Best-before date question -- pre-cooked ribs

Cafe Society
1

There is a casual restaurant chain that serves really good ribs and they’ve recently starting selling precooked versions in retail stores, which they claim are cooked sous vide, vacuum-packed and marinated in their own proprietary barbecue sauce. I got a rack last week and all you have to do is throw it on a medium-hot barbecue grill for about 12 minutes, flipping occasionally, and it’s delicious. So the other day I got two more.

Here’s the thing. They are shipped and sold refrigerated, not frozen. The front of the package says “Keep Refrigerated” and the back says “May be frozen” and tells you how to thaw them if you do choose to freeze them, so clearly they are not shipped and sold as frozen-food products.

But the best-by date on both packages very clearly says “2020 DE 10”. Am I supposed to believe that this stuff can sit in the fridge, unfrozen, for eight months? I don’t believe it and am not going to chance it. I’ll probably grill one within the next few days and freeze the other, as much of a nuisance as the huge thing is in the freezer.

Any opinions on the BB date? I just don’t think it’s realistic, even for something that may be sterile and vacuum-packed. I’ve never seen anything like it.

2

If the product has been pasteurized it is safe to eat for a long time, I’ve seen 6-12 months cited for refrigeration, years for frozen.

3

From what I’ve read, as long as there’s no smell or other sign of spoilage, cooking will destroy the bacteria and toxins that cause botulism. I hope someone will correct me if I’m wrong about that, and I’m guessing there would be other concerns besides botulism.

4

I’d freeze it.

Just in the fridge that long is way outside my comfort zone.

5

Thoroughly cooked, and vacuum sealed at the plant? Sure. There’s precooked ham steaks at the grocery store with similar shelf life printed on them. Bacon, too. Look at the printed dates on preseasoned and still raw pork loin some time.

Manufacturers notoriously underestimate “best by” dates as a C.Y.A. move, and the vast majority of food is perfectly fine for much longer past that date. I think it’s complete overkill to not even trust that date, and IMHO it’s silly to take up valuable freezer space.