Can they eat this?

September 2, 2023 6:47 AM

(Dog edition). Chicken, refrigerated at 1° Celsius or 33.8° Fahrenheit. Bought one week ago. Use by date August 28th. Since it was kept so close to freezing temperatures, can the dogs still eat it safely? Of course, thoroughly cooked?

If not, please tell me why using science. Thanks!

posted by toucan to Science & Nature (11 answers total)

For me, chicken is always very very obvious if it has gone bad. Open the package and if it doesn’t smell, it’s still good.
posted by LizBoBiz at 6:53 AM on September 2, 2023 [3 favorites]

Use By dates have no scientific basis and are almost never more reliable than your own nose.
posted by flabdablet at 6:57 AM on September 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

Use-by dates are a suggestion of when the food will be at its best quality. They are not expiration dates. And like LizBoBiz says, if you open the package and it's bad, you will absolutely know.
posted by cooker girl at 7:08 AM on September 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

Also, use by dates have more to do with how it's kept pre-sale, i.e. refrigerated. But this was practically frozen. I keep raw chicken in my freezer well past the use by date all the time. And this is just a few days.
posted by coffeecat at 7:13 AM on September 2, 2023

I wouldn't feed a dog any human food I wouldn't eat myself. If I come down with sudden diarrhea I have a better chance of getting to a good location to deal with it on time than the dog does.

But if the chicken was kept at 1*C, especially if there are ice crystals present I might eat this chicken myself.
posted by Jane the Brown at 7:20 AM on September 2, 2023

All here are very likely aware but just to be sure:
Never feed dogs cooked bones of any kind
posted by falsedmitri at 10:28 AM on September 2, 2023

Small point of order: "use by" in the US doesn't necessarily mean the same as "use by" in the rest of the world.

In the UK for instance, the "use by" date is the expiration date dictated by the last date the food is safe to eat if stored properly, especially in the case of raw meat/dairy, and the Food Standards Authority definitely recommend sticking to it. If OP is in the UK, they should be mindful of the "use by" date in general (though in this case I would say the chicken is probably okay, if it's basically frozen).

Commenters should be wary of advising people to ignore use by dates without knowing which country they're in and the food standards of that country.
posted by fight or flight at 12:24 PM on September 2, 2023 [4 favorites]

I won't advise you one way or another, but I will say that 1C is not close to freezer temperature, which is typically -18C. Bacterial growth will be a little slower at 1C than at 3C (and a little slower at -1C than at 1C), but it doesn't just stop entirely at or near to 0C.
posted by ssg at 1:28 PM on September 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

In the name of caution, I want to point out that food can be contaminated with listeria and salmonella and not smell like it has gone bad. A sniff test is not always accurate.
posted by corey flood at 2:46 PM on September 2, 2023 [2 favorites]

Salmonella and listeria will be cooked out of the chicken. No one should ever eat raw chicken ever, even if it hasn’t gone bad.

(And the poster said above they would be cooking the chicken for the dogs, not giving it raw)
posted by LizBoBiz at 10:49 PM on September 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

Even though best by/sell by dates are BS, it also doesn't matter how long ago you bought it, but how long it's been sitting around unfrozen. Is there any indication on the package of when it was packaged? Most guidelines recommend freezing chicken within a few days of purchase if it's not going to be eaten.
posted by Miko at 1:24 PM on September 4, 2023