Can we still eat turkey leftovers

[honeylou42]

DH wanting to make a turkey curry for tea tonight with turkey leftovers from the fridge. Will they still be safe to eat, I'm unsure but DH thinks it will be fine 😬

Nope. DH had some last night, felt quite ill after.

Have some cheese instead. Cheese is good. Love cheese.

See, my fresh turkey from Tesco has a use by date of 26 Dec, so that's what we did.

Eating week-old turkey?! 😱😱

But that's a use by date for it being raw - you need to cook it by then. It's fine to keep longer once cooked!

The trick is to make the curry on Boxing Day or the day after and freeze it

Yes, way.
We'll be finishing off our Christmas cooked turkey today. Probably would be fine tomorrow, but won't be any left.

But you do all the time if you buy cooked meat from the supermarket

Nope. I wouldn't eat it.
Yesterday was my final cut off for Christmas Day leftovers. Decided that the stuffing was past it but the turkey was fine.

Yep we finished ours off last night and it was fine.

Use by is for cooking! Not for eating once cooked. Surely that's just basic food knowledge?

The last of ours will be going in a curry today.
The amount of food waste due to lack of knowledge around safety and freezing etc makes me so sad. Yes MIL, looking at you.

Well, the government food safety website says:

You can cook food until midnight of the use-by date listed on the product, and then cool and keep it in the fridge. You must eat the food within 48 hours or freeze it to eat later. (www.food.gov.uk/safety-hygiene/best-before-and-use-by-dates)

@Cryingbutstilltrying - so you cooked turkey on 25 Dec and are still eating it 4 days later?? That goes against food advice rules.

I prefer to err on the side of caution, especially when I'm feeding ten people!

www.foodsafety.gov/food-safety-charts/cold-food-storage-charts

Cooked meat or poultry at the bottom there, 3-4 days.

It's fine. Get it in a curry

I believe so. Just had a turkey sandwich for brunch and will finish the rest tomorrow

Some of you are ridiculously cautious

Some of us prefer not to risk food poisoning...

We finished ours off last night. Wouldn’t have risked it after that though. 4 days is my limit! Did you eat yours OP?

Every year without fail our turkey has been fine for the week between Christmas and new year (30 years ). However I would say that I cool it quickly on Christmas Day ( carve all meat off the bone , cool in a cold room straight away ) and put in the fridge as soon as cold . The brown meat doesn’t always last as long so that tends to get binned earlier if not used , but surely anyone with fairly basic food knowledge can tell if meat is still good to eat based on sight and smell .

I would say yes it can be fine to eat but would depend on how it’s been kept , for example if it’s been sitting on the table over lunch each day for an hour in a hot room then it’s going to shorten the overall length of time you can keep it .

i genuinely think we need to use more of our senses around what is ok to eat , although appreciate some will be more cautious and won’t go a day over a best before date etc.

I do 72 hours in the fridge and freeze anything that we aren't going to use in that time. The thought of throwing it out is awful.

Wish me luck for today 😁

But @Theraffarian, you can't see or smell all the bacteria that cause food poisoning...

Ours is still going. Will be using it up today though in sandwiches.