Steak 2 days past best before date - would you???

[Whowhatwherewhen01]

Would you eat steak that’s 2 days past its best before date??? Looks ok in packaging, yet to smell.

Pointless to consider without trying the sniff test. If you get anything other than an unqualified yes, then I wouldn't.

Your body will absolutely know by the smell.

But a piece of meat won’t suddenly get salmonella or similar just because it’s gone past the use by date surely?

OP had the steak at 7.21. Nothing since. I fear the worst.

If no one else wants it, can I have first dibs on OP’s pudding?

Not if a use by date

So how do you think they calculate the use by date?

I’m not sure that’s how it works. Or is it? I might have to investigate.

Raw meat is naturally contaminated with several food poisoning bacteria, so you buy it already contaminated, which is OK, just as long as it's kept controlled; effective cooling and cooking. Bacteria need time and temperature to multiply rapidly, but it can still multiply very slowly in the fridge, so in food safety, the use-by date will be to minimise the time given to the bacteria to multiply. As it is multiplying, it will be releasing poisonous toxins that aren't killed off by cooking, chilling, or freezing.

Thank you - you have elequently explained exactly what I was saying in my head but was far too tired to type out

That makes sense.

Beef can be eaten raw though so presumably a safer option than chicken for example.

I think I just thought that if something was safe to eat, it wouldn’t deteriorate enough to poison you in 2 days, certainly if stored correctly.

Well exactly, if stored correctly .. to be blunt it’s dead flesh. It’s biological. It’s deteriorating more and more each day.

if you think about it from a risk and public health perspective - they no doubt have spent years analysing the deterioration of meat and creating algorithms that come up with a time frame of
storage that will minimise harm to the consumer.

so It’s not like the meat knows and then in the stroke of midnight goes off - it’s just advised to eat it before then to minimise risk Of illness based on the algorithm

I am sure many of us have opened meat well before the use by date and it’s off… so many variables in the chain, an extra hot day, poor transport or slaughter, small hole in packet, picked up in a supermarket and left outside the fridge and someone sees it and puts it back, your fridge not actually cold enough, unhygienic kitchen et. Et

I think I thought ‘off’ was different to actually having a horrid bacteria.

My friend (and a significant proportion of her guests) were seriously ill after her wedding, traced back to the meat. Her Maid of Honour - a microbiologist - explained at the time that the smell/taste test is meaningless really. It looked, smelled and tasted fine to the chefs and every guest there. The bacteria in quantities enough to make you pretty unwell will smell and taste of nothing.

I’ve had typhoid and I can tell you, at no point did I detect that I was eating food contaminated with human poo … so I am never convinced by sniffing for ok to go but each to their own!

Absolutely fine.

With beef, as long as the outside is "sealed" that should be enough to kill any bacteria on the surface; hence why you can eat beef "rare".

Absolutely I would.

Up until very recently humans have managed for hundreds and thousands of years without sell by dates or use by dates. There were still none on any food stuffs when I was growing up, not just meat but milk cream, everything. We managed by looking at and sniffing the food.