Exact Answer: 1 year
There are many jobs in the world and businesses in the world that never go out of style. Restaurants and cooking are some of them. There isn’t a day a person can go without eating. Every living organism needs food every day to survive, and humans make it more delicious. Usage of different cooking methods, flavorings, seasonings, species, and ingredients. There are various ways to choose the ingredients and create the right dish.
Every ingredient chosen for the dish must contain a good amount of essential nutrients so that it will be a healthy meal. The basic ingredients used in dishes must contain proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and the right amount of fat. Meat is one of the ingredients that is prominently used in many cuisines.
Among many types of meat, chicken is the most commonly used ingredient in many countries. Chicken can be cooked in many ways and when there are leftovers that are uncooked chicken, they can always be stored in the refrigerator or in be a freezer.
Frozen chicken can be stored for a year without getting spoilt.
How Long Is Frozen Chicken Good For?
| Type | Time |
| Whole chicken | 1 year |
| Parts of chicken | 9 months |
| Ground chicken | 4 months |
Chicken is biologically called Gallus gallus domesticus, and they are one of the domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl, a type of bird. They belong to the genus of Gallus, the class of Aves, Order of Galliformes. Though chickens are technically birds, they belong to the kingdom of Animalia. They are the most common type of poultry in the world compared to other livestock and seafood.
They are farm birds and domestic, as they can be grown indoors. They are herbivores and chickens live about 10 to 15 years. The male is larger than the female, and they are more brightly colored. Though chicken is a great source of protein, it can be exposed to a great risk of contamination of bacteria. They are one of the most commonly used staple meat in various countries.
Before cooking the chicken they must be well cooked and prepared properly. When not, the chicken stored might get spoiled. Eating spoiled chicken can cause foodborne illnesses like food poisoning, which leads to vomiting and diarrhea. Storing the chicken in the refrigerator is easy, yet freezing the chicken can help it last longer. Various factors influence the duration that a chicken can stay without spoiling.
Why Does Frozen Chicken Stay Good For That Long?
According to the USDA, The United States Department of Agriculture, raw chicken can stay in the fridge without getting spoilt for at least 2 days. This applies to all kinds of poultry. Yet, cooked chicken can last for about 4 days. Storing the chicken in the fridge also has its drawbacks. Storing the chicken in the fridge can lead to slow bacterial growth, as the temperatures in the fridge can get high sometimes.
Storing raw and cooked chicken in a leak-proof container is also important. When the juices from the chicken leak out, they can get mixed up with other foods, contaminating them. Therefore, cooked chicken must be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator, so that bacteria does not grow and even if it does, it will not contaminate other edibles in the fridge.
Research says that freezing the chicken can make them last longer than refrigerating them. A whole chicken, not cut nor cooked can be stored in the freezer for a whole year. Pieces of chicken, on the other hand, can be stored for 9 months without getting spoiled, and cooked chicken can stay in the freezer for a maximum of 6 months.
Conclusion
There are many ways to tell if the chicken has gone bad. When buying a whole or cut chicken, raw or cooked, it is better to use them before the “best before” date given by the stores. Even refrigerated and frozen chicken can go bad after a while. There are other signs like change in color, growth of mold and fungal spots, the acidic smell emitted by the chicken, and much more.
When the chicken is going bad, it will take up a slimy texture, and rinsing it will not help. The slimy texture indicates the growth of bacteria and bacteria cannot be destroyed or removed by washing. Hence, It is better to freeze the chicken rather than refrigerate them and it is better if they are raw, whole, and uncut.
References
- https://meridian.allenpress.com/jfp/article-abstract/63/9/1228/169089
- https://journals.asm.org/doi/abs/10.1128/aem.42.1.32-34.1981
I’ve put so much effort writing this blog post to provide value to you. It’ll be very helpful for me, if you consider sharing it on social media or with your friends/family. SHARING IS ♥️
