How long is turkey good? Fresh, frozen and thawed

A fresh turkey with a sell-by date

USDA describes a sell-by date as one that “tells the store how long to display the product for sale for inventory management. It is not a safety date.” Your clock starts when you take the turkey home: 1–2 days in the fridge, then cook it or freeze it. That's why food safety guides, including the Minnesota Department of Health's, advise buying a fresh turkey only 1 to 2 days before you plan to cook it.

The “cook it by” column uses the outer end of the 1–2 day range and assumes the turkey went straight from the store's cold case to a fridge at 40°F or below. If plans change, freeze it by that day. Avoid fresh turkeys sold already stuffed; Alabama Cooperative Extension advises against them because of the risk of harmful bacteria.

What “fresh” means on a turkey label

“Fresh” is a temperature term, set in federal rules (9 CFR 381.129). Raw poultry whose internal temperature has ever been below 26°F can't be labeled fresh. Raw poultry that has been at or below 0°F must be labeled frozen, and the label may add “previously.” Poultry held between 0°F and 26°F needs no special term. Since 26°F is colder than water's freezing point of 32°F, a fresh turkey can be kept very cold. None of these words is a date; they don't change the 1–2 day limit once it's in your fridge.

A frozen turkey from last year

If it stayed frozen at 0°F the whole time, it's safe. FDA's storage chart says freezing at 0°F “keeps food safe indefinitely” and that freezer times are “for quality only.” USDA's FoodKeeper gives a whole turkey 12 months and turkey parts 9 months for best quality, so a bird bought frozen last November is near the end of that window. Its quality may have slipped, but age alone doesn't make it unsafe. A date on the wrapper that passed while the turkey was frozen doesn't change that either.

For a turkey you freeze yourself in its store wrapper, FDA suggests overwrapping it with heavy-duty foil, plastic wrap or freezer paper, or putting it in a plastic bag, if it will stay frozen longer than 2 months.

When to start thawing: in the refrigerator, allow about 24 hours for every 4 to 5 pounds. A 20-pound turkey needs 4 to 5 days. The turkey thawing calculator gives you the day to move it from the freezer to the fridge for your cooking date, and a cold-water schedule if you're short on time.

How long a thawed turkey keeps in the fridge

Once a turkey has finished thawing in the refrigerator, USDA says it can stay there 1 to 2 days before cooking. Those days come after the thawing time, not instead of it. Within that window you can also refreeze it uncooked, with some loss of quality.

• Thawed in cold water (about 30 minutes per pound, changing the water every 30 minutes): cook it right away.
• Thawed in the microwave: cook it right away.
• Thawed on the counter: don't. CDC says never to thaw a turkey by leaving it out on the counter.

Cooking it to 165°F

Cook turkey to an internal temperature of 165°F (74°C), checked with a food thermometer. CDC suggests cooking stuffing in a separate dish; if you stuff the bird, the center of the stuffing must also reach 165°F.

Cooked turkey

Refrigerate cooked turkey within 2 hours and eat it within 3–4 days. For turkey cooked on Thursday, November 26, that means by Sunday, Nov 29 (3 days) to Monday, Nov 30 (4 days). In the freezer, cooked poultry dishes keep their best quality for 4–6 months. Stuffing, gravy, sides and pies each have their own limits; the Thanksgiving leftovers guide lists them dish by dish with dates.

Packed-on, sell-by and use-or-freeze-by dates on turkey wrappers

Federal rules don't require a sell-by or use-by date on poultry. They do require a date of packing (9 CFR 381.126), which can be a code and can go on the shipping box instead of the bag you take home. FSIS says that pack date helps it identify product lots and trace them back in an outbreak. If a calendar date appears on the label, the rules require a phrase right next to it explaining what it is, such as a packing date, sell-by or use-before date. Here's what you're likely to see:

A meat industry trade association told FSIS in 2019 that many meat and poultry products carry “use or freeze by” labels. FSIS's fact sheet describes a freeze-by date as one that “indicates when a product should be frozen to maintain peak quality. It is not a purchase or safety date.” If your wrapper shows more than one date, see two dates on one label. A bare number with no phrase next to it is usually a code; the expiration date decoder can help with printed date formats.

Bought the turkey early? Scan the sell-by or use-by date on the wrapper and FreshScan reminds you two days before and on the day. A packed-on date next to it is set aside rather than tracked. A USE OR FREEZE BY date is saved as “Date on package,” and a wrapper with only a packed-on date needs the date typed in by hand.

Free on theApp Store

Other turkey

Raw ground turkey has the same short fridge time as a whole bird but a shorter freezer time; see how long ground turkey keeps. Sliced turkey from the deli counter or a sealed package is covered on the deli meat page. For anything else in the fridge, the shelf life chart has FoodKeeper times, and the food expiration calculator counts them out from the day you bought it.

Questions people ask