Chicken Breasts dated 1985 and Imelda wants to EAT them.

Yes, this was found today 01 August 2015 

(AD or BC not sure it makes much difference any more)

Sainsbury's best Chicken Breasts BBE OCTOBER 1985 

(Label says eat within 3 MONTHS of BBE date ~

 not three DECADES).

ASDA Danish Pig Kidney 58p per lb - weight .69lb price 40p, Um didn't we change to kgs a year or so back? And - aren't ASDA labels in GREEN these days?

How long can you safely freeze meat in the freezer and it remain safe to eat?  Ideally as per the label on the above chicken 'eat within three months'.  I admit I have been known to stretch the dates myself a little on occasion.  A months or so I would still risk it.  I also know there are people out there who wouldn't eat it if it was even one day outside the date on the label When I worked for the grocery chain all I heard were constant whinges about sell by dates - which as a member of staff I had to deal with rigidly.  I also took many things such as apples home from the reduced tray and was happy eating them a week after the sell by date.  Why not - the apples don't know they have sell by dates on them?

But the above is taking this to extremes in anybody's book.

October 1985 - Thirty years ago.

THIRTY YEARS the chicken has been in his freezer in a box.  Like a mini Ice Age in a different time zone, the freezer has been defrosted every few years when there is more ice in it than food.  So the food will have been put in cardboard boxes until the defrosting is done (not in another freezer - he only has one) and will have melted a little and then been re-frozen.  Imelda has a chest freezer - the same one he has had for over thirty years - it ploughs onwards.

I only found the items as he had lots of fruit from his garden which needed picking before it spoiled.  He had picked a lot and it needed to be frozen for making pies and jam later in the year.  He had trays and trays of it in the freezer and had lots more fruit but no more room.  He asked if I'd like some.  I agreed I would but I wasn't able to pick it as I was about to go on holiday that day.  He said he was happy to pick it for me but it needed freezing on the day of picking.  I offered to take some of the existing bulky stuff in his freezer to free up some space and then swap it for fruit on my return.

I took a box load back to my house and what a shock - although not a surprise.

When I told him what I'd found in the cardboard box which had come from his freezer and the date on it there was a tumbleweed moment and then he said 'but can't I feed it to the dog?'

I won't let him feed this to anyone - or the dog.  Poor dog. a miniature poodle called Tyson, is fifteen years old already and that would likely finish him off.

So now what to do with the meat? - Do I give it a decent burial or do I call the local University Bio research team or the council Bio-Hazard team?

Can this go in a normal food waste bin?