“I think 6 months is for pork (uncured). Bacon is cured so it will keep a good long time.”
The USDA website says 4 months for bacon, but 6 for uncured. Go figure. I delved into the issue when I had a lot of frozen bacon that was about 2 years old, and stumbled across a few websites that said don’t use it after 6 months. I dug a bit deeper and found many anecdotal reports that people found their bacon was quite all right after several years frozen. I think the USDA just wants to keep us consuming with some of their magic expiry dates.
I agree, that seems off, 4 months. Not sure if I’ve eaten bacon older than 6 months but I’ve always kind-of had the attitude bacon never goes bad. I’m sure I’ve many times eaten bacon older than 4 months. Usually we eat a lot of bacon, doesn’t have the chance to get very old!