Ingredient expiration --> leftover expiration relationship

[Anonymous]

A thing I never learned growing up, so now I will crowdsource. (brought to you by a really delicious beef stew I would have made last weekend but it was 80 degrees, so I made mid-week...)

Say you buy an ingredient (e.g. raw chicken or beef) and you end up cooking with it on the last day of the best by date. Do those final product leftovers have a shorter fridge lifespan than they would have if you used that ingredient earlier in the best by lifecycle? Or are the two totally separate and if it was ok to cook with it's got a normal leftover lifespan?

[Anonymous]

The "sell by" date and the "best buy" dates are different imo. And I think with fresh ingredients, like raw meats, I would be more careful and judicious than I would with boxed or undented/unopened cans. For raw meats, I would either freeze them by the "best buy" date or use it that day. I give way more latitude to the "sell by" date for boxed items or even things like shelf stable sugar or cookies or chips.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The "sell by" date and the "best buy" dates are different imo. And I think with fresh ingredients, like raw meats, I would be more careful and judicious than I would with boxed or undented/unopened cans. For raw meats, I would either freeze them by the "best buy" date or use it that day. I give way more latitude to the "sell by" date for boxed items or even things like shelf stable sugar or cookies or chips.

Oh, and after cooking the raw meat on the "best buy" date, I would give it the normal amount of time in the refrigerator as a leftover. TBH that doesn't happen often in my household. I have a lot of hungry teens and nothing lasts long here. LOL.

[Anonymous]

I would guess normal leftover lifespan assuming you noticed no reduction in quality of the cooked product.
Best buy dates are generally overly conservative.

- scientist but one who studies air quality, not microbiology!

[Anonymous]

I would guess no reduction - I assume the expiration dates are due to concerns about bacterial growth and that cooking them kills the bacteria.
But maybe it makes a difference in how the meat is cooked - a medium rare steak may be different than thoroughly cooked ground beef in a casserole.