Discolored minced meat: eat it or throw it away?
You take your minced meat out and the top is beautifully red, but the inside is brown. According to the use-by date, it’s still good. Eat it or throw it away?
Of course, you first need to know why minced meat discolors in the first place. It all has to do with oxidation (air), and it may be the opposite of what you think. Meat that comes into contact with air turns a beautiful red color because of oxymyoglobin. A substance found in the meat of warm-blooded animals. So the inside of the meat may be grayish-brown because it hasn’t come into contact with oxygen.
Use by
If you buy meat from the supermarket, always check the use-by date. Has it passed? Then you really shouldn’t eat it anymore. Is the meat still good according to the use-by date, but are you unsure? The advice from the USDA, the United States Department of Agriculture, is as follows. The inside of the meat may be grayish-brown, but if the rest of the meat has discolored, it is no longer safe to eat. It may already have started to rot.
Smelling
Personally, I always rely on touch and smell. If the meat is discolored but still smells fine, I simply add it to the bolognese, chili con carne or another dish in which the meat has to be cooked all the way through. Nothing has ever gone wrong, but if you’re a little more cautious, I’d stick to the USDA’s advice.
Sulfite
What else gives meat that red color? Sulfite! Yes, the substance that is also found in most wine. Sulfite turns discolored meat red again so that it looks fresh, the perfect way to disguise bad meat. That’s why adding it to meat has been prohibited for years. Earlier this year, 200 tons of minced meat had to be thrown away because the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) found sulfite in the meat. What a waste!
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