Why can chicken be just fine going through packaging, delivery, and sitting on the shelves but after buying it from the store you have to use it in a few days before it goes “bad”?

Question

Why can chicken be just fine going through packaging, delivery, and sitting on the shelves but after buying it from the store you have to use it in a few days before it goes “bad”?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Food spoils due to the action of bacteria and mold growing on the food and producing byproducts. Those organisms are present from the moment the animal is slaughtered but are kept from growing out of control by how the meat is stored.

The growth of those contaminants tends to be exponential, which means they are relatively low population for a while before reaching a critical point where they explode in population. We don’t mind or even notice the low population of bacteria and mold but when they massively increase the food is considered spoiled.

For chicken the bird was likely slaughtered about 3-5 days before it reaches the consumer. At that point it can only last a few more days in refrigeration before it might become dangerous.