Let's say you buy all the ingredients for your meal. You choose a recipe which is using meat.
From the shop, you get raw grinded meat that is still good for a week. (label says so.)
Which will last longer?
A) The raw meat in the fridge (and prepare it when you want it.)
B) Prepare the meal, cool it down properly and put it in the fridge.
C) Freeze the meat and unthaw when you need it the next few days.
(C is an extra option, as I doubt it's a handy option if you just want to prepare the meal the next day or the day after that. But again, I couldn't find any evidence back anything up.)
Best Answer
As for the cooked meal, it also depends on what else is in there aside from the meat. Because a meal could go bad even though the meat is still safe, because another ingridient goes bad earlier. It also depends on how you store the meal (aside from storing in the fridge) like wrapping it up in foil, putting it in a closed box, etc.
Overall I trust option B) the prepared meal in the fridge will last longer.
This being because the former raw meat has been cooked or more basically heated above a certain critical temperature for a certain amount of time. This helps to kill bacteria which will otherwise make the meat go bad.
As for option C) Basically frozen food lasts longer than only cooled. But I wouldn't find this practical as in "coming handy".