Whats the shelf-life of your breakfast sausage? Well, it really depends on what type of sausage you have on hand. It makes sense that fresh bangers that would be served up as part of a full English fry-up will have a shorter shelf life than dried and cured chorizo—but how much longer are we talking here? To find out the real shelf life of sausages, once and for all, we scoured the files of the United States Department of Agricultures Food Safety and Inspection Service, the public health agency responsible for keeping our food supplies safe and correctly labeled.
So learn how to store your sausage correctly, no matter what type of breakfast meat youre handling, below.
Fresh sausages are legally defined by the US government as, “a coarse or finely comminuted (reduced to minute particles) meat food product prepared from one or more kinds of meat, or meat and meat byproducts,” and they are sold raw. As such, you should treat these fresh sausages as you would any perishable food item. Store fresh sausages in the fridge, and if the links are left out, unrefrigerated for more than two hours, you should probably toss them.
You also only want to buy as much raw sausage as you can reasonably eat in a couple of days. According to guidelines from the USDA FSIS, a pack of fresh sausages will last only between one and two days in your fridge, whether the package is opened or not. You can slightly extend the shelf-life of fresh sausages to three to four days by cooking them before storing them in your fridge. To store cooked sausage safely, the experts at the FSIS recommend putting the meat “in shallow containers for quick cooling,” then refrigerating within two hours.
Sometimes, you want something quick and easy—like precooked sausage. These are the sausages that are ready-to-eat once you heat, like hot dogs or some packaged breakfast sausages. You can confirm that your sausage is pre-cooked by reading the label on the packaging. Since theyve already been cooked, their shelf life is much longer than that of fresh sausage. An unopened package will be fresh in your fridge for up to two weeks, though you should use an opened package within a week, according to guidelines from the USDA FSIS.
The last category of sausage is dried sausage, like pepperoni, and according to the USDA FSIS, “They are, with a few exceptions, cooked.” So you dont have to refrigerate them if youve gotten them whole; theyll last for up to six weeks in a cool pantry. But if you do refrigerate these dried sausages, theyll last indefinitely before theyre open, and up to three weeks once open. Some dry sausages are shelf stable (in other words, they do not need to be refrigerated or frozen to be stored safely),” note the experts at the FSIS, but be sure to read the label before you just leave out a hunk of sausage at room temperature, assuming itll be OK. `
How long does Johnsonville sausage last in the fridge?
After the package is open and resealed properly when returned to the refrigerator, the links will remain fresh for up to seven days.
How long does sausage meat last in the fridge?
Uncooked fresh sausage can be stored in the refrigerator one to two days, after cooking, keep for three to four days refrigerated (40 °F or less). Hard or dry sausage (such as pepperoni and Genoa salami), whole and unopened, can be stored indefinitely in the refrigerator or for up to six weeks in the pantry.
How long is Trader Joe’s chicken sausage good for?
3-4 days standard for cooked sausages. After 3 days in the fridge, they start to smell different.
FAQ
Where is the expiration date on Aidells sausage?
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How long is chicken apple sausage good for unopened?
