How to Tell When Raw Beef Is Bad

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Red meat, poultry, and seafood all exhibit dissimilar spoilage signs. Depending on the blazon of meat, you may need to sentry for unpleasant odors, examine its color or texture, and take preventative measures to avoid early spoiling. If y'all're not certain whether a meat is spoiled or non, throw it out to be safety. Every bit long as you know the signs and are on the lookout for spoiled food, y'all can go on yourself safe while eating and handling meat!

Signs that Meat is Bad

1. 1

   Examine the meat'due south package for an expiration date. The shelf life for red meat is approximately 1-iii days if it is raw and 7-10 days if it is cooked. Throw away any meat that has passed this expiration date to avoid food poisoning.^[1]

2. ii

   Throw out scarlet meat that has been in your fridge for over 5 days. How long your meat will concluding in the fridge depends on whether it is ground or cut. Ground meat can exist left in the fridge for between 1-2 days by its sell-by date. Chopped meats, steaks, and roasts tin final betwixt 3-5 days.^[2]

   • Meat can final longer if it is frozen. If your meat has been in the fridge for a few days and you lot accept no plans of using information technology, freeze information technology to avoid spoilage.^[3]

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3. 3

   Check the meat for a foul smell. If your meat smells rancid, information technology most likely is. Spoiled crimson meat has a distinct, pungent scent. Throw your meat away if it has a bad odor, especially if the meat'southward expiration date has passed.^[iv]

   • Do non printing your olfactory organ against or near the meat to smell it. Instead, cup your mitt well-nigh the meat and move the manus towards your face to get a whiff of the meat.

4. 4

   Avoid eating red meat with a greenish hue. Meat that turns light-green or greenish-brown is usually unsafe for eating, though browning without a greenish hue is not necessarily a sign of rotting. An iridescent sheen is a sign of exposure to heat, calorie-free, and/or processing and is not necessarily a sign of spoilage or decreased quality.^{[5] [half dozen]}

   • When in doubtfulness well-nigh a meat's color, throw it away.

5. 5

   Bank check the meat'due south texture. Spoiled ruby meat is gluey to the touch on. If you can feel a slimy coating over the meat, throw it away. This often ways that bacteria accept started to multiply on the meat.

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1. ane

   Sentinel for strong, rancid odors. Fresh poultry should non take any discernible aroma. If your poultry has a distinct, unpleasant smell, throw it away and make clean out your fridge or freezer. The scent of raw poultry frequently lingers if the expanse isn't cleaned thoroughly.^[seven]

   • Baking soda is an constructive cleaner for getting rid of bad smells.^[8]

2. 2

   Avoid eating poultry with a grayish color. Fresh raw poultry should be pink, and cooked poultry should be white. Poultry that is greyish has probably gone bad. Do not buy or eat craven with a wearisome, discolored appearance.^[ix]

   • Take the breading or glaze off of cooked poultry served at a restaurant to examine its color.

3. 3

   Feel raw poultry to bank check its texture. Although raw poultry may have a sparse liquid moving-picture show, information technology should non take a mucus-like coating. If your poultry feels gluey or excessively slimy, throw it abroad.^[10]

   • Launder your hands afterwards handling raw poultry whether you believe it is spoiled or not.

4. 4

   Wait for mold on cooked poultry. In addition to all of the to a higher place signs, rotten cooked poultry may start to mold if it has gone bad. Exercise non endeavor to remove the mold or eat the not-moldy parts if you notice this on your cooked poultry. Throw the entirety of the cooked poultry to avert food poisoning.^[eleven]

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1. ane

   Avoid seafood that smells "fishy." Contrary to common thought, fresh seafood should non smell fishy. Information technology might smell similar the body of water, but information technology shouldn't have a strong or pungent smell. Trust your nose: if your seafood smells foul, throw information technology away.

   • Smell fresh seafood while you are at the supermarket to compare its smell.

2. 2

   Audit your seafood to examine its freshness. Seafood should have shiny skin as if it has come out of the water. Dry out seafood is usually spoiled. If it has eyes and/or gills, its eyes should be articulate (not cloudy) and its gills should exist ruby, not regal or brown.^[12]

   • Avoid fish with scales that look like they're flaking off.

3. 3

   Do not eat fish meat with a milky colour. Fresh fish meat is usually white, red, or pinkish in colour with a thin liquid film. If the meat is blue or graying and a thick liquid seeps from information technology, your fish has probable gone bad.^[xiii]

4. 4

   Check live seafood earlier you cook it. Seafood that must be eaten alive, like shellfish, often spoils chop-chop after they've died. Tap alive clams, oysters, and mussels to make sure their beat closes when touched. Watch crabs and lobsters for leg movement before cooking.^[14]

   • Do not eat shellfish that has been dead for hours earlier you cooked it.

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1. i

   Avoid thawing your meat on the kitchen counter. Meat that is left out of the refrigerator or freezer for long periods of time is at-risk for spoiling. Leaving your meat out at room temperature for long periods of time increases the take a chance of spoilage. Instead, thaw meat using the microwave, which is both a quicker and safer method.^[15]

   • Thawing frozen meat in the fridge is a condom culling to the counter.

2. two

   Shop your meat at a safe temperature. Meat should exist stored in the fridge at a temperature of xl °F (four °C). If your meat is stored at any warmer of a temperature, information technology is more than probable to spoil. Throw out food that has been kept for many hours at room temperature.^[16]

3. three

   Freeze your meat if you lot exercise not program to eat it soon. Although meats will only keep for several days in a fridge, information technology can last for months in the freezer. To extend the shelf life of your meat, identify it in a sealed container and freeze information technology until you plan to swallow it.^[17]

   • Frozen meats can develop freezer burn which, while not dangerous, often tastes unpleasant.

4. 4

   Avoid eating expired or unrefrigerated meat. Fifty-fifty if your meat appears unspoiled, it tin still be infected with harmful bacteria. Do non eat meat that has been left out in the kitchen for likewise long or is well past its sell-by date.

5. 5

   Cheque the meat's internal temperature while cooking. Because not all foodborne bacteria are detectable, cooking your meat to the right temperature is key for preventing food poisoning. Cooking reddish meat to between 120–165 °F (49–74 °C) (depending on rareness) is platonic.^[18] Poultry should be cooked to 165 °F (74 °C).^[19] Seafood is safest when cooked to 145 °F (63 °C).^[20]

   • Some seafood, like sushi, is eaten raw. In this case, follow cooking instructions carefully and throw the meat out if you notice signs of spoilage.

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• Always wash your hands earlier and after touching raw meat.^[21]

• Avoid eating meats with broken seals or liquids seeping from the parcel.^[22]

• If you suspect your meat has spoiled, do not ingest information technology. Transport back spoiled meats if information technology is served to yous at a restaurant.^[23]

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• Exercise not taste questionable meat to check if it is spoiled. You tin can get food poisoning from ingesting pocket-sized amounts of spoiled nutrient.

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Commodity Summary X

If you're non sure how to tell if meat is bad, requite it a expert odor. If it smells rancid, strong, or unpleasant, the meat has probably gone bad and should be thrown away. If information technology smells okay just you're still not sure, touch on the surface of the meat. If it feels mucilaginous or slimy, it is probably bad. You should also avert eating meat that has a grayish or greenish color, or which is past its expiration date. If you lot're checking fish or seafood, look for shiny skin, clear eyes, and reddish gills, and do not swallow fish that has a milky colour. If you desire to larn how to prevent your meat from spoiling, go on reading the article!

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