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Original poster

HELP! Can I eat pork sausages one day past their use-by date?

105 replies

FootballOn · 16/09/2026 16:40

Would you eat a pack of pork sausages one day past the use by date? Have been kept in the fridge the whole time. Don’t smell weird. Getting paranoid - would you risk it or not???? Speedy responses appreciated as currently cooking them but wondering whether to bin them and start again with something else
thanks!

OP posts:
FreddysFingers · 17/09/2026 18:24

I'd eat them OP. As long as they smell OK and no gasses making the packet bulge.

spirit20 · 17/09/2026 19:05

Hatty65 · 16/09/2026 17:08

I've just looked at the chicken mince I'm having for tea and noticed that the use by date is 13 September. It smells alright and I'm going to cook it.

Pretty sure I'll survive.

Out of curiosity - how are you feeling now? I'd have no problem with the sausages 1 day out, but would be more suspect of chicken that's 3 days out.

Mountainpika · 17/09/2026 19:19

We buy our sausages from our local butcher. Made on the premises, sold loose, never any date on them. Keep in fridge for a few days or shove in the freezer and eat whenever we want to. No idea how long some of them may have been in there.

Hatty65 · 17/09/2026 19:22

spirit20 · 17/09/2026 19:05

Out of curiosity - how are you feeling now? I'd have no problem with the sausages 1 day out, but would be more suspect of chicken that's 3 days out.

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I'm good thanks! 😁

I've obviously got a cast iron stomach, and so me, DH and DS all ate it. None of us feel bad. (I took the executive decision and didn't tell them it was out of date - DS would have rejected it)

He'd be lying on the sofa now telling me he felt sick if he knew. (He's an adult)

ChimpanzeeThatMonkeyNews · 17/09/2026 19:24

Yes. They’re absolutely fine.

hereforthecraic · 17/09/2026 19:26

I wouldn’t eat pork anyway. It’s a dirty meat tbh and I’m catholic

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 17/09/2026 19:50

hereforthecraic · 17/09/2026 19:26

I wouldn’t eat pork anyway. It’s a dirty meat tbh and I’m catholic

I have never in my entire life heard anyone claim that Catholics don't eat pork. The people of Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Southern Germany, Poland and other countries which have been predominantly Catholic for centuries all have strong pork-eating traditions.

In any case, you're quite wrong about pork being a dirty meat. You may be harking back many decades to a time when pigs were fed on slops, but those days are long gone.

Lansonmaid · 17/09/2026 19:57

This is why we get so much food waste today - the tyranny of the sell by date! Unless you have kept the sausages out of the fridge then they will be fine.

DreamingOfGeneHunt · 17/09/2026 20:19

I cook in a Catholic school and we have pork on the menu all the time.

Coconutter24 · 17/09/2026 21:07

Sparrow7 · 16/09/2026 17:54

Morally there is no difference between eating pigs and eating dogs. I don't think one day will make any difference.

Why are you talking about morals? OP wasn't asking that.

momager22 · 18/09/2026 09:04

You’ll be fine. I eat them a few days past as long as they look and smell ok.
Sausages can’t tell the time and they don’t suddenly expire at the stroke of midnight ….

SomeSuchThing · 18/09/2026 09:05

Just eaten bacon that was best before some date in July. Still here… 😉

Vroomfondleswaistcoat · 18/09/2026 09:48

I wonder if I have a higher tolerance for 'slightly off' than the younger generation. My kids will chuck milk if the date on it has passed. I open it, sniff it, have a swig and as long as it's moderately all right I use it.

In the hot summer weather I was quite often putting milk in my tea that went 'bobbly' as soon as it hit the surface. Tasted all right and didn't kill me, and cheese is basically 'end of life' for milk and people eat that, so...

CasperGutman · 18/09/2026 09:55

HowardTJMoon · 16/09/2026 20:10

Humans domesticated dogs at least 10,000 years ago and we've had a relationship with them so close to be pretty much symbiotic for millennia. We have selectively bred them for countless generations to enhance their ability to live alongside us to the point that many breeds have distinct and highly mobile eyebrows to increase their ability to emote in a way recognisable to humans.

By contrast, pigs can be turned in to bacon. QED.

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Humans domesticated pigs at least 8,000 years ago and we've had a very close relationship with them and selectively bred them for millennia too. Although, we've mostly bred them to make larger quantities of tastier bacon so I suppose there is a difference....

11AndCounting · 18/09/2026 09:59

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 17/09/2026 19:50

I have never in my entire life heard anyone claim that Catholics don't eat pork. The people of Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Southern Germany, Poland and other countries which have been predominantly Catholic for centuries all have strong pork-eating traditions.

In any case, you're quite wrong about pork being a dirty meat. You may be harking back many decades to a time when pigs were fed on slops, but those days are long gone.

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She wasn't claiming that Catholics cant eat pork, she was saying that she doesn't (despite not being a member of a faith that prohibits it).

NoWordForFluffy · 18/09/2026 19:34

11AndCounting · 18/09/2026 09:59

She wasn't claiming that Catholics cant eat pork, she was saying that she doesn't (despite not being a member of a faith that prohibits it).

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That's quite the interpretation. How would you know that's what was meant, as it's certainly not clear from what was written?

TheFishFish · 18/09/2026 19:39

As long as they smell ok and you cook them properly, they'll be absolutely fine.

Katypp · 18/09/2026 19:42

Lomonald · 16/09/2026 16:45

Probably not, just bin them is it worth making your self sick over.

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Appalling food waste. Just dreadful to read 'bin them'. I hate it.

11AndCounting · 18/09/2026 19:55

NoWordForFluffy · 18/09/2026 19:34

That's quite the interpretation. How would you know that's what was meant, as it's certainly not clear from what was written?

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Context, common sense, and familiarity with language patterns.

"I [have opinion X], and I'm [from group within which opinion X is unpopular]" is a common turn of phrase.

TishToshByGosh · 18/09/2026 20:00

Yes, I'd eat them if they looked and smelt OK. I'd be extra careful about cooking them thoroughly.

ForFluentLimeFatball · 18/09/2026 20:01

Looks goods. Smells good chances are it is good. I've never had food poisoning yet

NoWordForFluffy · 18/09/2026 20:01

11AndCounting · 18/09/2026 19:55

Context, common sense, and familiarity with language patterns.

"I [have opinion X], and I'm [from group within which opinion X is unpopular]" is a common turn of phrase.

Edited
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It's also common to link two reasons together to show why you have an opinion. [I wouldn't do this] because [x and y reasons].

11AndCounting · 18/09/2026 20:05

NoWordForFluffy · 18/09/2026 20:01

It's also common to link two reasons together to show why you have an opinion. [I wouldn't do this] because [x and y reasons].

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Yes, it is.

But the conjunction was "and", not "because"

toomanydicksonthedancefloor1 · 18/09/2026 20:13

im pretty lax with use by dates but there are a few things I wouldn't risk - fish, rice, chicken and pork. Probably anything else if it looks, smells and tastes fine I would ignore the date. So it's definitely a no from
me.

NoWordForFluffy · 18/09/2026 20:14

11AndCounting · 18/09/2026 20:05

Yes, it is.

But the conjunction was "and", not "because"

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The conjunction was between the two reasons, as per my example. You're mistaking where I'm inserting the 'because' (I assume, as there's no 'and' where the 'because' would be).

If she was saying that she was Catholic, not Muslim, so it wasn't for religious reasons that she finds pork 'unclean' then I'd suggest that more words should've been used!