To think a turkey crown shouldn't be in the fridge for over a month

[loudbatperson]

I saw a "fresh" slow cooked turkey crown yesterday with a sticker saying "lasts until 26th Dec".

Surely whatever is added to this product to give it such a long shelf life cannot be good for the human body? Fresh meat products are not meant to have a shelf life of over a month, unless cured or similar.

I wonder if in the decades to come people will look back on the adulteration that happens to our food now in the same way we think of the adulterations that were common in the Victoria era.

If its vac packed it will be fine

Is it a cooked product?

Its game, it’s meant to be hung for weeks

Is Christmas turkey ‘game’? And anyway it wouldn’t be ‘hung’ in plastic wrapping in a fridge would it?

The point is, if it can be hung for weeks, then it can certainly last vac packed in a fridge for a similar amount of time.

Such attitude over a Christmas turkey!

I would guess cooked as said slow cooked, however I don't recall most cooked products having such a long self life. Although I don't buy a lot of precooked food, so I may just be out of touch here.

I was taken aback seeing a "fresh" Turkey center piece on sale already.

In regards to game, yes it is hung, however once ready for consumption, as this product is, the shelf life is fairly limited.

This product would have been processed as usual prior to this.

Things that are cooked and then vac packed can last for ages.

vac packing is basically modern canning.

You should have looked at the ingredients I suppose.

It might be more to do with the method of cooking and packaging it - eg uht milk keeps longer than of untreated. I’m not suggesting the turkey you saw was treated in the same way, but you can see how it makes a difference. See also canned and jarred goods. A jar of hot dogs keeps for ages. It might just be a bit of salt, kept in a sterile environment and then vacuum packed.

Since when is turkey game?

That is very interesting, I haven't ever really bought many pre cooked vacuum packaged products, assuming this was one.

If vacuum packing can preserve so well without additives, why is it not being more widely used. This would seem like a good idea to reduce food waste.

Well there’s already packing in a protective atmosphere that gives things a good week instead of the three days that they would have without, which is generally enough I suppose.

eg things like this

I guess it’s more expensive somehow and just not needed.

How? Food waste doeant come as the point of production or storage or sitting in the supermarket.

It happens in the home. People buy stuff and dont use it all.

A vacuumed packed joint last ages whilst sealed. Once opened, you get a couple days. Same as any other product. How does that prevent food waste? People buy stuff, take it home, store it, then open it and dont use it all so it gets chucked out.

You cant seal it again.

Was it for Xmas or intended for thanksgiving? I saw a SM post about putting the turkey in the fridge 'ready for the big day' and thought huh? It's not going to take that long to defrost. Before realising the post was American and we were only a few days away from thanksgiving for them.

It would help if you haven’t opened it yet.

No it won't help with not finishing products, however it could help reduce the amount of items that are thrown away as they go off before even being opened.

As it had a sticker on it specifying it's good until the 26th Dec (as well as the usual use by date) I would guess Christmas.

I am not sure if vacuum packed or preserved by additives, as I didn't pay that attention to it. So perhaps was vacuum packed and not as odd as I first imagined.

@WeepingSomnambulist
Food waste doeant come as the point of production or storage or sitting in the supermarket. It happens in the home. People buy stuff and dont use it all.

Food waste happens at every step, not just in the home:

Current U.K. food waste on the farm is 7.2% of everything harvested or 3.6m tonnes of food. wrap.org.uk/resources/report/food-waste-primary-production-uk

Then beyond the farm gates, food waste in the UK totals 10.2 million tonnes per year, of which 1.8 million tonnes comes from food manufacture (ready meals, tins of soup, etc), 1 million from the hospitality sector, and 260,000 from retail, with the remainder from households. www.gov.uk/government/news/action-to-reduce-food-waste-announced

Of course, the household food waste includes food that is already rotten and mouldy when it is delivered to the home (which is more common nowadays than before especially if you order groceries online).

What supermarket did you see it in?

@loudbatperson - apologies. I missed the Dec bit and just saw the date of 26th.

Asda.

Most of the food I throw away is food that I forgot was in the fridge and went off.

Vacuum packing would be a really good idea if it does preserve foods aswell as canning.