Can you use chicken that's been in freezer for 2 months

[Butterfly98]

Just that really! I'm having a sort through my freezer drawers today. There are 2 packs of free range chicken breasts which have a use by date of 28 Feb and 'if freezing use within 1 month' on label. It's a Bosch integrated fridge/freezer but it doesn't say on door anywhere how many stars the freezer has and I've googled it too! It's a shame to throw out all of that chicken but surely if it's frozen it should be ok?! Would you defrost it and see how it is and go from there?

For people asking for the science behind using a tub of water in the freezer, here’s a link to a Wikipedia page explaining it.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freezer_burn

Haha dear God, well to put it in to perspective I cooked and ate some salmon the other day that was dated 2016 in my freezer and lived to tell the tale! :S

I had no idea some people thought frozen food had such a short shelf life - I read once that someone cooked and ate a steak from a woolly mammoth that had been frozen for hundreds of thousands of years!!

Yes, ate some December chicken yesterday

It's like with preserves. Mum used to make homemade ones and it was a common occurence that a jam I was eating was done and labled 6 years before that.

All the dates are really justabout quality so people don't come after the shop that the chicken they bought 4 years ago is not nice😂

People are weird about frozen things. My MIL looks down her nose at frozen veg despite it being proven over and over again that it is highly nutritious as it's frozen when picked/cut. Then again, she's no Delia!

Absolutely, of course. I am useless at labelling and have no idea how old things are in my freezer. Sometimes have no idea what things actually are! Just make sure everything is defrosted properly.

What a question. Food doesn't go off in a freezer. It might just lose a bit of texture. 2 months is nothing.

We made some really nice healthy chicken skewers / kebabs for dinner yesterday evening with red onions, green, yellow and red peppers served with salad and warm pittas. The verdict from everyone was yummy (no food poisoning yay 🤣🤣) so I can safely say I will be using up the rest of the freezer stuff before stocking up again!!

We regularly eat things that have been frozen for over a year. Sometimes the texture and flavour has deteriorated by then, which is why manufacturers suggest eating it quickly (as well as encouraging us to throw it away and buy more obvs 😡)

It’ll be fine but it should be defrosted overnight in the fridge though. On the bottom shelf in case of drips.

I cooked with 'use by August' chicken out if the freezer on Friday and we're all still fine. I don't know why supermarkets say use within 1 month of freezing - on my freezer it says ice cream keeps for 3 months and chicken for 12 months.

I buy 'fresh' fish from the supermarket which says it can be frozen - so I freeze it and it's fine. The bit I don't understand is that it also says on the packet that it has previously been frozen (although it is not frozen when I buy it). How is that ok when it goes against all the guidance we normally get about food handling - ie do not refreeze something that has been defrosted?

It's probably because it's been frozen in more controlled conditions than might be the case at home blue.

But then again, I defrost and refreeze sometimes if I change my mind and I know it's not been defrosted long and stayed cool and have never had any issues.

Depends if it was alive or not when you put it in there

The whole use within one month thing is all part of the sell buy dates mythology. Veg have sell by dates and sometimes use by dates, it’s alk nonsense.

If something frozen is one the way out, it will look and smell as if it is. More than a year before that’s likely a possibility

A quick way of safely defrosting meat is to immerse it in a bowl of water (still in its packaging). Bagged food works best this way as those plastic tray thingies are a bit thick but the water does a much better job of defrosting than air does, and it stays cold for ages so you're only defrosting, not warming it to danger levels.

Really? I'm surprised you are asking. Of course it lasts for ages frozen.

I'd eat meat that had been frozen for 6 months as long as it smelled ok when it defrosted. Maybe longer. Not been ill from it yet

I always thought it was fine upto 6 months