How to Determine if the "Fresh" Meat in Your Refrigerator is Still Safe to Eat.

You bought fresh meat at the store, but forgot about it being in the refrigerator for a few days. Is it still safe to eat?

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Your five senses.

1. Sight: Look at the meat in the counter, or in your refrigerator. Except for beef, (in some instances which I'll describe below), meat that is turning green, or has mold growing on it is unfit to eat. With packaged chicken and fish you can somewhat tell the age by how much "water" is in the package. Fresh chicken and fish will have very little fluid in the package. As days in the package increase, so does the fluid, and the bacteria count.
2. Smell: Don’t eat any meat it if it smells bad! It’s hard to believe people have to be told not to eat something that smells bad, but many of us have been raised to not trust our senses as children, and eat what’s placed before us – or else! Fresh fish won't smell fishy!
3. Feel: In some instances touch can tip you off that something isn’t right with your meat. This is especially true with chicken and fish. If your nose is stopped up and you can’t smell there is something wrong with the chicken you bought 4 days ago, the slimy feel of the meat should make you question its “safe for consumption” quotient. Normal fresh chicken feels like it is wet with water, and there should be some friction when you rub the fluid substance between your fingers. Slimy chicken feels, well, slimy. If you rub your fingers together there will be no friction.
4. Taste: If you bite into "bad" meat, (meat that tastes bad), Spit It Out! Don’t worry about what people around you think! (Okay, if you have impeccable manners, and are more concerned about those around you than your own health, “tastefully” spit out the meat into your napkin. Just remember, every second the bad meat is in your mouth, you are letting many more toxic bacteria into your system.)
5. Listen: I'm hard pressed to think of an instance when your hearing will help you ascertain whether "fresh" meat in your refrigerator is still fit to eat. But here's one instance when that might happen: If you find a "from the meat market" plastic-wrapped package of meat in the back of your fridge that is swollen like a balloon and it makes a sound like a deflating balloon when you puncture it, (this would most surely be followed by a horrible smell), don't eat it! I can only imagine this being a helpful hint for someone who has a cold and can't smell, or see, because meat found in a package in that condition would surely be hideous to look at or smell.
6. Big Tip: If you want to have really good hamburger meat, with great flavor, (and little risk of contamination by e-coli), pick a nice steak out of the meat counter, and ask the meat cutter to grind it personally for you. (I prefer Sirloin steak. It's lean, but has just enough fat to make it tender and full of flavor.)

Tips & Warnings

• Tips on the most commonly prepared meats.
• Beef: Beef is a hearty food. It is easily cured, (preserving with salt, as opposed to cooking). Correctly prepared, (as with beef jerky), it can be kept for long periods without refrigeration.
• Fresh beef can spoil, and will “age” in your refrigerator if it is not cooked before it is totally spoiled. The good thing is the “time needed for aging” factor of fresh beef can give you many days of refrigeration before you must eat it or throw it away. (This is why you’ll often see beef at a “reduced price” in the meat counter. You won’t see chicken or fish in that section, though. I’ll tell you why later.)
• Brown or aging beef: My father was a butcher and then a meat cutter for years, so we always had fresh meat at home. He wasn’t turned off by meat turning brown, or even a little green, a sure sign of “aging”, which is a nice way of saying the meat was on its way to spoiling. To him it was gaining tenderness and flavor. Like wine, a good cut of beef that has been allowed to age under certain conditions is called a “prime” cut of beef. The bacteria that ages the meat adds flavor and tenderizes the meat, by breaking down the tough muscle.
• Depending on the refrigerator setting, a fresh cut of beef from the meat market could sit safely “aging” for a week.
• How to tell if it’s been in the refrigerator too long? As described in the steps above, look at the meat, If it’s green and slimy don't eat it. Smell it: If it smells bad, don’t eat it. Taste it, if it tastes bad, stop eating it.
• Chicken, Turkey and other poultry: Poultry is a delicate meat, and more potentially lethal if not stored properly. Salmonella is the culprit in this meat. After sitting just 2-4 days in your refrigerator it can start to smell really bad, and feel “slimy”. It should be discarded if it does.
• Fish and seafood: Fish, like poultry, is another meat that needs to be eaten as fresh as possible. Eat it the day you bring it home fresh from the market or at the latest the next day.
• Frozen fish, and other seafood: While you can buy fresh frozen fish, fresh caught is best. (I’ve personally encountered bad shrimp from “fresh frozen” bags. This shouldn’t happen, but it does. The bad thing is if you bite into a bad piece of shrimp, or oyster, or clam, it’s too late, you’ve probably already swallowed it before the sense of “taste” warns you that the piece of meat is bad, and the bacteria is now loose in your system. A small amount shouldn’t kill you, but it can make you sick, and the least it will do is taste terrible.
• Pork: Pork also needs to be eaten fresh. Treat it like chicken or seafood, and don’t let it sit in your refrigerator for more than a couple of days. It will “smell” bad if it is bad, and if it’s “slimy” to the touch, don’t eat it.
• A special note about “boar" or "hog in rut” pork: If you’ve ever eaten a pork steak, or bacon, that tasted so horrible you couldn’t believe it could be something you’d purchase in a market, and the bad taste doesn’t leave your mouth for days, the answer to “what is this?” is: a Boar or hog in rut. All I can say is if you ever purchase meat like this, take it back to the store at once, and get your money back. (I pity anyone who has the bad fortune of tasting “hog in rut” on their first tasting of pork. They would never eat pork again.)
• Special notes on e-coli and Salmonella: e-coli: When you hear of e-coli contamination in beef and other foods and meats, do you ever ask yourself the Question: How in the world can e-coli get in our beef? After all, E-coli live in the intestines of all mammals, not in the muscles, where our meat comes from. My smart son-in-law helped me answer this question. Answer: E-coli won’t be in your hamburger patty if intestine, or its contents, isn’t mixed with the meat. (Ugh!) That is: grinding a whole steer for hamburger is going to mix intestine, (or the contents of intestine and every other body part), with the “good” meat. This should never happen, and won’t in a reputable slaughter house. Salmonella: Salmonella is especially prevalent on chicken, fish, and eggs. After handling these products WASH your hands, and the counter top, and any thing these items, or their containers, touched. You’ve all probably picked up a wet package of chicken or other meat from the meat counter or out of the refrigerator. Remember to wash your hands after handling these packages. Children need to be trained to wash their hands, and parents must always clean surfaces for them. Salmonella, or e-coli on the counter and a child touching the counter and then putting their fingers in their eyes, nose or mouth can lead to illnesses, which at least will be discomforting, and worst scenario, could be fatal, especially to infants, or the elderly. Pay close attention to the expiration date on canned meats, like tuna, salmon, shrimp, etc. Don’t even think of eating any meats that have an expired date. The worst bacteria of them all, botulism, is a potential killer in the case of expired dates. Another thing to look out for: cans that look like they have expanded, that is the top or bottom are bulging, as if they have been pumped full of gas, as that is exactly what has happened, the botulism bacteria are growing in the can, and the gas produced by the waste of the bacteria has pushed the can out of shape. Don’t even open a can that looks like this. Throw it away! Botulism is deadly even in small amounts.