Instructions: Q. I bought fresh meat from the supermarket on January 5 and froze the meat.

I took the meat out to defrost on January 14 but noticed after it was thawed that the expiration date or best-before date was January 13. My question is, even though the expiration date has passed is it still okay to eat since it has been in the freezer? Can you tell me the hard-and-fast rules?

A. Food can be kept safely in the freezer indefinitely - the quality may suffer during an extended freeze, but safety will not be compromised. If the food has been handled properly and you put it in the freezer even a couple of days after the sell-by date has expired, you can safely consume it at any time

(again, after handling and preparing it properly after removing it from the freezer).

The sell-by dates on most foods are not particularly meaningful. There is no uniform or universally accepted system used for dating foods sold in the United States. Although dating of some foods is required by more than 20 states, there are areas of the country where much of the food supply has little or no dating.

Heres what the various dates you see on food packages mean:

A "Sell-By" date tells the store how long to display the product for sale. (You should buy the product before the date expires.)

A "Best-if-Used-By (or Before)" date is recommended for best flavor or quality. It is not a purchase or safety date.

A "Use-By" date is the last date recommended for the use of the product while at peak quality. The date has been determined by the manufacturer of the product.

Generally, in terms of safety, how you handle the food is the important part.

Your question mentions taking the meat "out" to defrost - we assume you meant out of the freezer and straight into the refrigerator. The government and food safety advocates want you to defrost meats in the refrigerator to keep the temperature below 40 F (5 C). Between 40 and 140 (60 C) bacteria proliferate, and thawing food on the counter will allow the surface temperature to rise above 40 while the center of the meat is still frozen. This 40 business is the reason food safety folks will also allow you to defrost meats in a sink of cold water (a much faster method than refrigerator defrosting), but they insist that you change the water in the sink every half hour so that you can keep it cold.

If you follow these defrosting procedures, the government says you can keep thawed ground meat and poultry for a day or two before you cook it, and red meat for three to five days. Additionally, the government watchdogs will allow you to refreeze meats (gasp!) - even if they have defrosted fully (gasp!) - as long as they were defrosted in the refrigerator below 40 . Of course, the quality of meat frozen multiple times will suffer as water is forced back and forth through the cell walls as it freezes and defrosts.

If you defrost meat in a microwave oven, you should cook it right away, as some parts will have gotten too warm.

The US Department of Agriculture, not known for its recklessness, says you should consult the following chart to know how long you can safely keep fresh meat and poultry products in the refrigerator after bringing them home from the store:
Product: Storage Times After Purchase:
Poultry 1 or 2 days
Beef, Veal, Pork and Lamb 3 to 5 days
Ground Meat and Ground Poultry 1 or 2 days Fresh Variety Meats (Liver, Tongue, Brain, Kidneys, Heart, Chitterlings) 1 or 2 days
Cured Ham, Cook-Before-Eating 5 to 7 days Sausage from Pork, Beef or Turkey, Uncooked 1 or 2 days Eggs 3 to 5 weeks

Everyone has defrosted meat on the counter, and mankind has managed to survive (indeed, we hear the population is continuing to grow). But you did ask for hard-and-fast rules...

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