Kiwi & "Mahindra" replied:

he y Signman,

does well cryovaced.....they say tat it will last upto 4 wks not 6 like red meat....same with other white meat......

we used it last yr and it was great.....your right - its a nice change! Just like red meat - th e larger the surface area the better....used breast fillets....told them the biggest ones they had..

Laura

Member - bushfix replied:

G'day Signman,

yep, I used four 1kg packs done by my local butcher on our last big trip. I froze them for a day and a half before hand and then just kept them in the icebox (evakool) monitored to be lower than 4 degrees. We ate it all within two weeks though, I don't believe it keeps as long as red meat. Got the largest pieces I could so it lasted longer. Was beaut to have for big risottos or curries etc.

Davoe has a good background in this technology so hopefully will comment.

Member - Davoe (Yalgoo) replied:

Boneless or bone in?
boneless will always last longer I think it has to do with gasses trapped in the bones which allow bacterial growth around bones.
never come accross it personally but cant see why not

Member - Phil G (SA) replied:

My son's a butcher, and says the same as Davoe.
They will only cryovac the breast fillets, and tell you to use them within a week, maybe 2 at the most, assuming refrigeration below 4 degrees.

Member - joc45 (WA) replied:

Yep, I keep chicken no longer than a week before eating it for the above reasons.
But I have found vacuum-packed cooked & smoked chicken, which should keep for ages. Have used it in stir-frys, etc, and tastes great. Recall buying it in the deli section of Woolworths, translates to about $20/kilo.
Gerry

AdrianLR (VIC) replied:

Same experiences as above - refrigerated (not frozen) was fine for a week but went off very quickly after that (threw out drumsticks which were done by a butcher after 2 weeks)

We've bought marinated whole chicken and pieces at Aldi (and probably available elsewhere) that were vacuum packed and these were very nice roasted but we ate them soon after purchase. The use by date was about a week after purchase from memory. The marinade would have lowered the pH which would have helped.

Adrian

Member - Mick O (VIC) replied:

Have never trusted it past a week. Precooked as a curry or pasta sauce and then cryovaced, not a worry out to two weeks or longer. Cheers. Mick

Member - Norm C (QLD) replied:

Only vac packed meat we've ever had go off is chicken. We've kept boneless beef for up to 8 weeks with no problem (but limit to 4 or 5 weeks when possible). Kept some chicken for about 4 weeks once. Never again. About 10 days is about our limit on chicken now. No science in it. Just what we do to be sure.

howie replied:

we only vac pack skinless breast chicken only.
usually dice it prior to vacuuming to suit our purposes (saves messing about later)
lasts up to 3 weeks usually, but thats in a well packed fridge, at the correct temp, that is not being opened and shut all day.
by well packed, i mean full & with the meat at the bottom where it is coldest.

Member - BIGDOG G (WA) replied:

G'day Signman,
Jee I dont know, not chicken I dont think.
We use a lot of cryovacked meat but I dont think chicken is worth playing around with on a camp.
If we take chicken its used within 2 days. But thats just us.
And I will never forget what "off" chook can do (hospital 4 days. almost killed me)
If yu gonna do it, dont do any bones.


Cheers.......................BIGDOG

ExplorOz Team - Michelle replied:

Chicken is fine to cryovac. We always take chicken breasts, skinless and pack about 2 breasts per bag, making one meal. Always try to use it first, but have strung it out for 5 weeks under refrigeration < 4Degrees. After about 2 weeks the "blood" seems to drain out of the chicken and you get a lot of liquid in the bag that takes on a "green" tinge. Even when you open the bag and it has a bit of a whiff, wash it off in a bit of fresh water and let it air for 10mins - surprisingly how it comes good all of a sudden. Strange and risky as it might sound, we have eaten chicken that had this appearance and odour upon opening but all was good. Have never had a bad experience with chicken and we use it on every trip. Buy the freshest you can and handle it carefully and watch the fridge temp all the time with a monitor. We also pack our meat at the very bottom of the fridge - suppose that's common sense. Just avoids excess changes in temp when drinks etc taken out daily. Check out the article link this post points to now - more infor in there you might find useful.

Steve63 replied:

You can cryovac chook and we have been doing so for years but be careful. Use boneless like breasts and don't chop it up. Any processing like cutting it up reduces its life and increases the risk of contamination. We usually freeze the cryovaced stuff and it thaws over a few weeks greatly extending it's life. We usually make a habit of using the chook early on. Make sure you cook everything properly.

Make sure you know what is happening in your fridge if it heats up bacterial numbers rise quickly. Cryovacing only works for aerobic bacteria. Anaerobes are rarer as a food contaminants. C. botulinum is a good example of one that is a food contaminant and can make you very ill. It is estimated 500gms of its toxin is enough to kill every person on the planet. So these things do exist and they multiple rapidly under low oxygen conditions if the temperature rises.

With chook a common contaminant is salmonella which will make you very ill and can cause sever dehydration. The bad thing is that food contaminated with salmonella smells and looks ok!

If you have kids under 8 I would seriously consider the possible risks in doing this. Persoanlly I would never give them anything that had been cryovaced or any fermented meat products (kabana etc). Why? You will get sick and get over it, a percentage of kids will get HUS and suffer permanant irreversable kidney damage often to the extent of complete failure. This is a life sentance for the poor bugga's that it happens to.

After the rave it is a process that we use and it is relatively safe if you stick to the guidelines. Use good food preperation principles, cook stuff well, if in doubt chuck it out.

Steve