Storing your beef

We get so many questions about beef storage, and I do try to include a little information sheet in beef packs to help with this, but it is also useful to have it easily accessible here online for future reference.

There are two main ways that you can age your beef for even better eating. For more info on this go here.

You may not be interested in aging your meat but would just like to know how long it will last in the fridge before needing to be frozen, and that is ok. Having this knowledge will help you plan your meals and get the most out of your beef pack.

I always say to either eat or freeze your bone in cuts, mince (no preservatives in ours), and diced cuts first. Include in this any cuts where the commercial vacuum bag has gained air (more on this below). Next to eat or freeze are the steaks and sausages, and lastly the whole cuts (roasts). Of course, you can eat them in any order, but just be mindful of the need to freeze if you won’t eat them within 2-3 weeks.

Also keep in mind that a very cold (2°C) fridge held at a constant temperature is imperative to store your meat well. It should be noted that most kitchen fridges will be set to run at 5°C and daily use will see some fridges up around 8°C for much of the day, so an alternate fridge may be needed if you don’t want to freeze your beef straight away. Storing meat at higher temperatures will let it go off much more quickly.

Infrequently, small leaks will form in the packaging as a result of a small tear or incomplete heat seal. This may result in air leaking into the bag. We do our best to quality control for this and repack anything we find whilst packing boxes with a new bag and seal. Please note that, in this condition the meat is still perfectly fine, but will just need to frozen or eaten a little bit sooner. If there is air in the package, then the meat just needs to go in the freezer within a week of delivery.

Please note that other meats – pork, lamb & chicken store very differently to beef. They should all be frozen within a week of delivery as they do not age well in the fridge like beef does.

I hope this information helps with your next purchase and store of our beef. Please email me with any other questions or comments.