How Long Will Raw Chicken Last in The Fridge

How Long Will Raw Chicken Last in the Fridge: Both cooked and uncooked chicken can be kept for up to a year. How long it lasts depends on whether or not it’s frozen or in the fridge.

In many homes, chicken has been considered an important meat But there is a high chance that germs will get into this healthy and tasty source of protein. That’s why preparing, storing, and cooking it the right way is important. If you don’t, it could make you sick.
It’s easy to keep chicken in the fridge, but many people may wonder how long they can do that safely.

(Image Credit by Istock)

It’s the question you always have to ask yourself when you open the fridge and find something you said you would make for dinner a few nights ago.

Why is GrubHub so easy to use? Maybe you took some chicken out of the freezer the day before, or even a few days before, and it’s still on the shelf of the fridge. Or maybe you spent Sunday preparing and cooking a lot of chicken, but now that it’s the end of the week, what’s left doesn’t look so good. How long does food last in the fridge? More specifically, how long does chicken last in the fridge?

How Long Will Raw Chicken Last in The Fridge

According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) food safety guidelines,

  • Raw chicken can be stored in the refrigerator for one to two days. The same precautions should be taken while eating raw turkey or other species of poultry.
  • Meanwhile, completely cooked chicken can be kept in the refrigerator for three to four days.
  • Refrigerating chicken helps limit bacterial growth because germs proliferate more slowly at temperatures below 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius).

Raw chicken should be kept in a container that doesn’t leak so that its juices don’t get into other things.

  • Cooked chicken should be kept in the fridge in a container that keeps air out.
    If you need to keep chicken for more than a few days, you should put it in the freezer.
  • Pieces of raw chicken can be frozen for up to 9 months, and a whole chicken can be frozen for up to a year. Chicken that has already been cooked can be kept in the freezer for 2–6 months.

In Short

Cooked chicken may keep in the fridge for three to four days whereas raw chicken can keep for one to two days.

How to know if the chicken is bad

Even though all of these tips can help you figure out if your chicken is safe to eat, nothing beats your feelings. Bucknavage says these are the signs that your chicken has gone bad:

  • It smells awful.
  • It’s gross.
  • The red color has turned into grey, yellow, or green.
(Image Credit By freepick)

In Complete Details With Full Guidance

Chicken that has been in the fridge for more than a few days may have gone bad.

Here are a few ways to tell if the chicken in your refrigerator has gone bad:

  • The “best by” date has passed: Raw or cooked chicken with a “best if used by/before” date that has passed is more likely to be bad.
  • Color changes: Both raw and cooked chicken that is starting to turn gray-green has gone bad. Bacteria are growing where there are spots of grey to green mould.
  • Smell: Both raw and cooked chicken smells like ammonia when it goes bad. The smell is acidic. But if the chicken has been simmered in sauces, herbs, or spices, it can be hard to smell this scent.
  • The chicken has gone bad when it feels slimy. Rinsing the chicken won’t kill the germs on it. Instead, it can spread the germs from the chicken to other foods, tools, and surfaces, which is called cross-contamination.
  • If you think the chicken in your fridge is bad, you should throw it away.

In Short

If chicken has gone bad, its color will start to fade, it will smell sour or acidic, and it will feel slippery.

What could happen if you eat Spoiled chicken?

Eating old chicken can make you sick, which is also called “food poisoning.”

Chicken is likely to make you sick because it can be full of germs like Campylobacter, Salmonella, and others.
Most of the time, these bacteria are killed when fresh chicken is cooked properly.

However, you should still abstain from preparing and consuming old chicken. Surface bacteria can be killed by reheating or cooking, but some of the toxins produced by bacteria that cause food poisoning will remain.

A high fever (above 101.5°F or 38.6°C), chills, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, bloody stools, and dehydration are only some of the painful and potentially hazardous symptoms of food poisoning.

In some cases, food poisoning can be so bad that you have to go to the hospital or even die.

If you think the chicken has gone bad, don’t eat it. If you think chicken has gone bad, it’s always best to throw it away.

In Short

Even if the chicken is well cooked, eating rotten chicken might still induce food poisoning.
(Img Source Pinterest)

To ensure that bacteria aren’t growing on the chicken, keep in mind that grocery store employees closely monitor the temperatures of freezers and refrigerators.

Only cuts of meat that are likely to sell that day are made at the meat counter, and the temperature of the case is then carefully watched.

Both raw and cooked chicken that will not be eaten immediately can be safely stored in the freezer. Bucknavage claims that raw chicken can be frozen and kept for months. How many months does that make, exactly? The USDA recommends keeping raw chicken in the refrigerator for no more than a year, but it can be stored for nine months in parts and for three to four months in giblets and ground chicken.

The CDC says it’s safe to put back in the freezer chicken that you thawed in the fridge. This means that if you thought you were going to cook it but didn’t, you can put it back in the freezer to thaw out another day. It might not taste as good, though.

Anyway, Now You Know That What to do with your chicken.

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