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My chocolate mousse recipe includes just raw eggs (2 weeks until best before date), butter, sugar and black chocolate, ingredients are mixed together with the hot, liquid chocolate.

I know about this canonical question/answer pair: How long can I store a food in the pantry, refrigerator, or freezer?, but its answer is unsatisfying in my case, as the eggs are not completely raw, since the yolks are mixed with the hot chocolate and the whites, beaten to Egg Whites are also mixed together with the hot yolk and chocolate. So neither uncooked proteins nor cooked proteins in the canonical answer apply to my question.

I'm worried about the time of its preservation in a refrigerator (5ºC).

How long can I store my chocolate mousse before it becomes critical for consumption? If I see a liquid at the bottom of the container, is this a sign to throw it away?

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  • Hm. Assuming that you are not heating up your chocolate to somewhere close to boiling, I don’t think it could be seen as “cooked” and should be treated as “uncooked”? Especially when you mix in the whites after the first mixing step?
    – Stephie ♦
    Jan 4, 2021 at 20:18
  • I see your point. But you don't need to boil an egg to start its partial protein denaturation. Anyhow I read this in an article: Denaturation, by which soluble proteins are rendered insoluble, of egg proteins is brought about in a variety of ways, including the action of acids, salts, heat, mechanical agitation, and radiation. Mechanical agitation or beating of egg white, as well as the tendency of proteins in surfaces to form films, causes partial denaturation of the egg proteins.
    – Vickel
    Jan 4, 2021 at 20:44
  • With food safety, it’s usually way simpler: Was it heated enough to destroy most pathogens? - then it’s “cooked”, especially for proteins. Remember that the guidelines are written so that the average user without detailed biological or chemical knowledge can follow them.
    – Stephie ♦
    Jan 4, 2021 at 20:48

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In the UK, anything longer than 3 days from production is generally deemed risky and unsaleable for commercial purposes.

For home use, if you're fridge is at the warm end of the scale /5°c 3-5 days sounds about right to me. If it's a cold fridge /2or3°c you can add a day or two onto that range. This is a slightly higher risk approach than in a commercial setting though.

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