Brown beef

new boy

new boy

new boy

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Joined
25 Jun 2009
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Weston-super-Mare
Sometimes, the beef in my fridge starts to goes from bright red to brown after its been in the fridge for a few days. I also often see brownish beef heavily reduced at the supermarket where everyone has avoided it, and its going to be binned in a few hours.

Is the brown beef still ok to eat? I normally end up chucking it, which is a waste if its fine.

I saw 1kg of good quality diced beef for £5 yesterday, and was tempted to buy it and do a stew but got put off as about a 3rd of the pack had started turning brown....
 
It's fine. It's just where the myoglobin in the meat has oxidised and is perfectly normal, if the meat was off then you'd definitely know as it would smell horrible.

Certainly don't throw it away!
 
Freshly cut 35 day Chateaubriand

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After a week of salting and uncovered in a fridge

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Meh... I just freeze all my meat. I hate it when food goes off, so I'm not taking any chances and leaving it in the fridge too long. Eventually something worse will happen. Of course it does take a while to thaw it out, but I have it cut into steak-sized slices beforehand.
 
mahius said:
Meh... I just freeze all my meat. I hate it when food goes off, so I'm not taking any chances and leaving it in the fridge too long. Eventually something worse will happen. Of course it does take a while to thaw it out, but I have it cut into steak-sized slices beforehand.
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But that's the point, beef turning brown doesn't mean it's gone off.

It actually means it's better :-)
 
I believe supermarket meat is only bright red because they pump it full of oxygen and water to give it that vibrant red colour, and the actual quality of the meat is no different. Maybe a wives tale though.
 
FrenchTart said:
It's not artificial and it's not caused by pumping the meat with oxygen and water.
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Kind of is pumped full of oxygen and unless it's changed tumbling chicken usually breasts in water is perfectly legal and can plump the weight up be 20%, although it does have to be labled like added water or similar in the uk.

The colour of fresh meat is largely determined by the protein myoglobin, which is present in the tissue. Myoglobin itself is purple, but can react with oxygen to create two other pigmented forms, oxymyoglobin, which is red, and the brown metmyoglobin. In air, the concentration of oxygen is at a level that favours the formation of metmyoglobin, turning the meat brown. However, under much higher concentrations of oxygen, the deep red oxymyoglobin is more likely to be produced. So with the appropriate MAP mixture – typically between 60 and 80 per cent oxygen – fresh meat will retain its appetising colour, with red meat such as beef needing a higher oxygen level than less vividly coloured meat such as pork. So where does this leave the bacteria? Fortunately the growth of these aerobic bacteria can be significantly inhibited by the gas carbon dioxide. So if the remainder of the gas in the mixture is carbon dioxide – say 20 per cent – this will stall the growth of microbes that spoil fresh meat, and so both objectives, attractive appearance and a slow rate of spoilage, can be achieved.
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Like this 13% extra water weight
http://groceries.asda.com/asda-webs...sk-_-bing-_-about asda#/product/1000000472836

But yeah proper dry aged beef should not be bright red.

It's just a sad state of affairs bright red meat is seen to be attractive,
 
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I think people are misunderstanding the OP

He's talking about when the mince turns grey/brown when it's spoiled. It tends to smell a bit sour and is, in fact, probably off.
 
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