The Reality Behind The Expiration Date On Your Deli Meat (2024)

Say you're about to make a big sandwich for lunch. You've got your bread, juicy tomatoes, some garlic aioli, and your favorite pickles—but is the lunch meat still good? After all, a club sandwich isn't a club without fresh ham and turkey.

Opened packages of deli meat should be treated differently than sealed ones. And from "sell by" to "use by" dates, there's a lot of variation among the labels and what they mean. In fact, other than infant formula, there are no federal regulations requiring food to have a date label at all, which means the dates you see on packages are voluntary.

If manufacturers do include an expiration dates, the FDA requires them to note the month and day of the month, according to Janilyn Hutchings, a food scientist at StateFoodSafety.

"Expiration dates are NOT a timeframe for when lunch meat will be 'bad' or unsafe. Instead, they're a suggestion for when the product will be at its peak quality," Hutchings said. "If a food item is stored properly, it can often still be used or eaten after its expiration date."

She recommends eating deli meat within three to five days from opening the package, and unopened packages within two weeks. But if it changes color, takes on an "off" odor, or becomes sticky, slimy, or moldy, you should throw it out.

Whether you're making a classic ham & cheese or a Cuban, the key to a fresh sandwich is storing your meat properly. Lunch meat will rapidly grow bacteria if left at room temperature, which means it should be stored in the refrigerator at 41 degrees or lower, according to Hutchings.

"Put away your groceries as soon as possible after purchasing them, and don't leave the lunch meat package out for longer than four hours at room temperature," she said. If the meat is left in temperatures of 90 degrees or higher, that acceptable timeframe shrinks to one hour.

Once opened, lunch meat should be used within a few days, so if you're not planning on using it all to make, say, sheet-pan Italian subs, you'll want to freeze it. When you're ready to make an antipasto grilled cheese, Hutchings recommends thawing it in the microwave, leaving it in the refrigerator for five hours per pound, or placing it under running water for 20 to 30 minutes per pound.