"Melondy" > wrote:
> I learned from a food preservation course that when you grind up meat you
> add air and spread any bacteria throughout the meat. That is why the
> refrigerated shelf life of ground meats is shorter than whole cuts and
> even when frozen is shorter.
>
> Frozen ground meat- 3-4 months
> Frozen stew meat- 3-4 months
> Frozen chops or thin steaks- 4-6 months
> Frozen whole large portions meat- 6-12 months.
> Fresh ground meat- 1-3 days
> Fresh large cuts- 3-5 days
> Fresh stew meat- 1-3 days
>
> Sorry I can't sight studies and research though I've seen these timetables
> in many places and they have been pretty accurate for me, even using a
> FoodSaver and great butcher wrapping. For the food to be in it's best
> condition I stick to the above estimated times.

Those numbers are about what I thought. But 3-4 months is a pretty long
time, especially compared to the refrigerated shelf life. That's why I grind
"relatively" large quantities ( 3 or so pounds) and freeze a lot of it. The
amount of time required to clean the grinder is the same no matter how much
you grind, and I'd rather "amortize" the time spent over a larger amount of
meat. I have no problem using up the ground meat within 3-4 months, but I
could never do it over 1-3 days.