Why does deli meat go bad in a couple days at home but surely must last a lot longer at the store?
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It lasts just as long at the store. They just sell a whole lot of it so it doesn’t stay out of the packaging very long before it is sold.
When it’s in a whole form, it doesn’t get exposed to all the things once it’s handled and cut. There’s bacteria on the surfaces, in the air, from the deli worker breathing on it. They’re also cutting loads of stuff and the organic matter stays on the slicer and that has bacteria doing its thing on there too.
Slicing it drastically increases the surface area exposed to the outside world for bacteria to get in.
What rots faster, a solid log, or a bunch of shredded wood chips? Wood chips will go away within a year or two, a solid log can last years, even decades, before it is totally rotted through.
People forget that cold groceries don’t stay cold from the time you put them in your cart to putting them in your fridge. This gives bacteria time to multiply much faster than it can when food is kept refrigerated under 40°F/4°C.
All the answers are good, but do you mean literally a couple days, as in two days? Because I keep deli meat for at least a week in my fridge. Maybe your fridge is too warm, or you aren’t keeping it wrapped well?
I worked at Publix deli. Once the package is opened, we have like 4 days to cut and sell it. But most of the popular flavors we opened and finished within one lunch rush. Others would last less than two days. The only ones that lasted the full time were the oddball olive loafs or super spicy things. And yes we labeled each package with a date sticker and checked them every morning.
Before opened, it has a much longer shelf life because it’s sealed from germs.
I put it the freezer when I get home same with hamburger meat that I plan of leaving in the fridge, not enough to freeze but I get pretty it cold before moving it to the fridge
It doesn’t. Deli meat is pretty much cut and sold daily. The meat you buy was probably sliced within a day or two and quite a bit of it goes bad. The meat is stored in larger cuts before that, where it will last a lot longer. A slice of meat has maximal surface area to mass ratio, meaning a huge portion of the meat is exposed to air, which is why is spoils quickly.
This is like the third post I’ve seen like this, all of which drastically overestimate how long fresh food stays on the shelf at major grocery stores.
Deli meat lasts much longer than a few days at my house.
But anything cut into slices has the potential to spoil faster than the original chunk of meat thats cooked and sterile on the inside. Depends on the preservatives in meat and how clean the deli slicer was
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