Turkey: to eat or not to eat after 9 days?

[TobleroneWrestling]

Is it safe to eat a turkey, cooked on Boxing Day, allowed to cool and then kept in a cold fridge since? It looks and smells fine but it is almost 9 days since it was cooked. It seems a shame to waste it if it is safe to eat.

I know some people would eat it without considering it an issue and some people would run screaming for the hills rather than eat it!

But can anyone tell me please if it is safe to eat from an actual food safety knowledge point of view?

This. In the 90s I used to know a guy who was one of the senior managers at Northern Foods, known as the quiche king. He used to tell everyone that the main difference between an M&S quiche and a Tesco quiche was that the M&S quiche was likely to be less than a week old when you bought it, and a Tesco quiche was usually at least a week old when you bought it — and could be 10 days old by the time you got it home and put it in your fridge to eat in a few days.

as Boxing Day was the Use By date

So the turkey is 9 days beyond its use by date now?

https://www.food.gov.uk/safety-hygiene/cooking-your-food#using-your-leftovers

Scroll down to "using your leftovers". I would go to three days, but unless you want to lose weight I wouldn't eat it now.

Not yet. The Swingometer has moved over quite a bit more towards the negative after reading some of the cautionary tales from pps!

I should probably have done an AIBU poll instead - easier to count opinions on both sides.

You cannot compare hanging game (which is done to improve flavour and tenderise the meat) to eating 9 day old cooked meat. The guidance for eating cooked pheasant is 3-4 days.

I go by the rule that cooking on a use-by date only adds a couple of days onto the meat’s eatability. In general I don’t eat anything containing meat that’s in date but been around for longer than 7 days unless it’s cured.
I will happily cut mush and mould off vegetables so not really that cautious about food.
But to me this turkey isn’t just 9 days old, it’s actually 7 days out of date

No way, 9 days is way too long

Thank you everyone for all your opinions, humour and advice. I'm going to disappear for a bit now as I've got things I must do. I thought I'd better mention that in case anyone thought I'd tried the turkey and keeled over! Fear not and thanks for caring about the wellbeing of me and my family.

I wouldn't risk it. and I'm ridiculously laid back about that kind of thing I love eating cold special fried rice the next day, and apparently that's a massive no no . but 9 DAYS! no. no way. tin foil or no tin foil.
should have frozen it.

Turkey stock and soup is absolutely delicious, a post Christmas treat!

I think it's fair to assume that's not the situation here, though.
I mean if you're starving, you'll go through a bin for food, but if not, you're not risking that.

That's all true, but implying that all Aldi turkeys are cheap and nasty is doing them a disservice, I got a free range dry aged Chesham Bronze from there this Christmas which was excellent.

I wouldn't even offer it to my cat. I know they can process a lot more bacteria than we can, but nobody likes runny cat shit everywhere. and I'd feel so guilty if I made him ill.
I'll pretty much only give him stuff one day beyond when I'd eat it myself.

"for everyone"
I hope you're telling them it's 9 days past it's use by date.

I'm someone that will go to three, four at a push if it still smells okay, but NINE DAYS even my guts can't handle that.

Let me know when I should start to worry.

My OH has carved up the rest and packed it into tupperware, so I assume he's planning to eat it for the next few days at least.

I feel your pain OP. We had ours on Christmas day, but it was a big while Bird, so lots of leftovers.

DH carved the rest and seperated for stock/sandwich/leftovers/curry.
I meant to package, label and freeze accordingly, but before I knew it, it was the 31st and it all stank. Such a waste!!

Sorry Christmas wasn't as planned but don't add on to it by risking it.

9 days is too long. I wouldn't eat it anything beyond 5 days after it was cooked personally.

I feel awkward eating anything at 5 days in the fridge.. That is the max I would go.
I think at 9 days even if it looks ok there is a chance some of the meat has spoiled or something has grown.. I just wouldn't risk it.
If you've ever had a nasty v and d bug you wouldn't risk it either.

Does the OP also serve Xmas cake...

That’s a good idea, feed the rotten turkey with brandy.

4-5 days at an absolute squeeze