Article – About To Cook Freezer Burn Beef? Think Again. Here’s How Long Meat Really Lasts in the Freezer

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So you bought too much meat during your last grocery run and decided to stash some of it in the freezer until a later date. But then you forget all about it—until months later, when you find those chicken breasts, turkey burgers or skirt steaks hidden in the back of your freezer. 

You think to yourself: “How long does meat last in the freezer—and can I still eat what I’ve been storing in mine for, like, ever?” Well, the good news is that you can pretty much keep frozen meat around indefinitely and it’ll still be safe, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Phew! 

Buuuut…we do have a bit of bad news to share. Just because frozen meat won’t go bad, per say, doesn’t mean it’ll always taste good once you decide to thaw it out and grill, sear or pan-fry it. As the USDA notes, the quality of frozen foods decreases over time. Womp, womp.

This article, and several like it that have been making the rounds these days, are complete and utter nonsense. IF you package the meat properly, and IF you keep it at a nice 0-degree-or-less temperature, it will last for years. I know this because I eat meat that is way older than a year all the time.

To be fair, there are other variables involved…how you cook it, for example. Will a rare steak taste from five years ago taste as good as one purchased yesterday? I don’t know. But I do know with utter certainty that meat used in stews, soups, sauces, and that sort of thing will taste just fine. Tacos, enchilladas, spaghetti sauces, sloppy joes, stews, soups, that sort of thing….not an issue at all.

I have eaten frozen turkey that was at least five or six years old. I just recently has some meat that was about ten years old. No problems whatsoever.

But, as I said, it’s all about the prep and storage. You’ve got to keep air from contacting the meat. I use a vacuum sealer but you might get away with plastic wrap if you make sure to wrap it thoroughly and to leave no voids with air.

After that, you need to get that meat down into the -0 range and keep it there. The freezer in your fridge will not be the optimal choice for this task. A dedicated chest freezer is the ticket.

I’ve noticed that articles like these are abounding lately. I wonder if it’s a concerted effort to get the population used to the idea of eating out of their freezer because of expected shortages and high pricing….or is it just coincidence? Hmm.

19 thoughts on “Article – About To Cook Freezer Burn Beef? Think Again. Here’s How Long Meat Really Lasts in the Freezer”

  1. Various sources are projecting a monumental beef shortage coming soon. With the water situation in the western US combined with the high prices on feed, transportation and fertilizer it may be the perfect storm for the cattle industry.

  2. With the impending food shortage, I suspect everyone will be digging down to the bottom of their freezers.

  4. I double wrap my meat in freezer paper and have had no problems. Because of available space, I can only keep up to a years worth and I try to rotate properly. Occasionally I will let a package get older, but still never been a problem. I also keep a lot of canned meat.

  6. I have never had any problems with meat in the chest freezer. We once had turkey that was about 10 yrs old, and that just didn’t taste as good, kind of bland or something. But no problems with old burger, stew meat, as you said. I’ve had vegetables from our garden in the freezer for a couple of years with no taste problems there either.
    A friend gave us some venison with a little freezer burn, I just cut off the bad parts and cooked the rest. It was fine.

  7. My wife thawed out a seven-year-old venison roast. It had minor freezer burn that she trimmed and stuck it in the oven. I came home late that evening to find it cooling on the stove; trimmed a couple of bites off and they were good. Trimmed a couple more and they were good. Wife came into the kitchen and exclaimed “That’s old meat I cooked for the dog!” Only comment I could make was “Woof, woof.”

      • When I was a patrolman out in the western boondocks, I used to scavenge elk hunters’ gut piles for dog meat. Always boiled the stuff, figured the time and natural gas used were cheaper than visiting the vet or cleaning dog vomit (or worse) from the wooden floor.

    • with enough fuel to power it until you can… can that meat! Then you have to protect the canned meats from freezing…solution underground bunkers. keep caned anything at a constant temp humidity and dark. I have routinely eatin 10 year old canned meat that was once frozen in our deep freezes for 5 yeras. Yes including jarred hamburger and poultry gravels!

      Dehydated is really the end run on all this!

  10. I’ve had an occasion or two where I didn’t have the time to vacuum seal fresh-bought sirloin steaks or chicken breasts. Just threw them in the freezer in the store package, only to forget them until it was too late. A solution I’ve found to remove the resulting freezer burn odor/flavor is to boil the meat in their respective broths (beef or chicken) for a while, but not completely cooking the meat. Dry the meat off a bit, throw it on a hot grill with some heavy seasoning. Also, my wife and I particularly like dicing the steak up into small chunks, cooking it in an Insta Pot with beef broth. When tender, drain the broth completely, add a good amount of BBQ sauce to the pot, then let it cook for another 15 minutes. Makes an excellent fake BBQ brisket.

  11. From what I’ve read in multiple places, cooking freezer burned meat is fine for dogs, if you’re not comfortable eating it yourself.

  12. I’ve always wrapped tightly in Saran Wrap (still using the Thousand lineal foot roll purchased at Sam’s Club 10 years ago) and then vacuum sealed. Once found a small package of backstrap that had got pushed to the bottom of the freezer. Thawed in the fridge for a couple of days- just a few minutes on the grill and tasted as good as fresh😋

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