To feed my family this?

[loopyluna]

Just discovered that the beef in my fridge was best before yesterday. If I make a stew then put it in a tub in the fridge, do you reckon it'll be ok to feed the family tomorrow evening? The beef looked and smelled fine to me...

Is it just me or does 'meat rinser' sound like a dreadful euphemism?

I'd eat it, OP. But cook it well.

Bronze -that's what I was thinking. I only bought it on Friday and I usually give butcher bought meat about 5 days.
Think I'll risk it.

yes if it looks and smells ok it iwll be fine, just reheat it thoroughly tomorrow :)

Conversely, I was fuming a couple of weeks ago to discover at 9pm on a saturday night that the steak I'd bought from a supermarket 2 days before and within the 'use by' date was grey and stinking £5 in the bin and pizza for tea , dates on most produce are pointless. [Veg is good for WEEKS after the supermarkets say its past its 'date']

It'll be fine.

'Best before' and 'use by' are two different pieces of advice. Best before is fairly arbitrary.

scarlett - hence us needing to rely on our own senses more than BB dates

but for you - they're normally far too cautious!

I wouldn't have any qualms at all about cooking it. If beef smells fine it is fine imo.

I wouldn't think twice about it. Meat doesn't magically become inedible because of some numbers on the packet. Best before is only an estimate in any case and a conservative one at that, to avoid any threat of litigation.

If it looked and smelled fine, then it IS fine. Honestly, those dates are put there to make you throw more stuff away.

Use your senses before the use by label, they are overly cautious for obvious reasons.

Touch, sight and smell are far more accurate, rotting food smells horrid to us for a reason, to put you off of eating it! Thats why we generally do not like sour or mouldy type scents.

Scarlett, why didn't you take it back to the shop and get a refund?

YWBVU not to use it unless it was actually off.

I would as I work in a shop and dates mean nothing, we often have to chuck beef before the date as it looks manky yet sell it cheap on the date and it's totally fresh, you can tell just looking at it, it goes brown then really brown then grey. As long as there are mainly red bits I would use it.

As long as it looks and smells fine then cook it. Far too much food gets wasted because of best before dates.

I've gone up to a week over on beef before but would never risk it with chicken its funny that. You get two days once its been cooked if im remembering food safety right

Decent beef is hung for weeks before its sold - use it!

Done. Beef and ale stew simmering in kitchen. Smells good :)

If you have to eat it becuase you don't have anything else then eat it today don't kep it until tommorrow.

use it today

or cook today and freeze today

it'll be fine tomorrow too, especially if cooked today.

worra It was late on a saturday night after one of those bloody days, so I threw a bit of a hissy fit in the kitchen and dramatically threw it in the bin, I couldn't take it back the Sunday as we had plans for the day so by the time I would've been able to take it back on the Monday after work it would have been absolutely gross & on its date and I couldn't be arsed arguing with a numpty on customer services, I just took the hit and ranted at OH for while to make myself feel better.

I have taken things back before though if they've turned early, I hate throwing food away.

I agree with Joan - but I grew up when there were no 'Use By' dates on food, and mum used her eyes and nose to check whether food was OK to eat. I would be a bit more suspicious of pork, but this beef will be fine - it may even be better than fine because it has aged a bit more.

As long as it looks and smells ok, casserole/stew it today and eat it tomorrow - by which time the flavours will have developed and deepened even more, and it will be lovely.

BE fine, stew is a traditional way of cooking meat that's past its best but not green and mouldy yet.

Absolutely I would use it and have done many times in this situation.