Chicken past it’s use by date - yay or nay?

[Ikeasucks]

A whole chicken- Forgot it was in the fridge - dated 9th July but smells absolutely fine. Seems such a waste of a poor chooks life to just go in the bin.

How good is your sense of smell usually?

(By the way, I wouldn't. Also a bit surprised that you forgot buying a whole chicken!)

I used to work in food microbiology.
Don’t do it.

Definitely not, especially with chicken. I'm quite lax about use by dates, but 5 days!

NO

The waste of life was when it was horribly treated For its short life & killed. Whether you eat it now or not doesn't make it's sad,short life any better it anymore/less worthwhile.

Do not eat it, it is NOT worth making yourself ill for a few quid, it's really not.

I would eat it. As pp said, you know when it's off. Especially when it heats up.
But, I would eat it because I know my fridge is correct temp and keeps that way and that I stored it right.

Nope

I'll eat it one day over. I don't believe it's that exact a science and suppliers will give themselves leeway. Beyond 24 hours, no.

Is it use by or a best before date?

@loobyloo1234

Is it use by or a best before date?

Fresh things like this usually don't have best before. That's on non perishables. There is use by or sell by on fresh food usually

I wouldn’t take the risk with chicken. As others have said, maybe one day but not five.

Beef I might risk a bit longer than chicken but probably still not 5 days.

Vegetables etc work away!

Nope, I'll eat most things way past their use by date if they smell OK, but not chicken.

Please dont.
I go by 2 days off maximum.

SORRY OP.
Definitely not chicken.
🐔🍗 😱🤢🤮🤮🚑🏨

Not chicken. I am relaxed about things like yogurts where you can easily tell if the are off The food poisoning risk from chicken is too high and too nasty.

Absolutely not

One day out if date is okay but I wouldn't risk it any longer than that.

Never with chicken. Other foods yes sometimes but chicken is really susceptible to good-poisoning inducing bugs.

Any meat past its Use By date is a definite no. That date is there for a reason, chicken is notorious for having campylobacter. And this is 5 days out of date!

This has Darwin Award written all over it.

Noooooo it's not worth it
Never mess with the dates on things like chicken, pork, eggs etc.
It's not worth it!

I cooked and ate a steak yesterday which was two days past the use by date and it was fine. Eggs are definitely ok past the use by date but I wouldn't contemplate doing that with chicken and definitely not five days over, whether it looked and smelled ok or not.

I'm quite blasé about this but 5 days out of date chicken is too far for me. Maybe a day or 2 but not 5

Noooooooooooooooooooo last time I did that I ended up in hospital with salmonella!

Better the chooks life than yours OP.

No way, not with chicken! One day would be fine, two at a push but a week would be foolhardy. It is a shame, but just one of those things. You must have a really big fridge to not notice a whole chicken in there though!

I’m gobsmacked that chicken 5 days past it’s best before date smells fine!

Have you left it out of the fridge for a while? The cold fridge can mask its rancid pungent sometimes.

If 10 minutes later it still smells fine then cook it well (Not stir fry, but a curry) and enjoy.