Meat going off [General]

2012 Jun 11
So a couple of times now I've bought meat from Saslove's and had it go bad within what I consider a short period of time. In this most recent instance, I bought the meat (a cut of beef) on Friday and went to prepare it Sunday night and found that it smelled off. Is this normal? How long would you leave meat in the fridge before cooking it? I generally go with 1 or 2 days unless the package says otherwise. [As an aside, Saslove's vacuum packs a lot of their stuff with a long expiry date but they have signs up saying that if you're not going to use the meat within (I believe) a day or two to freeze it, which I've never understood. Doesn't this mean the best before date is kind of meaningless?] Anyways, would appreciate your thoughts. FYI, nothing else in my fridge is spoiling sooner than it should.

2012 Jun 11
Meat can have some really funky smells and still be completely fine. Especially if it is vac sealed. When we'd open box beef where I worked - you crack open those vac bags the sub primals are in and oooo-man what a smell!

2012 Jun 11
agree with zym, but if i had a slimy feel to it.....give it a rinse under cold water....pat dry and smell it.

2012 Jun 11
Thanks zymurgist and Eastcoast.chef. That kind of grosses me out, but it's helpful. Both times, the meat has been vacuum packed and I've asked myself if that might be the issue.

2012 Jun 12
We've had similar problems with vac sealed and grocery store saran wrapped. Thought it was bad, smelled off so we pitched it. Slimy usually means we toss it for sure. It's frustrating as it'll have only been a couple of days since purchase.

So if we wash, we should expect a smell like??

2012 Jun 12
About the best before dates - apparently in Quebec the regulation is that it is 2 days after packaging, but in Ontario it is 4. But that is kind of arbitrary in a way because it goes by when the vac pack was opened at the butcher shop. Though I'm not exactly sure why but meat goes off quicker when you break it into smaller pieces.

I'm not sure what it should smell like after you wash it - I just cook it and eat it :-) Though I guess you have to know the difference between a little funky and off. Just last night I made a big batch of pulled chicken burgers with chicken that was in the fridge 3 days but still a day before the best before. Smelled a bit funky but was not off. Awesome chicken burgers!

2012 Jun 12
In my experience meat that has gone bad announces itself pretty clearly. It's a fairly foul smell that reminds me of trash bags in the summer or rotten eggs (sulfur) -- something that your nose clearly indicates is bad.

Meat sometimes smells a little funky but I find that if I open the package and am not hit with a wave of something awful chances are it's probably good to eat. Slimy is not a good sign either...

2012 Jun 12
Obvious maybe...but having a cooler in the car or carrying an insulated bag with a freezer pack thrown-in if walking or cycling home from the store/butcher is a very good idea. Temperatures such as yesterday's 30C+ is not a friend of meat or seafood even for brief periods of exposure.

2012 Jun 12
meat stinks, we just forget that in our sterile world. Really bad stink means you probably won't like the taste, but it won't kill you. Don't forget, 200 years ago maggoty beef was all the rage (not suggesting we promote that past fad). Smaller pieces go off faster because of the larger surface area exposed to air. If you see pictures of properly aged beef the outside of piece looks pretty gross, but once the surface area has been trimmed and cut into steaks, you'd never know except for the taste.

2012 Jun 12
BTW the above post is meant particularly in respect to beef. Pork and chicken have other elements you need to be a bit more concerned about.

2012 Jun 12
I can appreciate that meat isn't always going to be scentless, but from my view there are degrees. Vaccumn packed 'fresh' beef and overseas lamb usually has a unpleasant sulphorous smell that I find off-putting (I'm thinking vac-packed beef eye of round or boneless legs of lamb).

Dry Aged beef, hams and sausages can have a strong 'smell' but those associated flavours are far more palatable to me than anything "wet aged" in it's blood. I also find cheap pork (and stryo-trayed chicken and beef) at supermarkets often has an ammonia-esque smell. I occasionally consume all of the above, but ideally try to buy stuff that hasn't been wrapped/vac packed after butchering.

I recognize really big subprimals come from alberta vac packed, my guess is that the butchering process trims or eliminates a lot of the outer flesh and blood that is causing that unpleasantly funky smell.

2012 Jun 13
When opening a package of chicken breasts tonight, I checked the expiry date and was very surprised to see June 26! I bought it two days ago. It was Prime chicken, and had a new/different type of plastic. I'm guessing this new packaging extends fridge-life because I don't remember seeing chicken last this long refrigerated....

2012 Jun 13
I have to think that chicken has been nuked like the milk I used to buy in Germany that you could store on the shelf until opened

2012 Jun 13
UHT chicken?!

2012 Jun 14
In a tetra-pak?!

2012 Jun 14
Ya Zym, you must not be referring to UHT...

It's raw, fresh chicken in the usual packaging (can't think of a name for it); styrofoam 'box' with clear plastic cover sealing it. Prime, grain fed.

2012 Jun 14
I think that chicken is packaged in pure nitrogen (or some other gas mixture to inhibit bacteria). And lots of technology goes into the "clear plastic cover". There are tons of patents on clear plastic films. That particular one is probably permeable at very specific rates to oxygen, CO2 and moisture...

For the chicken to keep that long, it's also probably sprayed with some kind disinfectant at the packing plant. Don't worry, it's all GRAS (generally recognised as safe) compounds, I'm sure ;-)

2012 Jun 20
Zym's way of checking if meat has gone off is to get me to smell it.. LOL ;)

For beef/pork/chicken, my general rule of thumb is anything with a fishy smell (literally, like a fishing boat) gets tossed. Beyond that, I judge by texture/feel and color. Mushy meat that doesn't spring back and has any sliminess gets tossed. Meat that has a yellowy/greenish hue (chicken, especially) gets tossed.

I don't like to have any uncooked meat in the fridge much longer than 2-3 days.

2012 Jun 21
Thanks everyone.