. Michigan State University Extension recommends keeping your refrigerator at the proper temperature, less than 40 degrees Fahrenheit. It is important that continuous refrigerated or frozen storage be used with meat products that are not shelf stable.

Another question that is common relates to processed meat products. Once a processed meat product (ham, hot dog, lunchmeat, etc.) package is opened, the product should be good for up to seven days unless another type of date is on the package and has passed. After the seven days, the product should not be consumed. That means if a package of hot dogs is opened up and a few are prepared and eaten, within seven days the rest of the hot dogs need to be eaten or the remaining ones can be frozen. If you go to the deli and received sliced lunchmeat, eat that within seven days.

Michigan State University Extension programs and materials are open to all without regard to race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, religion, age, height, weight, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, marital status, family status or veteran status. Issued in furtherance of MSU Extension work, acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Quentin Tyler, Director, MSU Extension, East Lansing, MI 48824. This information is for educational purposes only. Reference to commercial products or trade names does not imply endorsement by MSU Extension or bias against those not mentioned.

There is no uniform or universally accepted system used for food dating in the United States. Depending on which food you are buying, the date on the package could be a recommendation on when it should be sold by or when it should be eaten by. Since confusion surrounding a date could mean throwing out perfectly good food, here are some tips about food package dates and storage for some common foods on your shopping list.

Open dating (use of a calendar date) is found primarily on the package of perishable foods such as meat, poultry, eggs and dairy products. "Closed" or "coded" dating might appear on shelf-stable products such as cans and boxes of food.

Except for "use-by" dates, product dates don't always refer to home storage and use after purchase. "Use-by" dates usually refer to best quality and are not safety dates. But even if the date expires during home storage, a product should be safe, wholesome and of good quality if handled properly and kept at 40 F or below. See the accompanying refrigerator charts for storage times of dated products. If product has a "use-by" date, follow that date. If product has a "sell-by" date or no date, cook or freeze the product by the times on the chart below.

Other examples of potential mishandling are products that have been: defrosted at room temperature; cross contaminated; or handled by people who don't practice sanitation. Make sure to follow the handling and preparation instructions on the label to ensure top quality and safety.

Always store your meat, poultry and fish in the refrigerator at 40 F or below. The chart below shows the approximate number of days or months to store food in the refrigerator or freezer after purchase of the food. For longer storage, keep in the freezer at 0 F or below and then cook within a day or two after defrosting.

Proper freezing can keep food safe indefinitely, but the quality (e.g., taste and texture) of foods may decline if stored longer than the times recommended in the table below. Even though it takes more time, always defrost meat, poultry and fish in your refrigerator instead of on your kitchen counter. If any of these foods develops freezer burn or an odd color or smell, do not use it.

Some milk is treated by an ultrahigh temperature (UHT) process, so they stay fresher longer. These shelf stable milks can be kept in your pantry for up to 90 days until they are opened After opening, spoilage time for UHT milk is similar to that of conventionally pasteurized milk and it should be refrigerated just like pasteurized milk.

Did you know the best place to store bread for maximum freshness is in your freezer? You can keep bread in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks, but the refrigerator may cause bread to lose moisture quickly and become stale.

The information and suggestions in this article and charts are intended as guidelines. Harvesting techniques, manufacturing processes, transportation and distribution conditions, the nature of the food, and storage temperature and conditions may impact storage life.

I can live with dates having some sugar especially that they contain a variety of healthy contents. California is lovely place and it is no wonder you love it there so much. Thank you for sharing these delicious dates desserts.

Karen im totally with you about people making outlandish claims about dates being high in sugar. I think the high fiber content is overlooked, this helps keep the G.I. index of the actual food down, not to mention its packed with so many healthy nutrients. Great taste, good nutrition. What more could we want?! Awesome recipe Karen. Thank you

The data are provided in two formats. Sixteen formatted Excel tables provide data grouped by commodity and broken down by partner country. The tables covering all meat and livestock trade contain only recent data, while commodity-specific tables include data back to 1989. In addition to the Excel tables, a ZIP file contains two comma separated values (CSV) files: one with export data and one with import data. These files include all of the same monthly data as the excel tables, as well as disaggregated, unconverted data. These files are machine readable, providing a convenient format for R users and other programmers.

Is the ham transported and delivered chilled? 3 months seems an odd date for frozen. Yes in general freezing will extend shelf life though if I were you I'd query with the supplier so you have something more official if needed to justify to any visitors etc. If you are freezing down product on site make sure you keep a log of dates i.e. don't freeze it with one day shelf life remaining then defrost is 6 months later and leave it defrosted for a month before processing.

So I am assuming chilled is 3 months shelf life? I'd think yes freezing it will extend the shelf life. Don't you have any recommendations for storage though indicated on the product spec sheets? All that info would (should) be on there.

Indeed whilst not ideal quality-wise, sometimes it can be a matter of necessity when chilled storage is unavailable, it has happened in my place - poor planning and communication between purchasing, planners and production management.

Science says when its frozen, it is SAFE indefinitely and only quality issue may arise. This is known to all of us - QA practitioners. And we can be practical in all sense of the world and may allow the use of this out of shelf life ham because it is frozen anyway.

If god forbid, there was a food poisoning incident and the source of illness is your product that uses the HAM as one of its ingredient. During investigation by you and your country's regulatory agency, it was found (the regulatory agency discovered based on your record trail) that the ham used to make this product was already out of shelf life, and then now your regulatory agency is already incriminating that the source of the illness is the out of shelf life ham or simply let's assume after all the info is collected and investigated the actual source of illness is the ham.

How are you going to justify this to your regulatory? How are you going to justify this with the people who got sick? Technically, you cannot go after your supplier of ham because they indicated the shelf life of product at 3 months and then you decided to store it in freezer and extend the shelf life.

My point is, logical and practicality comes with our job - but it is important to cover you a** very well. Maybe ask the supplier for a shelf life extension, or for a specification which says that if the product is kept frozen, then the shelf life is 1 year. Or if this is a recurring issue, you can even make your own shelf life study for the frozen ham to see how's the microbial load by 6 mos, 1 year etc.

I always just go by smell. You can't trust the color anymore since so many places inject them with dye now, or get too much info from the date, since they change the date so often. So I just sniff it. The nose knows.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) does require a "pack date" for poultry products and thermally processed, commercially sterile products to help identify product lots and facilitate trace-back activities in the event of an outbreak of foodborne illness.

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