Found in the fridge...

Don't touch prepared meat products such as sausages if they are a) past use-by date b) you suspect they have spent time stored at the wrong temperature. It's simply not worth it. Some bugs that grow in sausages can cause paralysis, not just a tummy ache!

The rule for food labels is, if it says "best before" then you can use your own discretion, if it says "use by" then you mind that date strictly.

NB the bugs can usually be killed by cooking well, but cooking does not destroy the poisons that the bugs created as part of their digestive process while they were alive, and it's these poisons that cause the most serious problems from food poisoning.

I would cook well, try a small piece on cat cats won't eat anything that's gone off unlike dogs who'll eat anything if cat eats it & asks for more then they're ok I hate food waste & was brought up in the days before dates on food, does it look ok?does it smell ok? does it taste ok? then enjoy.

I wouldn't eat then and I hate waste too so I freeze them open and then bag them.
You can cook from frozen easily.

£2.50 is not worth 24 hours of vomiting or worse. A friends' mother died from salmonella poisoning and she was only 43.

Think you did the right thing. You wouldn't enjoy a meal you had doubts about. Spend all afternoon wondering if you'd poisoned yourself. I know use by dates have to give a little leeway to allow transport from shop fridge to home fridge etc. but I wouldn't risk 4 days personally.

I think the use by date has a fairly long margin for going over. They have to quote a date they can be absolutely sure is safe so a few days over is OK too. A product that says eat by Wednesday won't be perfectly safe at 23.59 on that day and heaving with pathogenic bugs at one minute past midnight if it's been refridgerated. The food police and Nanny state have made us scared of our own shadows. Store in a properly maintained fridge at the recommended temperature and use common sense. If the use by date arrives and you don't plan to use the product, you can freeze it. Many of us on here have survived growing up without a fridge. I was nine when my parents got a fridge, back in 1961, but I was one of only half a dozen in my class who had one. Of course, generally speaking, my mother shopped daily for most things, so it wasn't a problem.

Cook them and give them to the dog.

Legs55, probably most of us here were children before they had food labelling - but the reason food and safety labelling was brought in was to save the countless lives that were ended through ignorance. In those days children choked on small toys and lead paint all the time, and people dropped dead from all sorts of things that are largely avoided now by increased health and safety measures.

I'd eat them if they smell OK.

Anja if one is planning a trial run, I'd advise testing on a human rather than an animal - vets fees are much more expensive than a human going to hospital!

I bin anything out of date. I have no sense of smell so can't tell if something is off by sniffing it and daren't risk it.

Sausages have preservatives in them so I would just cook them well and eat them. You are not going to get food poisoning from sausages.

As Hollydoilly said, freeze anything you think you're not going to eat before the use-by date. I've got a pack of meatballs in the fridge, use by 5th March, so they're going in the freezer today.

My mantra is if they look and smell fine they probably are fine?

Omegal there is far less preservative in everything in recent years than there was in, say, the 70s. The trend in food production is to reduce added chemicals which is why use-by dates are getting shorter and you have to keep ketchup in the fridge now after opening.

omega1 as I said upthread my DS was very very sick with vomiting and diarrhoea for a week, exhausted and dehydrated. It was sausages he cooked and ate. He wouldn't have eaten them had they smelled off.
I know the OP has already binned hers.

I wouldn't risk it.
I too hate food waste. I try not to buy too much in advance and label jars etc with date I opened.

In the Caribbean there is a saying
"What don't kill, fattens"

I go by look and smell. If OK then I would cook well and enjoy.

There must have been a reason why 'best before and 'use by' dates were put into place! Why would anybody risk getting poisoned for the bargain price of a pack of sausages

I would eat them- I think dates are a recommended and if it looks and smells fine go for it.

Hmmm ?
Yesterday I opened a pot of double cream (dated Nov 3rd '18) which was in my fridge. It was delicious with raspberries and crushed meringues. Of course, It will need to be finished today as it has been opened but I routinely use out of date, unopened cream cheese like Philly, Waitrose or Tesco with no ill effect.
I might buy several tubs at a time, knowing that they keep for years in the fridge if unopened.

Good heavens.
Don't even go there.

I'd do the smell touch test then carry on regardless if these two tests sufficed.

Four days? Better safe than sorry ?and in view of you being in' should I shouldn't I mode' indicates your inner common sense says ' get rid of them'.
Next time freeze if you are not going to eat them within the date specified.

GabriellaG would not do that.