Chicken Sell-by Date

[Spacecase]

For the past several months, my local Whole Foods has offered pretty decent deals on the Bell & Evans whole chickens. Since the B&E chickens are air chilled, they are my preferred chickens. The sell-by date on these birds is always the last day of the weekly sale at Whole Foods. I suspect this is marketing, rather than a best-by or consume-by date. For chicken, I am a little squeamish about going past packaging dates. Any guidance or direction on how long these chickens would be safe or considered fresh? I plan on asking the folks in the meat department, but they are presumably a little biased. A picture of the packaging from the B&E website is below. Thanks.

[Spacecase]

So I just checked the B&E website and it says that everything should have a Best by date. I have not noticed that on the whole birds, but I will take a closer look. So I may have answered my own question.

[Spinaker]

Honestly, you can probably go a few days after the "Best Buy date" without an issue. But make sure not to push it much past that and see the bird in a really cold fridge. As always, make sure you are cooking all parts of the bird to at least 165 F.

These are great birds, I love these and Smart Chicken. (If I do chicken at all)

[JeffJ]

If you brine it and get it into the freezer you should be good. You can go a couple of days after the sell date. When it comes time to cook it your nose will tell you if it's bad.

[FireMan]

Yup, you’re ok for a couple days. Brine it & cook or freeze.

Or, sell it!

[RonB]

My brother always ignored stuff like sell by dates, and safe temps - may he rest in peace...

Just kidding, of course.

[LA Pork Butt]

I don't take any chances with chicken, but a couple of days is probable safe. If I needed to go past that I would freeze it.

[jfmorris]

I purchase a lot of whole chickens, especially when on sale. I either use them or freeze them by or before that "sell by" date myself. Let's face it, unless having a big cookout, I am not cooking 12 chickens at once, so they almost all go right into the freezer in the packaging from the store.

If pulling one out of the deep freeze, I move it to the fridge 1-2 days before the cook, and the night before the cook, split it or spatchcock it with poultry sheers and rinse it, usually still partially frozen, and dry brine on a rack in the fridge until the cook the next day.

[Jerod Broussard]

There is less contamination on whole birds compared to parts.