Pork Shoulder past its sell by date - am I being paranoid?

April 24, 2017 7:45 PM

On April 15 I bought a cut of pork shoulder at Whole Foods at the deli counter. Then I got crazy busy during the week and didn't have time to cook it. Since I bought it at the deli counter it just has a sticker that says "Sell By 4/20". Well - it's 4/24 now, and like a dope I never put it in the freezer. Would you eat this meat?

General guidelines say that pork can be in the fridge for up to 5 days. By my count we are at day 10. However if you use the "sell by" date, we are at day 4. My boyfriend insists we should eat it now. I do not want to eat it because I am afraid. It smells fine. Right now we put it in the freezer as a compromise. What do you think, mefi? Toss it or make it?

posted by pazazygeek to Food & Drink (17 answers total)

When in doubt, throw it out! Seriously, you do not want to mess around with meat that is past its expiration date.
posted by Champagne Supernova at 7:55 PM on April 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

I would not eat it.
posted by OrangeDisk at 7:58 PM on April 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

I would throw it out.
posted by slateyness at 8:05 PM on April 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Hmmmm. I am pretty cautious about this stuff, but "Sell By" isn't "Eat By." If you'd bought it at Whole Foods on the 20th, you'd probably feel like you were fine, albeit on your last legs. My question: How was it wrapped? Was it like, you went to the deli and they wrapped it up in paper and sent you home? I'd for sure toss that. But is it vacuum-packed in plastic (which my Whole Foods has at the deli case)? I might consider it.
posted by Countess Sandwich at 8:07 PM on April 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

How tight are you financially?

If it wouldn't burden you to toss it and forget about it I would just do that. If a pork shoulder is a good part of your meat budget, I would slow boil it for several hours until the meat is falling apart and you're sure everything dangerous is dead.
posted by corb at 8:16 PM on April 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

"Sell by" the 20th? I am a little skittish on pork, but this is because I gave myself food poisoning from probably not cooking the pork sufficiently when I first started cooking for myself. For that sell-by date, if vacuum-wrapped like Countess Sandwich says and it smells fine, I would eat it cooked to FDA-approved temps [which I don't worry about for beef]. Mr. Kouti wouldn't worry at all and cook it however he wants, but his stomach is a bit more forgiving than mine.
posted by Pandora Kouti at 8:22 PM on April 24, 2017

Smell. If is smells OK, wash and cook.

I do this all the time. Sometimes it has gone too far and really smells badly, so that goes out. Mostly though it is fine.
posted by GeeEmm at 8:23 PM on April 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Sniff it and if it smells fine then cook it.
posted by Slinga at 8:54 PM on April 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Since it smells fine, and if it's not rolled and tied, I'd wash it, cook it and eat it.

If you're not quite sure of the smell, or if it's rolled, I'd put it on a rack above the water in a big pressure cooker and cook it at high pressure for 90 minutes, then brown it under a broiler and eat it.
posted by jamjam at 9:12 PM on April 24, 2017

Food expiration dates aren't guarantees of anything. They are simply conservative estimates of how long something will remain safe to eat. That said, while you may be able to eat this without making yourself sick, there is a much greater risk now than there would have been several days ago. Bear in mind that something does not need to look or smell bad in order for it to make you ill. Do you feel comfortable assuming the risk of potentially violent illness so you can eat this particular piece of meat?
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 9:24 PM on April 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

A sniff test tells you nothing about most microbial growth on the surface of the meat. Throw it out. If you're hard up for cash eat PBJ and mac n cheese for a few days to make up for the hole in your budget.
posted by Geckwoistmeinauto at 9:25 PM on April 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Also, another food safety myth (besides the idea that it smelling/looking OK is a true measure of safety), is that high temperature will kill whatever bacteria would make you sick. High temperate will indeed kill bacteria, but what makes you sick is also the waste products left by those bacteria. Those are not removed by cooking at a high temperature. Once something has spoiled, it is spoiled, and no cooking technique will make it safe to eat again.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 9:26 PM on April 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

It's a sell-by date, not a use-by. I'd definitely eat it.
posted by mishafletch at 9:51 PM on April 24, 2017

Best answer: I wouldn't eat it, but if your boyfriend wants to then that's up to him. He'll probably be fine but pork shoulder is one of the cheapest meats around so why risk it? Now if it were a chateaubriand or something I'd be tempted.
posted by hazyjane at 3:51 AM on April 25, 2017

In all honesty I'd eat it because I am a rancid seagull and I love pork shoulder, but if you were my friend I'd tell you to chuck it because it is meat and it has been sitting in your fridge for 10 days.

Really, just the fact that you're worried is enough for me to vote "pitch it" for you - do you really want to spend the next 48-ish hours post-consumption fretting over every stomach grumble? If your boyfriend feels more cavalier I'd hand it over to him to cook for himself and take for lunch for as long as he sees fit - again, though, for you my vote is "don't eat."
posted by DingoMutt at 6:25 AM on April 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I'm a big fan of pork shoulder, I'm super confident in our fridge preserving stuff and I'm part goat according to Ms. nobeagle. I start feeling anxious with raw meat in the fridge for 5 days. 8 is usually my cut off (and then it's usually just for me as Ms. nobeagle will no longer consider it worth the risk).

If I did cook this given the age, I'd probably cook it to the old standards of internal temp of 160F instead of the newer 145F. Note, that's likely just superstition. I'll also say that if someone else cooked this for me and was also eating it, I'd totally eat it (assuming it didn't smell off, or look brown before cooking, etc).
posted by nobeagle at 7:22 AM on April 25, 2017

I would eat it four days past as long as it has been refrigerated and it does not smell funny or give a slimy feel. In fact, there's a whole market of companies who sell past-date meats to the wholesale industry (often frozen.) The problem is Pork is a main contributor of trichinosis and has everyone scared . Cooking the meat to 165 internal will kill most everything provided it doesn't gag you when you open the package. It's also becoming more common for food products to go bad before expiration date! I have had this happen with milk many times, so common judgement applies. Hike that oven up and temp center to 185 degrees just to be safe.
posted by IraMency at 9:20 PM on April 26, 2017