Can we eat last year's frozen turkey?

[Balaya]

Bought a turkey crown last year and put at bottom of chest freezer just in case our booked meal out was cancelled due to covid, it wasn't.

Intended to eat it at Easter, but didnt.then couldn't figure out a safe way to defrost it over summer (need cold room, no space in fridge), and so here we are.

We're out again this year so no need to be buying a turkey. Should I just throw it away? It seems such a waste. Happily give it away but don't want to give anyone food poisoning.

Indeed @BarbaraofSeville. Basic reading comprehension. I was just teaching my 6 year-old yesterday the value of not skim-reading. People just scroll so quickly these days.

Seriously I have eaten turkey crowns that have been in the freezer for over two years. No issues at all. Do people genuinely think that those of us with large chest freezers eat the entire contents every three months?

The only things Ive ever had issues with in the freezer are things like cakes where if you leave them in too long the taste is badly affected.

😂

I do this every year
I buy a heavily reduced turkey crown after Christmas for the following year absolutely nothing wrong with doing so

My DH is a food scientist, that man has literally experimented on his own body to prove points about dates. I mean he is hardly Edward Jenner experimenting with the smallpox vaccine but it’s a bit odd. Well he has never been ill yet. I have just found the box of left over mince pies from last year that he hides, every bloody year he eats them a year out of date to prove a point.

Meat that is frozen long term can get freezer burn and not taste so good but it will be fine. I did out our freezer recently and he was delighted that a single gammon steak had been languishing in the bottom for about four years, he ate it of course.

Kudos to your DH

That is hilarious 😂

I'd eat it but my judgement may be poor as I grew up with a grandma who regulry defrosted meat that was YEARS old and fed it to us. My parents are also slight freezer hoarders so I suspect at theirs I've also been fed meat frozen more than a year ago!

Perhaps we need food scientists like @MardyMincepie DH to publish some more pragmatic advice on food safety and storage times, to try and get away from the current ridiculous situation where half the population appear to be convinced that all food turns to poison if it's five minutes past an arbitrary use by date or has been out of the fridge for more than a few minutes. Would save so much perfectly safe food from being wasted.

Most reputable websites say one to two years. Food standard agency says freezing pauses the decay of food / multiplying of bacteria. Doesn't give a time frame but stresses it's more about the effectiveness of your freezer, defrosting it appropriately (bottom of your fridge) and thoroughly cooking it. Personally i would eat it without even questioning it, but I generally ignore a lot of the dates as they're OTT!

I just did!

Last year my in-laws messed up on the day they were supposed to come to a festive dinner before christmas at ours, so I'd still got the turkey, just cooked it this year and it was perfectly good!!