Ground beef: "Use or freeze by..."

[Callan]

Today I was at the grocery store and saw that grass-fed ground beef was on manager's special, super cheap. So of course, I bought three pounds. It says "use or freeze by 1/03/13." I'm gonna freeze two of the 1lb packages, but if I cook one today, does it all need to be eaten today? And when I defrost the other packages, do they need to be eaten on that day? Maybe this was a mistake, heh. Thanks for your advice! Don't want food poisoning on my Whole30...

[Aberrantatavia]

I get these all the time and as long as they are cooked by that day, you should be fine. I will usually then freeze whatever I cooked if I haven't eaten it after a couple of days... Maybe 3.

I found the same managers special the other day and bought several pounds.

[nutmegananne]

Once you've cooked the ground beef thoroughly, it should be good for 3 days, as long as it is refrigerated. When you thaw out the other packages, I would cook them the day that they are thawed, but again, once cooked, you can store for 3 days.

I've found a great reference website where you can search on any food that you are curious about, and it tells you the safe storage times:

http://www.stilltasty.com

They pull their data from official government websites, which are pretty conservative when it comes to food safety, so you should be good if you use the data. I was pleased to recently figure out that the paleo cranberry sauce I had made at Christmas was still good to eat on NYD, per the site

[Callan]

Thanks, guys! I feel much better, now. I know I could google around for the answer to my question, but sometimes it's so much better to hear a direct answer from a person to your specific question. And I always forget about that stilltasty website!