In a vacuum sealed package, it should be fine. You can usually tell if the meat is freezer burned (funny smell, changes in color). That's usually the only reason I throw it away (well, I give it to the cats). I find the fattier the meat, like pork, the quicker it gets freezer burned.

I just discovered some venison from 1999. (Talk about not doing a good job cleaning out the freezer!) DH made stock out of it, but the meat still tasted great.

It keeps forever......but may lose quality, depending on how well it was packaged.
Vecuum sealed in cryovac I am sure it will be fine.
However I might think about preparing a sauce to serve with it...just incase it has lost a bit of moisture.
Think bernaise or a creamy roquefort or perhaps Alexa's Steakside mushrooms.
Linda c

Absolutely, it's safe to eat.

As Linda says, it might be a bit compromised in texture, although I doubt it. Being prepared with a sauce certainly can't hurt,though.

Annie

Trixie I agree with the others that it will be just fine. I just wish that I would find a lost beef tenderloin in my freezer!:) Lucky you!

I'm glad you posted - I had pretty much the same question. I found some venison in the freezer that is probably 2 years old. (Unfortunately it is not vacuum sealed). Also found some ground deer meat, probably approaching 3 years old. All still safe to eat? I'm sure the quality has decreased, but might still make a good chili. Thanks!

If it's not been sitting around at 40 degrees, it's safe to eat.
Linda C

I agree with Linda C, if it's been frozen the entire time, it's safe to eat. It might not be GOOD to eat, if it's been sitting long enough, but safety is not an issue, only quality.

Annie

It is cryovaced. I thought it would be alright and it looks alright but wanted to make sure.

Thank you for your replies!

We raised meat chickens almost three years ago and still have some in the freezer. We vacuum-packed them and there is absolutely no freezer-burn and they taste completely fresh.

Trixie, if you are thinking of serving with a sauce as suggested above, you might like this recipe. One of my favourites to serve at a dinner party.

Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table

2 to 3 pound beef tenderloin

Make a sauce using:
1-1/2 Cups red wine 1 1/2 cups beef
broth 1 clove of garlic minced 1
Tablespoon tomato paste pinch of thyme
Bring to a boil and simmer slowly
until reduced by half
Braise about 15 to 20 pearl onions
Saute 1/2 pound of sliced mushrooms
. Slice a beef tenderloin into 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch thick slices. Dry
well and brown on both sides in butter and oil. Add the onion and
mushrooms to the reduced wine sauce and thicken with 1 tablespoon of
flour blended with 1 tablespoon of butter. Add the beef to thicken
sauce. May be prepared up to this point and reheated later. Meat should
be rare to medium rare so be careful when you reheat. This is adjusted
from a Julia Child recipe.

I buy freezer beef a half at a time. With only 2-3 of us here, we have it, usually, 2 years. If it is vacuum packed, and that's the only way I will get it packaged, I have beef that tastes as fresh as the day we brought it home from the butcher. As long as the vacuum seal is still intact, it probably hasn't freezer burnt. In fact, I have found some dated 3 years before and it was fine.

Tami

Hi. I'm a sixty three year old cook, contemplating retirement . I have a WONDERFUL stand-up freezer, with freezer coils lining each shelf. I have stocked said freezer with about $1000.00 worth of cryovac protein. With this type of investment, you can be sure that I did a lot of testing out, and research. Buy whole cuts of raw meat, if possible. Buy from reputable wholesalers, who do a lot of volume. Don't buy Frozen cryovac meats (they do this to older, refrigerated cuts). The more fat, the more chance of flavor change over time. Bacteria won't grow in a freezer. The cryovac package should have a tight fit to the meat with SOME "purge" (blood or juices). This "purge" further protects against "burning".

donscott, welcome to the Cooking Forum, even if it did take a thread from 2008 to bring you here!

I grow grassfed beef and I agree, a tightly sealed cryovac package will keep meat a long time. I just cooked a roast dated 2013 and it was fine. The 2011 sirloin that I also discovered wasn't as good, it had lost its seal. The dogs still thought it was just fine, though.

Annie

Have no stake in them, but swear by my FS vac sealer for freezing stuff. I'm cooking for one and EVERYTHING in the meat/poultry section is packaged WAY too big for me. Unless I'm cooking for crowd, average package of BL/SL chicken breasts would last all week if cooked at one time. And just zip locking extra and tossing in freezer resulted in mystery, freezer burnt stuff.

klseiverd, I also use a Food Saver, although I still "lose" a seal on a regular basis. Still, if I'm packaging 15 packages of sausage or Canadian Bacon, and 3 or 4 come unsealed, it's far better than all of them just being in ziplocks.

Unfortunately, I haven't found one that I can stuff a whole chicken into, LOL, so when we process home grown chickens they have to be cut up into pieces, no whole roast chickens.

Annie

My FS is at least the 3rd one I've had... have all come from yard sales. When asked if unit worked... yes. Then asked WHY selling, especially at such a low price? One seller originally bought unit to save on those "family packs" of meat/poultry. When she realized with husband and 2 tween boys... a FP never stayed long enough in freezer to get burned, even in original supermarket packaging. I had sort of a seal fail issue. One suggestion I found was that those dark gray/black gasket things could be dirty?? I washed and re-positioned and sealed like a charm. I concluded it was the moisture on them?!? So now I spritz them with water before sealing.

After I posted reply has a "Wait! What?" moment. HOW can you lose a whole tenderloin for almost TEN YEARS?? Maybe if ya have a "walk-in" unit, but NOT in anything you'd find in a residential unit... even a Martha Stewart sized model!?!

I've had issues lately with a few of the rolls....a bit kinked and crinkled by the way they were rolled in the factory. I've been triple sealing the bottoms, without really any waste by sneaking another under the first. Then i double seal the top once the food is in. Not happy when i found a couple prime steaks that had a seal leak. Very frosty and the ones nearby, same date, were perfect and clear.

My eyes bugged out to when i thought a tenderloin was lost ten years but this thread started in 2008, so it was just a year.

LOL, klseiverd, I thought the same thing, then, like Sleevendog, I realized that the thread was from 2008, dragged up from the depths of where ever these things stay until for some reason someone finds them.

As for the FoodSaver, I've tried nearly everything. I called the company, I cleaned the gasket, I stuff food inside other/cheaper bags that Peppi brought me to avoid getting moisture/food on the sealing surface of the bag. At least 25% still come unsealed. Now I'll try Sleevendog's "double duty sealing", maybe that will help, although when you're sealing up a couple dozen chickens, it's time consuming.

Annie

I've been sealing up the bottom of bags way ahead of getting any meat out because of the time...and folding out and over the tops for easy packing. Then they go in the kitchen freezer overnight before moving downstairs. They get a double check. We did so much last weekend with a big grinding Saturday...steaks are so expensive and the big batch of meatballs time consuming...such a great system when it works well. (i need to order a couple sets of back-up gaskets.)