Mark Shaw wrote:
> Last Sunday I bought a couple of pork shoulders for
> sausage from Costco. I got busy, though, and they stayed
> on the bottom shelf of my fridge until yesterday (Friday)
> evening, at which point they were four days beyond the
> "sell by" date. They were sealed in plastic (I think the
> name for this kind of packaging is Cry-o- vac).

The "sell by" date is just that...a sell by date. The meat doesn't
automatically expire after the sell

What was the temperature in your refrigerator? Was it contantly below
40°F? If so, you will be fine. If the door was opened and closed a lot,
or left open for a period of time, you might have a problem.
>
> When I opened the bag, I noted the typical sort of
> "sweet" odor associated with this type of packaging, but
> somewhat stronger than is typical.

Cryovaced meat will smell stronger. It's the nature of the packaging.

>The meat itself held
> the odor, even after rinsing with fresh water. There was
> no discoloration or other off-odors, and just a little
> sliminess (something I've also
> seen with this packaging), just the plastic-bag smell.

Sounds pretty normal to me.

>
> I went ahead and ran it all through the Porkert for the
> first grind, and froze it. I've been assuming that it's
> going to be okay, but I thought I might check with the
> experts....
>
> Anyone have an opinion on this? Thanks.

My opinion is that it will be safe unless the 'fridge door was open lots
of times and the nominal temperature wasn't kept below 40°.

BOB