How long will Sous Vide food keep?

How long will Sous Vide food keep? - Homemade long noodles made with egg dough on table

I'm part of an international rescue team and one of the things we need to do is to be self sufficient. At the minute we take ready made boil in the bag food which is not particularly great and is quite expensive.

I recently saw Heston Blumthall proposing the use of Sous Vide food for preservation of food on a submarine and wondered if the same approach could be used by my rescue team. So the question is if the food is cooked by can it be kept on a store cupboard shelf and if it can, what would the shelf life be? I'm assuming that the quality of the packaging could have an effect. If it can how could this be taken into account?



Best Answer

There's a misunderstanding possibly of what Heston suggested for the British Navy. He suggested to sous vide it and then store it in the freezer. They couldn't just toss it in the cupboard. Sous vide food is not typically shelf stable. It has been pasteurized - not sterilized.

Pasteurization reduces pathogens to a safe level, not to a 0 level. It doesn't typically reduce botulism spores to 0. Once the food is exposed to normal temperatures, any anaerobic pathogens will start to reproduce again.

To sterilize you'll need to pressure cook meat through to 121 C for 2.4 minutes - at which point its rather not tasty. You might be able to sous vide at a lower temp for much longer, but I suspect it'll still be past the point of being tasty. Sterilized meat tastes like your typical potted meat.




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Quick Answer about "How long will Sous Vide food keep?"

You can refrigerate cooked, properly cooled foods in their unopened sous vide bags up to 10 days. If you've opened the bags, your leftovers will have the same shelf life as conventionally cooked leftovers.

How long can you keep meat after sous vide?

If you've opened the sous vide bags, the meat will have the same shelf life as conventionally cooked meat. Keeping the meat safe for up to 10 days is one of the most significant advantages of sous vide cooking.

Can you sous vide and save for later?

You can either freeze the sous vide bags until later, or you can sous vide them first, and then freeze them. I refer to them as the "Freeze, Cook, Eat" process and the "Cook, Freeze, Reheat" process.

Can you sous vide then refrigerate?

If you want to refrigerate or freeze any food that has been cooked sous vide, we recommend that it be brought quickly from the cooking temperature to below 41F/5C before storing. This process is called quick chilling.

Can you leave something in sous vide for too long?

While you can't overcook your food with sous vide, leaving it in the water bath for too long can result in changes in the texture. After a while, it can turn out soft and mushy. Also, with fish and eggs, it can make the fish too dry and the eggs too firm.



How Long is Sous Vide Cooked Food Safe in the Fridge?




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