Question: food freshness

[redapple]

When you buy cold cuts sliced in the deli, like chipped ham, turkey,
etc, How long usually is it until they should be thrown away?
Some of the grocery stores around here don't date the packages.
anyone know??

[kentuckygalrk]

according to the governmental food safety guide deli meats can be kept in the refrigerator for 3-5 days. Turkey is safest when eaten within 3 days and ham can be kept for about a week (I'm not sure about roast beef). Of course the best way to tell is take a whiff. My mom and I both ate ham a couple years ago that had gone bad and my dad had bought it that day. I thought it smelled a little funky but of course, being dumb I still ate it... though I had fried it so I think I killed some of the bacteria. I felt nauseous all night and had a pretty bad stomach ache and so did my mom... it wasn't fun.


~Rachel

[ontariogirl]

I asked that question to my mother a couple of days ago she said 3 days. A friend of mine who owns a pizza store buys slices of roast beef and turkey for her subs when she runs out and she keeps them for 3 days if they last that long. Why don't you ask the deli where you bought the meat from. For me 3 days and if they smell wierdI throw them out, my logic when in doubt throw it out!!

[wing]

3 days. That's whatI was told. After that, be wary. Well that to me applies to the meats but for the cheese they can stay longer i think.

[redapple]

okay well earlier i ate some chipped ham that i know is at least 5 days
old and now i am scared. i looked it up online and i said for ham
3-5 days. but still i am worried b/c what if this ham was only
good for 3 days? I'm going to call my mom and see when she bought
it!

[SimplyMe]

If it didnt' taste or smell funny it shoudl be fine. My brother (and most men I know, no offense to the male emets here) eat meat int here for a week. I believe the way ham is made makes it last longer than turkey, which by the way turkey I have eaten at 4 days before. Hope this helps!

[abbey_normal]

with cold cuts, its usually 3-5 days...and when they go bad you know it. They smell funky and actually start to get a little slimy, so I wouldn't worry.

[redapple]

thanks everyone. I am feeling okay except when i let my mind play tricks on me!

[mitch4133]

I always thought it was a week. I have always kept my lunch meats about a week from the deli, and I have NEVER gotten sick. Keeping meat for only 3 days seems like such a waste to me. There is a sell by date on those meats, and you can ask the deli person how long its good too, I have done it before. And if you go to a deli that has a high turn over, then their meats are always fresh. If the meat you ate was only 5 days old, I wouldn't worry about it at all.

[ontariogirl]

When ham starts to get bad it will have a very slimy texture to it, very jelly like texture, plus it wont smell like ham!

[e-lizabeth]

Oh, the irony of this question right now. If you read my post "Wish me luck", you'll see that just yesterday my husband ate a roast beef sandwich that was at least a week old, and that's the kind of sliced roast beef from the deli counter of the supermarket. And it hadn't even been refrigerated the entire time, and he's fine! Normally, though, I don't eat that stuff after about 3 or 4 days. That's what they tell you when you buy it.

[donna1216]

Ham is also easy to tell when it's going bad, it starts to feel slimy.