Bacon use by

[worriedatthistime]

Just cooked bacon for myself and ds , opened and wrapped in fridge as I always thought open bacon had 5 days to be used
Just washing the package to put in recycling and it says use within 3 days
Was first opened sunday lunchtime, looked and smelled ok i think nothing obvious anyway, tasted salty but Aldi bacon , not had before so some baccon just is salty
And actual use by date is 5 days time
But use within 3 days does include day you open
And im aure bacon used to have longer ?

I don't think I've ever read a bacon packet. We've definitely used them way beyond a supposed 3/5 day window.

Where's the common sense these days? If it smells fine and looks fine then it will be fine. I never go by packets and so glad some shops are doing away with BB dates. Contributes so much to how much food we waste as a country!

I’m usually happy to use up to a week after it’s been opened. Longer if it’s properly cured bacon. It gets a nasty sweet smell if it’s gone off, and also tastes awful.

Yes it did used to last much longer when it was properly cured/salted. A lot of supermarket bacon isn’t, these days.

@NiqueNique that is maybe why , i notice it on a lot of things now , use within 2 / 3 days , packs that are likely to take longer than that to use

I'm pretty sure than any fresh product that has to be refrigerated once open has the use within 3 days wording.

But that’s basically bollocks isn’t it.

It was well within its use by date, didn’t smell bad. It was fine!

Yes it did used to last much longer when it was properly cured/salted. A lot of supermarket bacon isn’t, these days.

Yes, I came to this thread to say that. The point of bacon is to preserve pork by adding salt and removing water.

What have the supermarkets done? They reduce the amount of salt, and inject water! No wonder it doesn’t keep for long.

I’d never look at the date on bacon, when it’s gone off it gets that shimmery green tinge to it, as long as it looks/smells ok it wouldn’t cross my mind not to eat it.

Not long ago I opened some bacon that was still well in date and it was all slimy and gross. Remembered seeing another pack so dug that out and it had expired a month prior, opened it and it was fine so cooked that, no ill effects.
im very wary with poultry as I find that does go off pretty much the day listed on the front but otherwise I’ll always just open it and do a sniff test and check it’s not slimy with meat past the date.

I think the open bacon in our fridge had been there nearly two weeks, it's still within use by date and smells fine

I’ve eaten bacon that’s out of date and been fine. It gets a different colour, texture or smell to it if it’s off. Some things I wouldn’t dare like seafood or chicken.

I was speed reading and missed that the bacon had been opened - we generally use a packet at a time so not usually an issue but if it was opened I’d probably want to get it used within a couple of days just to be sure, but I’ve def gone for longer and still used it.

Bacon used to be hung from the kitchen ceiling, with slices taken as needed, and maybe the mould scraped off. If it looks fine and smells fine, I eat the bacon.