July 2006
Seeing red: Spoiled meat may look fresh
How old? This ground beef, treated with carbon monoxide, was still red eight weeks after its sell-by date.
Attention, meat shoppers: Your supermarket may be selling ground beef and steaks packaged with gas that keeps it looking red
for a month or longer. Our tests found that meat packaged using that method stayed red even if it was spoiled.
The process, used in factory-wrapped (or case-ready) meat, replaces most of the oxygen in the package with other gases. Those include tiny amounts of carbon monoxide, which react with the pigment in meat, producing a red color. The shelf life for ground beef sealed in that mix of gases can be extended from about 14 days to 28 days, and about 10 days to 35 days for whole cuts.
Some supermarket chains, including Kroger and Publix, refuse to carry meat packaged with carbon-monoxide, citing concerns about appearance and freshness or quality.
Bacterial counts that indicate spoilage in meat may make it taste and smell bad, but food safety experts say that it is generally not a health hazard. Thorough cooking will kill bacteria that cause foodborne illness, though it won’t necessarily undo spoilage odors or bad taste.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration determined as recently as July 2004 that it had no objections to the use of carbon-monoxide packaging for fresh meat. In November 2005, Kalsec, a company in Kalamazoo, Mich., that uses a different meat packaging process, petitioned the FDA to ban carbon monoxide for that use. The company argued that federal regulations prohibited substances that “make food appear better or of greater value than it is.” At press time, the FDA was still reviewing the company’s petition.
Consumer Reports decided to do limited testing to check whether carbon-monoxide-packaged meat can stay red even when spoiled. Since there’s no requirement that the process be listed on meat labels, we called manufacturers to verify that the brands purchased were packed with carbon monoxide. We tested 10 samples of locally purchased ground beef and steaks from three companies. We found that the meat appeared red even if it was spoiled or had bacterial counts that were close to indicating spoilage.
By their use- or freeze-by date, seven samples were fresh but two packages of ground beef from one company were spoiled; an additional sample was on the brink of spoilage a day before the stamped date.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Ask whether your grocer sells meat packed with carbon monoxide. If so, don’t use color as the only guide to freshness. Check the package and buy meat whose stamped date is a couple of weeks away. With all meat, check for signs of spoilage, such as surface slime, and discard meat that smells bad.
The process, used in factory-wrapped (or case-ready) meat, replaces most of the oxygen in the package with other gases. Those include tiny amounts of carbon monoxide, which react with the pigment in meat, producing a red color. The shelf life for ground beef sealed in that mix of gases can be extended from about 14 days to 28 days, and about 10 days to 35 days for whole cuts.
Some supermarket chains, including Kroger and Publix, refuse to carry meat packaged with carbon-monoxide, citing concerns about appearance and freshness or quality.
Bacterial counts that indicate spoilage in meat may make it taste and smell bad, but food safety experts say that it is generally not a health hazard. Thorough cooking will kill bacteria that cause foodborne illness, though it won’t necessarily undo spoilage odors or bad taste.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration determined as recently as July 2004 that it had no objections to the use of carbon-monoxide packaging for fresh meat. In November 2005, Kalsec, a company in Kalamazoo, Mich., that uses a different meat packaging process, petitioned the FDA to ban carbon monoxide for that use. The company argued that federal regulations prohibited substances that “make food appear better or of greater value than it is.” At press time, the FDA was still reviewing the company’s petition.
Consumer Reports decided to do limited testing to check whether carbon-monoxide-packaged meat can stay red even when spoiled. Since there’s no requirement that the process be listed on meat labels, we called manufacturers to verify that the brands purchased were packed with carbon monoxide. We tested 10 samples of locally purchased ground beef and steaks from three companies. We found that the meat appeared red even if it was spoiled or had bacterial counts that were close to indicating spoilage.
By their use- or freeze-by date, seven samples were fresh but two packages of ground beef from one company were spoiled; an additional sample was on the brink of spoilage a day before the stamped date.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Ask whether your grocer sells meat packed with carbon monoxide. If so, don’t use color as the only guide to freshness. Check the package and buy meat whose stamped date is a couple of weeks away. With all meat, check for signs of spoilage, such as surface slime, and discard meat that smells bad.
