I bought all this meat at the same time, put it away in the same fridge.

[conuly]

And it all had the same sell-by.

I just don't understand how the chicken breast is just fine, but the chicken drums are decidedly whiffy and had to be tossed.

Comments

[james]

The meat doesn't have the same origin, even if you bought it at the same time, same place. Like, it could be from different chickens and different processing lines and different days of processing. Or the drums sat in a slightly warmer spot before ending up in the store's cooler. Or just something got on the drums and contaminated them, if the packaging wasn't totally secure.

[gale_storm]

Yeah, this is basically what I was going to suggest. I guess i can all be summed up by saying, ‘different is just different.’ B^)

[greghousesgf]

I used to work in a butcher shop and I was going to say the same thing.

[crystalpyramid]

How uniform is your fridge? I've discovered mine has a really warm spot on top under the bulb, which is great for thawing stuff fast and terrible otherwise.

[conuly]

The chicken was stored one with the other.

[jessie_c]

That's pterry much the reason why chicken goes right into the freezer unless it's going to be cooked the very same day it comes home.

[conuly]

I usually would've cooked the chicken first thing, but the ground beef had opened before I got home so I cooked that first. I should've cooked up all the beef and then saved it for later.

[jessie_c]

I've learned to never trust chicken to last in the fridge. Beef, I can get away with leaving for a day or so, but chicken always goes bad.

[shadowkat]

I think it's the fat content. Fatty foods tend to go bad earlier for some reason? And the drums are also near bone. But that's just a guess. Also "sell=by" dates aren't always reliable or so I've learned recently. Chicken also goes bad fast. Chicken and fish do. Fish faster than chicken. Beef lasts a tad longer for some reason. So maybe not about the fat? No wait, lean beef stays good longer, fatty on the bone goes bad faster. Lamb which is very fatty goes bad a lot faster than beef for example.

I've been freezing stuff a lot lately. Froze my fish. Just took out hamburger meat that I'd put in the freezer last week for this week, tomorrow. And freezing hot dogs and sausage. But freezer is very small, so have to be careful about it.

[oloriel]

Sell-by isn't use-by, right?
As James says, they are very likely from different chickens. They can even have been processed on different days. Moreover, you don't know what happened to them before you bought them. Maybe the drums were carted around the shop for a while before someone decided that nope, they didn't want chicken drums after all and put them back in the cooler. Or the drums sat further at the top of the cooler from the start. Also, different meat structures. Probably more meat on the chests, whereas the meat on the drums is interspersed with sinew and bone. In short, there are lots of possibilities!

[gatheringrivers]

I've found some packaging = stays decent longer (the local megamart has some vacuum packs for meat that fall in this category) and other packaging styles are "use in 2 days or freeze" (unless it's also stickered with "today's special" in which case it's "use NOW or freeze".)

Might come down to the wrapper glue.

Might be "Package B" got moved around the store by a shopper, then left on a shelf somewhere for some indeterminate period of time, before being rescued back to the fridge case.