To put a roast chicken in the oven. Use by date 23rd

[mangomelons]

Of November obviously.
I really don't want to waste it. If it's cooked thoroughly will it be ok?

Have you unwrapped and smelt it?

I definitely would not. The rest of Mumsnet will be along in a minute to day it's fine though

You'll know if it's off. The smell is unforgiving.

If it smells bad don't cook it, if you can't tell it'll stink during cooking.

Chicken smells bad when it's off.

I wouldn't risk it with chicken.

If it doesn't smell I would cook it. Meat doesn't know it's supposed to go off at midnight on a certain date!

You will know a mile away by the smell if it is ok or not. I would say it will be fine

If it looks plump and doesn’t smell of anything, it should be ok.

It will be fine. Only ever had one smelly chicken breast - it absolutely reeked - and that was within date.

Its very obvious when chicken is off. I wouldn't hesitate to use a chicken two days past use by as long as it smells OK.

Unwrap it & have a sniff. If you don't immediately recoil it'll be fine. Whack it in the oven & cook it thoroughly until the juices run clear.

You can smell an off chicken when you unwrap it, even if only just off then it still has that unmistakeable whiff. If it smells ok then it gets cooked in this house.

Off chicken isn't as obvious as you think.

There is a stage between fresh and stinking where you wouldn't want to be eating it

Totally. You're fully cooking it, it's been in the fridge (I assume). You'd only be unreasonable if you didn't eat the skin just after you've taken it out of the oven!
Once upon a time they didn't have best before dates & people used their common sense and gut feeling. Most didn't die as a result. They didn't have fridges either. The chicken is dead - it can't read the label. If your nose and eyes say it's good then go with it.

You'll know when you smell it

I would if it looked/smelled ok.

I really wouldn’t use chicken that wS two days out of date

Not all bacteria can be smelt but can still make you very ill

I would with anything except chicken. But I had a hideous bout of campylobacter from an off chicken - if you want to lose 11lbs in 5 days it certainly does the trick!

No I wouldn't eat it. It can smell fine and still make you ill.

You'd only be unreasonable if you didn't eat the skin just after you've taken it out of the oven!

This is my favourite thing about a roast chicken. And the best part is that DP doesn't like the skin so I get ALL OF IT.

Also I'd probably cook it if it smelled fine - it's usually pretty obvious when chicken is off. We've had chicken go off before the use by date on quite a few occasions and the second you open it you can smell that it's gone, so I never really trust the dates that much anyway.

*Don’t trust the sniff test
Food can look and smell fine even after its use-by date, but that doesn't mean it's safe to eat. It could still be contaminated.

You cannot see, smell or taste the bacteria that cause food poisoning*

www.food.gov.uk/safety-hygiene/best-before-and-use-by-dates

If it's just you eating it then fine. However if you're serving it to anyone else definitely not. If I choose to cook it and got ill that's my lookout, but I wouldn't serve it to others as I would feel awful if they got ill because of me.

I love when people say that past generations were fine without use by dates. Erm, no there weren’t people got dysentery from bacteria like this and died, like all the time.

Also, just because it doesn’t smell, doesn’t mean it’s okay, not all bacteria smells.

I say this but I would eat anything out of date, except meat. We get milk direct from the farm and The only way to tell it’s okay is give it a good sniff!

Personally I would sniff it! If it smells and looks ok I would cook (thoroughly).

I would cook it if it had been stored at the correct temperature and didn't smell off.
A product isn't perfectly ok at 11.59 pm on the day before the use by date and suddenly bad at one minute past midnight.
I always go on smell and colour.

And when we say give it the sniff test, start by making a small hole and sniffing that, before opening the rest of the plastic and sniffing again ... I once made the mistake of ripping the plastic off an in-date chicken that had gone off - it reeked, but more so because the entire chicken was then exposed so reeked even worse! I now proceed far more cautiously, and always check even if well in date.

Meat doesn't know it's supposed to go off at midnight on a certain date!

Made me laugh Adaline! Reminds me of being a new mother, a mature work colleague said “You know those baby books you’ve got? Well the baby hasn’t read them”