A question about chicken

[SomethingM1ss1ng]

Got a M&S chicken and mustard the use by date. The use by date is the 20th is Sep - Is it safe to cook it tomorrow? A full 24 hours after the use by date?

Trust your judgement. Sniff and cook

If it smells fine, it's fine. One day past is nothing.

Won't that be nearer 48 hours

@ZarasHouse yes it will be more than 24 hours but not full 48

*mustard - misjudged!

Trust your nose. You will know if chicken is off.

It will probably be fine. I buy a lot of yellow sticker stuff from M&S and often use it over the next day or two if I don't freeze it for later. I've never found anything to be off or made anyone ill.

Thanks @BarbaraofSeville - still mulling if I should cook it or not. Don’t want food poisoning on top of what’s already going on!!

So stick it in the bin and stop stressing. Come on op you're a grown up - just make a decision, it's not a hard one

The risk of it giving you food poisoning is probably so low, it's not worth worrying about.

I ignore just about every food safety recommendation going and I've had food poisoning once in the last 30 years and that was almost certainly due to a prawn sandwich from the work canteen that will have been made and stored within the absolute letter of the law.

You will definitely know if that chicken is bad, if it doesn't smell bad just get it cooked (with lots of garlic yum...)

@Bahhh I understand- it’s just that I don’t want my nervousness anxiety to result in wasting food

No one here can smell your chicken for tit. I get anxiety - I have it too - but sometimes you just have to make a decision and go with it. This is definitely small enough to file under 'meh'. You can do it op, don't waste your anxiety on stuff this small.

I would throw it away but I have had lifelong digestive issues which began with food poisoning so I am quite zealous

No I wouldn't eat a chicken 3 days out of date.

Or 2 days rather, just saw you posted this yesterday.

My normal checks are does it smell? Chicken normal has a pretty mild meat smell to it so any kind of strong or vinegary smell = throw away for me, is it taking an unnatural hue anywhere? And is it slimy? If it's any of those things then I don't cook it

Sniff test. I would but I'm pretty cavalier about dates. Make sure it's piping hot and fully cooked of course

The chicken doesn't know it has passed midnight :) we learned in a good hygiene course that shops use by dates have to be on the careful side of caution to allow for bring missed in store removals etc. Usually fine for a day or 2 after the date stated.

Thank you for all your responses - my anxiety got the better of me and I’ve binned the chicken. I don’t want a possible cold (daughter in school do I guess inevitable), flu, coronavirus and possible food poisoning to worry about🤧😷🤒