food savers, seal-a-meals or what ever else you want to call 'em...

[mrmosh303]

just wondering the opinion of the group...once i smoke meat, chicken or beef or pork or turkey, and then i seal the pieces...since i rarely only smoke only one meals worth...how long do you think the meat will be good?? what if only in a fridge?? that is the main curiosity...if i do not freeze, only crisper drawer the bags, how long before i should just toss them in the trash...??

thanks for taking a minute with your thoughts...

and...discuss

 

[red dog]

I think there are lots of variables here. How the meat was smoked, how quickly it is cooled and sealed, type of meat, and how fresh it was before smoking. I suppose to be on the safe side even though it's vacuum sealed it shouldn't be kept with just refrigeration any longer than if it wasn't sealed. My rational on this is any bad bacteria that develops in the meat after smoking probably isn't going to be destroyed by vacuum sealing alone. This type of timing judgment calls we have to make as smokers based on our knowledge of how we handled the product.

 

[noboundaries]

This is a food safety issue and a lot of the results depend upon the way the meat was handled, smoked/cooked, and the temperature of your refrigerator.  Vacuum sealing definitely extends the shelf life of cooked/smoked meat but poorly handled food can actually increase the dangers.  5-7 days for properly handled food should be no problem at all.  Some sources say vacuum sealed, cooked meat can be kept in a cold refrigerator for up to a month.  Do I recommend that?  No, because there are bacteria that thrive in low oxygen, low temp environments where spoilage bacteria do not thrive.  The problem is the anaerobic bacteria do not give off any smells, tastes, or signs that the meat is unsafe to eat. 

I'm a fanatic about washing my hands and prepping food in a sanitized "clean zone," avoiding cross contamination when handling raw meat before it is smoked.  Once smoked and properly through the "safe zone," the same attention to detail is exercised when prepping for serving.  Personally, in the coldest part of my fridge which runs 34F, I've gone longer than 5-7 days with smoker roasted vacuum sealed meat just testing how long I could go.  It was still perfect at 3 weeks but I could not bring myself to go any longer than that.

Now, if you happen to have a cobalt 60 irradiator handy, you're good to go for years!            

 

[mrmosh303]

those are the responses i was looking for, and expected from a group of pro's like this group...thank you