I hate to throw away chicken...

Carolina Q

But I can't bring myself to trust this. I have a package of refrigerated (never frozen) chicken breasts with a sell by date of 8/26. This is 6 days later and even though the breasts look, smell and feel fine, I think I'm gonna toss 'em. I suspect @stike would be ashamed of me.

Carolina Q

BTW, I haven't tossed it yet. Still considering the freezer if anyone wants to talk me off the ledge. Either ledge!

Hub

Good decision.  There is no reason to chance it.

Wolfpack

Eat them

td66snrf

That's a must sell date not a  must use. Trust your nose. You'll know if it's bad. IMHO 

bgebrent

Cook em and eat em.

HeavyG

Eat or freeze some.

WeberWho

If you feel any better I ate 1 month expired sour cream a few days ago. Along with some brown avacados. I'm still here 

Carolina Q

Yeah, I know it's a sell by date, but it's chicken! And it was 6 days ago. Still, it sure smells okay. And the vote is 4:1 EAT, so far. Plus the brown avocado vote. 

I already defrosted some salmon for tonight, but If you never hear from me again after tomorrow night, it's because I froze all of 'em and ate one tomorrow.

JohnInCarolina

I say go for it.  If it kills you, we'll know that's what it was.

Carolina Q

JohnInCarolina said:

I say go for it.  If it kills you, we'll know that's what it was.

LOL, thank you for your support.

DoubleEgger

I've had salmonella. You don't want any part of that. Yardbird is cheap. 

tarheelmatt

Good colon cleanse couldn't hurt!  Belly up, Chuck! 

Carolina Q

Well, it's in the freezer instead of the garbage. We'll see.

Tonight's salmon was awesome!!

bgebrent

Good call. Nice knowing you

Carolina Q

make up your mind.

bgebrent

Eat it dammit. Just messin. 

Hub

Seriously, throw it away.  If I am wrong, what, you wasted five bucks? If I am right, I save you a trip to the ER.  In all seriousness ... throw it away.

Markarm4119

Eat em don't be a **** ! I just are some tomato pesto that had mold on the underside of the lid, easiest 4lbs. I ever lost !

Theophan

How it smells tells you exactly NOTHING about whether it's safe to eat or not!

Look it up!  

The bacteria that make meat like chicken smell bad are DIFFERENT bacteria than the ones that can make you explode at both ends and wish you were dead.  It can look and smell FINE and still put you in the hospital.

Food poisoning isn't very predictable, lots of folks have taken their chances and been fine, and concluded from that that there is no risk.  They're wrong.  You can do it wrong again and again and be fine, but you're playing Russian Roulette.  I've known people who've had food poisoning and said if they'd had a gun handy, they would have put themselves out of their misery.

My opinion: just not worth it.

Carolina Q

Here's what the USDA has to say. Among other things... "

Safety After Date Passes............................. With an exception of infant formula (described below), if the date passes during home storage, a product should still be safe and wholesome if handled properly until the time spoilage is evident (Chill Refrigerate Promptly). Spoiled foods will develop an off odor, flavor or texture due to naturally occurring spoilage bacteria. If a food has developed such spoilage characteristics, it should not be eaten."

https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/wcm/connect/19013cb7-8a4d-474c-8bd7-bda76b9defb3/Food_Product_Dating.pdf?MOD=AJPERES

Dunno. 

milesvdustin

Eat it. Grill the heck out of it and enjoy. 

Botch

I think I'd be more comfortable immediately cooking some questionable proteins, rather than freezing/thawing/and-then-cooking them.  
I've had food poisoning 3 times, and like many other things they make you stronger.  The first time, 4 days out, lost 15 lbs, and yeah I wish I had a gun.  The last time, violent toilet turbo, scared the dogs out of the house, and what's-her-name was laughing her ass off.  One night out, lost a pound, and I won't comment on gun thoughts.  

bgebrent

Theophan said:

How it smells tells you exactly NOTHING about whether it's safe to eat or not!

Look it up!  

The bacteria that make meat like chicken smell bad are DIFFERENT bacteria than the ones that can make you explode at both ends and wish you were dead.  It can look and smell FINE and still put you in the hospital.

Food poisoning isn't very predictable, lots of folks have taken their chances and been fine, and concluded from that that there is no risk.  They're wrong.  You can do it wrong again and again and be fine, but you're playing Russian Roulette.  I've known people who've had food poisoning and said if they'd had a gun handy, they would have put themselves out of their misery.

My opinion: just not worth it.

Disagree brother. Too much afraid and not science. 

Theophan

bgebrent said:

... Disagree brother. Too much afraid and not science. 

My brother, you might be right about possibly too much afraid.  Yeah, I do tend to be paranoid.  

But no, sorry, plenty of science:  First, I'm a retired physician, and I studied microbiology as a biology major in college, and again in medical school, where I also studied infectious diseases, notably including foodborne illness.  I've also spent dozens and dozens of hours going over reports of incidents of foodborne illness and what was found to have caused them, and the recommendations of experts at the CDC, FDA, etc., to try to offer information to my church about people (a) bringing food to church, and trying to minimize the risks in that, and (b) cooking food for fundraisers, etc..  I've read cover to cover the ServeSafe manual that is the standard used by the food service industry across the country.  I really am pretty darned familiar with this topic.

Here are a few lines from a very quick search just now:

Centers for Disease Control:  "Foods that have dangerous bacteria in them may not taste, smell, or look different."

CDC again:  "Food contaminated with Staph toxin may not smell bad or look spoiled."

CDC again:  "Contaminated foods usually look and smell normal, which is why it is important to know how to prevent Salmonella infection."

CDC again:  "The foods contaminated with emerging pathogens usually look, smell, and taste normal, and the pathogen often survives traditional preparation techniques"

Plenty of science out there if you want to look for it.

DoubleEgger

I mentioned earlier that I've had salmonella. I've had kidney stones too and salmonella is far worse. Maybe that'll put it in perspective. 

HoustonEgger

Don't do it. Sacrifice the $10 for the chicken and save yourself the pain from both ends

nolaegghead

Hey  @Theophan

I get there are, in the world of bacteria on meat, a few that cause food-born illness.   Most of the bacteria, in concentration and species, are harmless insofar as creating food born illness.  This includes most of the decomposition bacteria (those commonly found in decomposition).  Also I understand while many bacteria are harmless, some can release toxins that are harmful.

Beef, you mostly see E. coli.  Poultry with Campylobacter and Salmonella.  

In that small subset above, all are killed with heat.  Obviously most chicken are cooked enough to render them harmless.  Beef, the E. Coli are on the outside of the whole muscle meat, usually killed by cooking, even if the meat is undercooked.  And rarer, the bad variations, than the poultry pathogens.        

My question is, most scientists agree you whatever pathogens are there were there when the meat was packaged fresh.  Mostly what changes in the fridge is the harmless bacteria.  Does something happen after a couple of weeks in the refrigerator different between beef and poultry that make poultry more of a risk to eat after cold storage than beef?  Because we dry age beef and don't worry that much about time after butchering.  We cook the bejesus out of poult...   Or is it because the older poultry with higher bacterial loads cross contaminates our kitchen and we get sick from other things?

THEBuckeye

Kinda like milk. If you think it' gonna smell bad, you pitch it before you have to smell it. 

bjeans

No. Throw. 

Dredger

I vote for tossing. I am super anal about that kind of stuff. I've had food poisoning once from eating at a restaurant. That gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "If you love me, kill me". You really, really mean it.