How Long Your Cooked Ground Beef Will Last In The Fridge

Crumbled ground beef is one of those ingredients that's useful for all sorts of things. You can turn it into a helping of sloppy joes for dinner, toss it into queso dip, or just heap it on a bun and call it a loose meat sandwich. So, if you managed to catch a bulk package of it on sale and decided to cook it all at once, you're going to want to know how long the cooked crumbles last in the refrigerator.

Cue the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which provides the official government stance on the matter. The USDA recommends "using cooked beef within three to four days, kept refrigerated (40 degrees Fahrenheit or less)." As safe of a haven as the refrigerator seems for food, it's not going to halt the growth of unwanted bacteria in your food, because the USDA continues on to say that "refrigeration slows but does not stop bacterial growth." So you better get to using it.

You'll often see food being needed to be stored at 40 degrees Fahrenheit or below, which seems like a very specific temperature threshold. That's because the temperature range from 40 and 140 degrees is what's known as the "danger zone." This is where pathogenic bacteria (aka the kind that love to make you sick) really thrive. The USDA also says, "Because they do not generally affect the taste, smell, or appearance of a food, one cannot tell that a pathogen is present." 

So sorry to break it to you, but that means the sight and sniff test aren't going to cut it. Even if the cooked beef smells fine after being in your fridge for 10 days, it's just not worth the risk. If you're going to gamble on it, there aren't any guarantees that you'll come out unscathed. That being said, there are so many ways to use ground beef, like tater tot casserole (aka hot dish), bulgogi dip, and lots more. We have a feeling you won't have a problem using it up.