Meat: understanding its shelf life, storage, freezing

How to store meat properly?

The process begins upon receipt of your products. An essential step in any restaurant establishment. Indeed, now is the time to check basic information such as: dates, quality, temperature, origin of your products to ensure good food safety and hygiene.

To know if a meat is still good, the first instinct would be to check the use by date (DLC). If it has been exceeded, you can directly throw the product away without asking any questions.

Then other indicators such as the appearance and smell of the meat may help.

In terms of appearance

• Check that the product packaging is not perforated or swollen
• The meat should not be viscous
• A meat whose color that tends to turn brown or gray has expired,
  • Red meat (beef), must not tend towards purple, the flesh must be shiny and present a beautiful bright red color
  • White meat (poultry meat), the flesh of the poultry must be rather colored. The color can vary from white, pink, yellow, it all depends on the animal’s diet
  • Pink meat (pork), the flesh must be pale pink and the fat white
• Keep the meat in one piece: the more you cut it, the more it will deteriorate.

About the smell

Regardless of the type of meat, if it smells of ammonia, sour or putrid it should be avoided.

Concerning dates (DLC, freezing date…)

• Meat is one of the perishable foodstuffs, it must be stored in the kitchen in a large refrigerator, between 0 and 4 ° C. It is consumed within 3-4 days after purchase.
• Well-wrapped raw meat can be stored for 3-4 days if the packaging is not opened, however the shelf life must be observed. Once the package is opened, it can be consumed within 48 hours.
• Delivered by your butcher to the cut: keep the piece of meat in its packaging. Then consume them within 3-4 days.

N.B. : Ground meat does not freeze because bacteria settle in quickly. It is consumed in the following 24 hours. It is strongly recommended not to keep minced meat for more than 24 hours. If you want to chop it yourself, do it right before cooking.

In terms of freezing date

• Chicken in pieces (legs, fillet) uncooked: 6 months
• Pork, lamb or veal: 6 to 8 months
• Beef, game and poultry: 8 months

The meat must be maintained at temperatures set either by the regulatory texts, or by the professionals concerned under their responsibilities. Today thanks to the traqfood application, opt for a complete digitalization of your HACCP procedures , it will simplify your control plan while guaranteeing your customers absolute food security.