Most of us love to eat meats of various types, and bacon is one of the varieties of meats that seem to be delicious to a lot of consumers.
In the past, you have perhaps seen that these treated and smoked fatty meat pieces were generally suspended in a butcher’s store as some dry lump. In the present commercially packed bacon, you can find much amount of moisture, and this pork becomes more perishable. Thus, if you are fond of bacon, do you know how long this meat can be stored? To give a clear idea in mind, you may have a glance at the following discussion.
Test expiry date on your packet of bacon – When use-by date gets terminated, your bacon is not safe for your consumption. Always make use of bacon completely within one week after your purchase. You may also thaw carefully and heat your meat within 4 months of refrigerating it. Remember that sell by date indicates the guidance to the store, while use-by denotes expiration date of manufacturers. The first one warns that you have to consume bacon sooner; however, that bacon is safe to use, only if there is no alarm of improper storage.
Judge clearly when it is opened – When you purchased a bacon packet a number of days, and did not use it, there are chances that the bacon is still fresh. However, the same thing may not happen, while you have opened it.
The bacon will perhaps last for about one or two weeks, after your purchase, when you have preserved it well and have not opened.
Smell your bacon – No matter whether you have bacon in packet or on plate, the smell will remain same. While you are not confident on if the bacon remains safe, you have to smell it cautiously. If the food has smell as fresh pork, it is not rotten. While it gives weird smell, such as, offish stink, it is possibly spoiled.
Have a good view at your bacon – The bacon that is fresh and unspoiled must have a wonderful pinkish color. Moreover, it also looks bright. The pink meat has white or yellow colored fat. While you see that there are green dots that appear on your bacon, you have to avoid this dull-looking bacon. The flesh may also turn to a gray brown color.
So, do not take any risk of consuming bad bacon; throw it away and use only the good bacon that is tasty and healthy.
Touch and feel bacon – Usually, bacon does not have slimy surface. When you find that your bacon is extremely slimy, it is probably become spoiled, and thus, discard it right now. However, wash hands after doing it because though you are not eating bacteria of bad bacon, those germs may remain on the hands.
While throwing away the bad bacon, you need to wrap it up so that the smell may not reach indoor. Remember that bad bacon may not be riskless for your pet also.
Find bacon that has only few constituents – More or less four ingredients may be enough, if you like to have some healthier option. These four elements may be pork, brown sugar, salt and water. The substances other than bacon are needed to treat the meat.
Besides, the perfect bacons are those, who are grown locally because they apply only limited amount of preservatives. Thus, stay away from bacons, which have lots of additives that are unsafe for health.
Cook your bacon before storing it – When you have got your bacon ready, it will stay fresh, when you heat it up. Then, store it inside the refrigerator in a sealed, resalable box. Bacon of various types keeps for various time periods.
Cooked bacon may remain in good condition for almost one week in your fridge. When you have frozen it, your bacon may last for about six months. Cook this slightly less than what you like. Thus, while you will heat up the food, it does not get overcooked. Bits of bacon may last for six weeks within the fridge.
Check frozen bacon – When it remains in your fridge for a long time, the fat may get rotten. Besides, the meat may become brown, hard, and turn out to be inedible to you. Thus, when this is the case for you, you have to remove it. However, there is some bad smell coming out, you must not eat it.
With no doubt, the most excellent site for the storage of bacon is your fridge. In fact, it does not matter whether you have to store the leftovers of heated bacon or you have raw bacon packet. Only make sure that you have wrapped your bacon.
While you want to preserve cooked bacon, you need to keep it inside refrigerator within two hours of your steaming. You may also place it confidently in pantry for sixty minutes, thus, it will lose temperature very fast, and move into the refrigerator. Ensure that you have wrapped it by means of plastic cover or keep it inside an airtight bag.
So, we may say in conclusion that while you desire knowing about bacon’s shelf life, your answer depends mainly on whether your food is cooked or raw. It is also depended on if you have opened the package of bacon. When you want to store raw condition of bacon in any sealed vacuum container, you may keep it in the refrigerator until particular best by time and generally some days longer than that. If you make out that it is essential to store the bacon package for a much longer time period, you may think of placing it into your freezer instantly.
You will also choose to place this there for some months, though it is generally suggested to not chill this for more than 2 months, due to the maintenance of quality. If you decide to solidify it for over two months, overwrap your packet using the freezer carrier to keep away from freezer burn.
