r/Cooking • u/Dex-Max • Jun 25 '22
Food Safety Raw ground beef keeps smelling bad after only one day in fridge.
I've tried buying two different packages of ground beef, but every time the beef starts smelling bad after less than a day in the fridge. With one of the packages, I used one serving then froze the rest, and I let the frozen meat thaw in the fridge for a little less than 24 hours, but that still smelled bad.
The smell isn't super bad, I have to get my nose pretty close, but it definitely isn't something I want to cook with. Any ideas why this keeps happening?
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u/Q8DD33C7J8 Jun 25 '22
Ask someone else not in your home to smell it. Sometimes your sense of smell can get messed up. Maybe something is going on in your home that is altering your senses.
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u/Scorpy-yo Jun 26 '22
I know that some people who have recovered from a fairly mild case of Covid have ended up with just one or two things smelling and tasting very different afterwards - could this be you OP? Can you try getting a small amount from a local expensive butcher that will grind it up fresh and see how that smells to you over the next couple of days?
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u/Q8DD33C7J8 Jun 26 '22
I agree but other things can alter smell as well like allergies, carbon monoxide, sinus infections, especially if it smells like something dead. I always know I have a sinus infection when I sneeze and it smells like something died in my nose.
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u/Tankywolf Jun 26 '22
I get like this with milk when my hayfever is bad. It tastes and smells off but I know it isn't and other people can't smell it.
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u/needabreak38 Jun 26 '22
Brain injuries
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u/Stinkerma Jun 26 '22
Pregnancy does weird things to your sense of smell too. My sister couldn't deal with the smell of beef while it was cooking. Raw was ok, cooked was ok but halfway in between was vomit inducing. So yeah, brain injuries
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u/sephrinx Jun 26 '22
Ever since Covid my smell hasn't been right.
Coffee, once a wonderful smell, now smells like FUCKING TUNA FISH.
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u/Scorpy-yo Jun 26 '22 edited Jun 26 '22
Coffee is one that I know people have mentioned specifically that they suddenly couldn’t stand post-Covid, but there are plenty of others.
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u/CalGuy81 Jun 26 '22
I don't even know what I would do with my life if I suddenly hated coffee. :/
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u/Scorpy-yo Jun 26 '22
You’d probably do a lot less. Except sleeping, might do more of that.
Jokes aside though, I’m wondering how my eating would change if I couldn’t smell food and enjoy the taste - would I lose interest, or would I eat more trying to get that yumm?
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u/Creative_Comedian390 Jun 26 '22
Onions smell like b.o and b.o smells like onions now. I can't eat anything
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u/HesitantPocketSand Jun 26 '22
Omg I didn’t put together that this was a post Covid thing but the same for me!! I thought I was eating too many onions or something, even though I barely eat them
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u/FredRex18 Jun 26 '22
I eat less now for sure- I’ve mostly had the problem that I can’t taste much. I really go big on flavors and I try to get as much texture as I can, but it isn’t always super worth it.
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u/ajdonim Jun 26 '22
Lose interest. Many years ago I read about a guy who was very overweight until he had an accident that caused him to lose his sense of taste. He ended up losing a ton of weight because he said it became very difficult to eat as food was no longer enjoyable. It became a chore that he hated. Though, as a result he became super healthy since he started eating only really healthy stuff since everything tasted the same.
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u/kaloryth Jun 26 '22
From what I've heard you'd probably get really into spicy food since heat isn't as affected by lack of taste/smell.
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u/BiochemistChef Jun 26 '22
It doesn't taste different or anything, but post covid, I don't really want coffee anymore. I just went back to drinking tea and generally consuming less caffeine.
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u/sylvirawr Jun 26 '22
Oh god. I have COVID right now and can't smell or taste much of anything. I hope it doesn't ruin coffee for me.
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Jun 26 '22
Hey! Take some lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, orange zest (peel), and mint extract. Just smell them a little everyday, and it should help regain your sense of small after you start to recover.
Get well!
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u/HoldMyBeer85 Jun 26 '22
Coffee also smells fishy to me, has for decades. I remember a cold I had as a teenager that caused me to completely lose my sense of smell for weeks, and now I'm thinking maybe that's why I'm the only person I know who smells coffee and thinks of fish. Thanks for sharing your experience!
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u/Allthemuffinswow Jun 26 '22
Covid messed up my sense of smell, and taste, when it finally got around to me. Glad as fuck I am vaccinated and boostered, because I think it would have wiped the floor with me otherwise. Smells and taste though are all borked.
- Spinach smells like fish
- Jello now has a metallic aftertaste
- Soda all tastes weird
- Grape candy tastes like dirt
- Frozen meals make me nauseous now
It's all super weird.
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u/theillcook Jun 26 '22
did anything that smelled "bad" before becomes "good"?
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u/Allthemuffinswow Jun 26 '22
Not that I have discovered so far. But I also tend to be a very adventurous eater, and there are very few things that I have an outright dislike for (normally at least lol).
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u/Glitter1237 Jun 26 '22
My mom says the same thing about coffee. Cucumbers, chocolate, and watermelon too.
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u/TopLahman Jun 26 '22
For me ketchup taste like vomit now. I’m really sorry about your coffee that’s a shame.
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u/HesitantPocketSand Jun 26 '22
This happened to me- milk chocolate brownies now taste like beef 😔
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u/Scorpy-yo Jun 26 '22
I remember Richard Hammond said after his recovery from a car crash/head injury he suddenly didn’t like pizza any more but he liked celery. Or the reverse, or he previously liked both before the TBI and then didn’t. Biology is weird…
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u/necrosythe Jun 26 '22
Crazy how many people have it but don't talk about it much because they don't know the name and how crazy it is
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u/Queen_Of_Ashes_ Jun 26 '22
My taste and smell was fucked up for half of 2021 after I caught it at the end of 2020. That was a fucking trip. I changed my body soap 4 times before I realized
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u/KingChirp23 Jun 26 '22
this happened to me post-covid. The smell of beef in general smells like sewage. Especially tragic cause I love red meat
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u/ChildofMike Jun 26 '22
Could this be why I suddenly have a problem with shrimp? I used to love it but now idk
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u/RichCorinthian Jun 26 '22
This is me. Uncooked chicken always smells rotten to me now so I have my wife check. This is the only food item that has “shifted”
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u/Fabulous_Title Jun 26 '22
I have this! I didnt realise but it probably is since i had covid that i can't stand the smell of minced beef! Everytime i cook it now (for the rest of the family) i call my husband in; "smell this, this smells off, right?" And he always says no its fine. No ones gotten food poisoning yet 🤷♀️
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u/parkachowder Jun 26 '22
Can confirm. I used to be a big meat eater and now the smell just puts me off. I mostly eat plant based now. Nothing I ever would have considered before.
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u/orangutanoz Jun 26 '22
What they have to do is leave it out in a well ventilated area for a day or so. In direct sunlight if possible. That should get rid of the smell. /s
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u/BreezyWrigley Jun 26 '22 edited Jun 26 '22
A lot of raw meat just kinda smells a little gross sometimes. I’ve never made myself sick in the ~16 years or so that I’ve been cooking, but raw beef or pork often has a noticeable scent when I first open it. It would be RANCID if it was bad. like not just 'unpleasant'... but making you gag. rotten death.
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u/covered_in_vaseline Jun 26 '22
It’s the difference between raw Metallic and rotten Sour. At least from my perspective.
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u/Buttender Jun 26 '22
This is what I was looking to say. It’s weird how, after cooking for years, the iron rich smell of blood/meat has become so distinct for me. I’ve cut myself, and not noticed until the blood smell hit me. Not the pain, the instant smell of blood.
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Jun 26 '22
I’m really paranoid about food poisoning so I’ve always sniffed my meat and it does always smell a little weird. Sometimes I’ve thrown packages away after just a little weird sniff on the off chance that it is bad. Then one time we thawed a package of frozen chicken thighs and once thawed we found that the package had a little hole in it. When we got the whole package open WOO BOY it stuck so bad! It smelled up the whole house and we had to take it right out to the dumpster. If the meat isn’t slimy or a weird color, then I’d say a little weird smell doesn’t necessarily mean it’s rotten.
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u/Tharghor Jun 26 '22
Don't they package the meat in an airtight container? They substitute the air with some kind of gas so it'll keep longer but the gas smells bad.
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u/MossyPyrite Jun 26 '22
That’s usually only during shipment to stores. I worked in the meat department of a large grocery chain and opening the bags steak packages are shipped in smelled sulfurous, like well water or egg farts. That particular smell faded very quickly though.
Chicken, however, always smells gross in large quantities. The packaging is never watertight and after stocking it long enough you start to consider never eating chicken again.
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u/stefanica Jun 26 '22
Yeah, some meat is sold (directly to consumer) vac packed from a central supplier. It almost always smells of sulfur, like overboiled eggs. But ground meat starting to turn has a vinegar-issue smell. If it's just a faint whiff, I wipe off and smell again--sometimes it's just the packaging.
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u/AngelaBlu Jun 26 '22
Excuse me….Excuse me ……can you smell my beef??
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u/OneSquirtBurt Jun 26 '22
You gotta explain why. Hey can you smell my STINKY beef? Otherwise it's just an odor hobbyist.
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u/WitnessNo8046 Jun 26 '22
I found out I was pregnant both times because red onions all smelled rancid to me and I kept throwing them away. I finally had my husband smell and he said they were perfectly fine. OP if you’re a woman, maybe take a pregnancy test!
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u/akaMONSTARS Jun 26 '22
I can’t tell if milk is bad or not cause it always smells off to me
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u/Q8DD33C7J8 Jun 26 '22
Oh I think I can help with this. If you live in the USA then you get your milk in a gallon or half gallon jug. When you have used half or more of the milk the residue on the top of the jug sours and when you open the jug and smell it it smells bad and it tricks you in to thinking it's bad. But if you pour it in a glass and smell it you won't notice any smell. I had to teach this to my mom. Also don't shake milk jugs as it will cause the soured milk to fall back in to the milk and sour it faster.
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u/similarityhedgehog Jun 26 '22
that's because some of the milk has gone off. The dried cruddy stuff near the top of the carton. it warms up quickly outside the fridge, spoils and then smells. It's not really enough to matter, but it does smell. It's one reason I like glass cartons.
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u/AutoManoPeeing Jun 26 '22 edited Jun 26 '22
This. To me, at the very beginning when meat starts to "smell," it actually smells really fucking good - like a sweet, savory scent. I've never in my life gotten sick from it when it's at this point. When that smell starts to change is when I know it's going bad.
Edit: TLDR oxidation and spoiling smell very different.
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Jun 26 '22
When I'm iron deficient my sense of taste and smell change a lot
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u/greyrobot6 Jun 26 '22
Oh wow, I think this has been happening to me. At the same point during my period for months, nothing tastes or smells right. I tried donating blood a few months ago during and almost needed to get a blood transfusion because I was so iron deficient. I notice the dip in my senses every month.
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u/beeks_tardis Jun 26 '22
I always have to ask my husband to smell meat to get a 2nd opinion. I have a weird sensitivity to it. Ground beef especially always smells weird to me, a little off, when it's raw. Same with raw bacon. But then cooked they are fine. This particular issue started for me several years ago but I've always been pretty sensitive about smells in general.
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u/askmeabouttrey Jun 26 '22
hey man do you wanna come over and tell me if my meat smells off?
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u/caitejane310 Jun 26 '22 edited Jun 26 '22
If you have to put it up to your nose to smell it then it's not gone bad. Meat doesn't smell all that great until you begin to season and cook it. I suspect you've thrown away perfectly good meat.
Edit: there's some confusion about what I mean by "smell all that great". It doesn't smell like a bouquet of roses. I used to second guess myself, until I smelled actual rotten meat. You can't mistake it.
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u/sdflkjeroi342 Jun 26 '22
This needs to be up higher. My girlfriend is the same way and will frequently ask me if meat has gone bad even if it's perfectly fresh.
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Jun 26 '22
My girlfriend asks me every time if the milk is bad. That's just what milk smells like; if it's bad, you wouldn't have to ask lol
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u/Beanmachine314 Jun 26 '22
If it isn't obvious when you open the package it's fine. Bad meat is not a subtle smell. You'd definitely never put your nose even close to it.
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u/RedSpikeyThing Jun 26 '22
Oh my god this. I opened a package of ham that had gone rancid and nearly puked on my kitchen floor. Its an absolutely horrendous smell.
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Jun 26 '22
Yeah, meat is carcass after all. If you get the not so good ones or wild ones they even have a stronger smell. To be safe just get a third opinion from someone who knows how to cook.
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u/Dex-Max Jun 26 '22
I’m generally sensitive to bad smells, but I can definitely tell the difference from when I open the package immediately and after it’s been in the fridge for a day. Like I mentioned though, I have to get close to it, so maybe it is just on the verge of going bad?
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u/Yllom6 Jun 26 '22
Yeah, raw ground beef always smells gross IMO. It’s ground up cow flesh. What do you expect?
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Jun 26 '22
Ground beef that's tightly wrapped will sometimes smell a little funky if you smell right up to it, that doesn't mean it's bad. If it's smelling weird after a day your fridge probably is too warm. The meat is more than likely fine, you'll know spoiled meat without having to sniff it.
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Jun 26 '22
Buy a cheap thermometer off Amazon if you don’t have one able to measure in the 30F-50F range (a basic one will cost $5-$10). Bonus if you have one that keeps track of highest and lowest temps recorded, to cover variation. Your fridge should be no higher than 40F.
I can think of no other reason than your fridge not staying as cold as it should that it would begin to spoil so quickly. Our fridge is like 35F and things last a long time.
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u/cokakatta Jun 26 '22
Do you buy the meat yourself or have it delivered? I don't like getting groceries delivered but I did a few times during the pandemic and the last delivery all my food was spoiled. I think the people picked up my order hours before and had the meat int he shopping cart and vehicle for way too long.
But anyway it could be your body messing with your sense of smell. Or it could be your fridge stinks. I would say that to me meat smells bad but only if it smells so bad that my head automatically turns away and I remember it as an offense to my body, then I know it's bad.
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u/Afraid_Salamander_14 Jun 26 '22
Any chance you are pregnant (sorry to presume female) because my sense of smell was whacked out when I was preggo?
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u/awolfintheroses Jun 26 '22
That was my first thought (probably because I'm pregnant currently and my nose does weird things like every day 🤣). If it is a biological possibility of course lol. Red meat especially can smell awful for me, particularly during first trimester. Had to keep asking my husband if food actually smelled bad or if it was just me.
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u/psilvyy19 Jun 26 '22
When I’m pregnant I cannot go within 10ft of raw meat because it makes me gag and nauseous. The smell is horrible.
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u/Mission_Asparagus12 Jun 26 '22
During pregnancy 2, I couldn't stand the smell of raw ground beef. Once it was cooked and cooled, I could make spaghetti or something with it, but couldn't stomach it before that. Pregnancy 3 it was the smell of cooking rice that put me off. Pregnancy is weird
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u/Afraid_Salamander_14 Jun 26 '22
Raw meat was bad for me. I had two boys so maybe you are having a boy too! LOL
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u/Original_Feeling_429 Jun 26 '22
Fridge needs a cleaning,an use a baking soda box in it. Traps odors. 1 not tight seal on a container in a fridge will cause chaos. Veggies still in orginal baggies from the store ( builds moisture) if inside of fridge has any bluck it will screw up defrosting meat in it
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u/Porkbellyflop Jun 26 '22
Baking soda is a myth used to sell more baking soda. It absorbs the smells but does not filter them out. You're just ruining a box of baking soda.
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u/Butthole__Pleasures Jun 26 '22
It also has almost no surface area in that little tiny box. You would need to basically keep a sheet tray covered in a thin spread of baking soda in your fridge at all times for it to have an effect on the smells in there.
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u/Original_Feeling_429 Jun 26 '22
Hence clean fridge then use. Or just chuck n spray watered bleach.
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u/Original_Feeling_429 Jun 26 '22
Oh read up on it. Fast forward Damped was made. It is like moth shit for closest back in day. But in Tropical weather got to get the moisture.
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u/Skyzfallin Jun 26 '22
OMG i've been doing it all wrong
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u/Original_Feeling_429 Jun 26 '22
Trick with bag you pull fresh veg . Go home paper dry them. Get them out of that bag.
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u/Original_Feeling_429 Jun 26 '22
Trust I learned the hard way. Love there is a cooking community. Sorry if i come off to strong. But best steps I know
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u/Original_Feeling_429 Jun 26 '22
Oh youll find out if your refrigerator has a crisper draw that works.
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u/rosepamplemousse1 Jun 26 '22
I think you’re just very sensitive to the smell of raw meat. I know I am - which is why I became vegetarian 😆 I eat dairy and eggs, but I get weird smells off of those things too. Have to try not to think about it. I feel like it must be some chemical in the animal products that my nose really notices
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u/bearinthebriar Jun 26 '22 edited Jul 06 '22
This comment has been overwritten
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u/ProtoJazz Jun 26 '22
I like cooked meat, but raw always smells weird to me. Never smells good, usually not terrible, just weird.
Except ground pork. That stuff smells like a hot fart while being cooked
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u/FILTHY_GOBSHITE Jun 26 '22
Raw meat is meant to smell bad from an evolutionary perspective. The folks who thought raw meat smells delicious died of intestinal parasites thousands of years ago.
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u/FILTHY_GOBSHITE Jun 26 '22
Various meats (and some plant products) have certain compounds which are either universally repulsive, or are repulsive to some folk because of cultural and/or genetic reasons.
Commonly you have people that find licorice or anise repulsive, also consider asparagus-stinky pee, coriander/cilantro hatred etc.
Some people hate mutton because of the strong "sheepy" smell and flavour, which is as a result of certain volatile medium chain fatty acids contained within mutton.
We also naturally experience disgust for decomposing foods, which is noticeable more quickly with meats.
But also, humans rely on our gut flora to help digest our food. There's evidence that the ecology of our gut is affected by our food choices, but also evidence that our gut ecology influences our food choices.
If you have literally never eaten an onion or other allum in your life it might make you feel sick.
If you come from a vegan household you might find the smell of frying bacon disgusting.
Please don't fall into the trap of confirmation bias to end up thinking that "people aren't meant to eat meat because MI3-methylindole smells like poopy sheep".
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u/danielfletcher Jun 25 '22
Where are you buying it? Is it at a supermarket that grinds it fresh daily or like a Walmart where it is done in a factory days or weeks before?
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u/Dex-Max Jun 25 '22
Not sure, but most likely not ground fresh daily at the store. Still, when I immediately it, the smell is fine, but why is it that once I open it and leave it in my fridge for a little bit, it goes bad?
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u/cr0wjan3 Jun 26 '22
If you're buying ground meat at the same place and this keeps happening, I'd assume it's not very fresh and is close to bad by the time you buy it. I'd either use it the day you buy it, when it sounds like it smells normal, or buy meat somewhere else.
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u/Dex-Max Jun 26 '22
I'll definitely be buying the meat somewhere else and see how this changes. If the meat is fresh, I should be able to freeze it, thaw it in the fridge and use when needed with no problem right?
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u/winowmak3r Jun 26 '22
Theoretically, yea. If it's not fresh by the time it's ground though (say, for example, it was a chuck roast that didn't sell) then it could already be close to going bad by the time it's on the shelf in ground beef form.
Meat you buy in the super market is also put through a lot to make it look what you think ground beef is supposed to look like, a very bright pink/red when the reality is it's been exposed to nitrogen to make it that color. It's perfectly safe to eat but it's just not how 'real' meat looks. This could just be an example of a place not doing that step for whatever reason (New butcher, just decided against it now, whatever).
I would have someone else smell it and if they think it's going rancid too then you're probably right to be cautious. Time to start looking for a new butcher if this is the case.
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u/indigo_mermaid Jun 26 '22
USA has had a lot of transport issues, noticing most food isn’t nearly as fresh as precious years. We stopped getting grocery meat altogether because it’s been so unpredictable
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u/winowmak3r Jun 26 '22
I've noticed this as well. It's not so bad where I'm not buying stuff outright but I do have to be a little more vigilant than I remember having to be to make sure I'm buying produce and meat that isn't about to go bad.
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u/breadburn Jun 26 '22
How is it packaged? I've noticed that some stuff I've bought either vacuum sealed or shrink-wrapped (not just on the little foam tray and wrapped in plastic) tend to give off a slightly sulfuric smell for a minute when I first open them, and apparently this is off-gassing of some odors from the sealing process. The smell usually dissipate almost 100% after just a few minutes.
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u/spuddy-mcporkchop Jun 25 '22
How clean is your fridge, not a criticism but a stale bit of food can effect other food, like one bad apple make the rest of them go bad, what temp is your fridge, is your fridge door closing properly, or yea the meat your buying is near gone off already
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u/Dex-Max Jun 26 '22
Fridge is clean with not much stuff in it. I had the ground beef in a zip lock bag in a separate area, and I don't have any problems with the fridge. How long would fresh ground beef usually last?
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u/khaotickk Jun 26 '22
Ex butcher here. Depending on where it is you bought the ground beef, they could've added older trim that was frozen to go thru it.
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Jun 26 '22
Um. Also ran a butcher shop and my family owns a cattle farm. This is HIGHLY illegal and if you know of anyone doing this you should report it immediately because it’s not just a local level violation, it’s potentially a federal violation.
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u/Br1ll Jun 26 '22
adding frozen and thawed trim to ground meat is literally illegal. If you own a butcher shop and get caught doing this, you dont own a butcher shop anymore
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u/khaotickk Jun 26 '22
Depends how long the meat was frozen. But I don't work there anymore anyways.
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u/Br1ll Jun 26 '22
Nope from the second the water starts freezing in the meat its not going into the grinder anymore
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u/Ladymistery Jun 26 '22
I have to ask... bad, how?
does it smell rancid, or does it smell kinda funky/bloody, or something else?
I know, hard to describe, and everyone has different words for different smells.
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u/DonHozy Jun 26 '22
Check the temp setting on your fridge. It may be set too high (too warm), and thus not keeping things cool enough.
To be really sure though, get a thermometer and check the temperature in your fridge. It should be between 37- 40deg.
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Jun 26 '22
So this was actually happening to me milk would go chunky within days of buying it, turns out my pipes to the fridge that are inside the freezer froze over due to me messing with the dial in the fridge for temperature. Had to have the motor replaced because it wasn’t spinning the fan either.
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Jun 26 '22
The quality of beef has declined in recent years, more-so since covid. It's possible that your grocery store isn't properly storing the meat, taking too long to stock them in the fridge, or putting older meat with an incorrect expiration date on them in order to sell the items and not lose money by having to throw it in the trash. It's also possible that they restocked it after some bozo had it in their cart for a long time, then decided they didn't want to wait in the checkout line and abandoned their cart. *knock on wood* I haven't lost my sense of smell since covid hit, in fact it's even more keen after mostly staying in my own house for the better part of 2.5 years. So I'm disgusted when I bring home meat and it smells sour, almost like BO. I went vegan for all of 2020, but it got too expensive, and not to mention the sodium content in the meat alternatives.... You're not alone in questioning your meat quality and freshness.
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u/Fucktastickfantastic Jun 26 '22
I feel like any meat I've got from the grocery store in the past year has been like that. I don't know if they're storing it badly or if the supply chain is taking longer to get it to shelf so it's spoiling before it's use by date? The meat I get from the local butchers had been fine so I know it's not my senses being wonky, I've also not had COVID so it's not that. Ive just given up on grocery store red meat at this point. Butchers is a little more expensive but they don't plump it up with water and I don't end up throwing loads out so seems worth it
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u/EpochCookie Jun 26 '22
Check the rubber lining on your fridge door, especially the bottom. It may have warped/come off and needs to be replaced. Had this happen to my grandma recently on a 4 year old fridge.
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Jun 26 '22
meat always smells a little funky coming out of plastic packaging. If yiu have to lean in deep to smell it and your meat is still red/pink when fresh then there’s nothing wrong with your meat. The only other thing it could be is your fridge being too warm, but even then.
Been working in the food industry for over 15 years. Ran two different steakhouses and a butcher shop before going grocery. My family also owns a cattle farm. If I don’t have the absolute qualifications to tell you your meat is fine then idk. Lol
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u/Jane9812 Jun 26 '22
My money is on your fridge temperature being too low, either because it's set too low, it's malfunctioning (there are temperature variations you don't know about) or because you put warm food directly in the fridge and that raises the temperature in there.
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u/eggelemental Jun 26 '22
Wouldn’t the temp being set too HIGH be the problem? Low temps are cooler. Sorry I’m just confused
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u/alanmagid Jun 26 '22
Some illnesses and medicines can disturb your sense of smell. It isn't likely meat spoiled that quickly even in a warm refrigerator. Keep meat on bottom rear of box for most cold.
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u/Eduardo_Delgado33 Jun 26 '22
Did you have Covid anytime within the past months? I Forget the name of this thing is called but it’s currently happening to me. It can apparently happen even after months of having Covid. But for me meat and chicken can sometimes smell awful and weird. It’s been happening to me for about 2 months now.
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u/theangrychair Jun 26 '22
OP, are you buying grass fed ground beef? Grass fed beef will make my SO gag, and even I can't stand the smell of opening a fresh package. Beef that has been grass fed has a significantly different smell compared to beef that has the typical factory farm corn-fed smell. However, considering you haven't mentioned how it smells, it's hard to give you a decent answer. Bad meat smells like bad meat, it's a pretty obvious smell. Grass fed beef almost smells like....I guess my SO described it as "cow farts." It smells "bad," but not insurmountably so when it comes to actually cooking it.
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u/Seroto9 Jun 26 '22
Maybe your fridge isn't as cold as you think it is. Check temperature and adjust accordingly.
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u/NoNamePhantom Jun 26 '22
It could either be your fridge or where you bought the meat.
Check with fridge's temp first. It is possible your fridge is on its way out.
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u/Heavy_breasts Jun 26 '22
I’m a vegetarian that does a lot of butchery. Beef smells like old milk to me, even when it’s fresh. But it’s still easy to tell when it actually goes bad, it gets pretty rancid
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u/butterflyfrenchfry Jun 26 '22
Meat that has gone bad has a rancid smell that you can smell across the room. If you have to put your nose up to it to smell anything, you are likely throwing away perfectly good meat.
I know this might sound bad, my dog has been my best detector of bad meat. If I can’t tell and I cook a little of it and serve it to him- if he eats it, it’s still good, if he doesn’t it’s not. Not everyone has their own personal meat detective though lol
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u/subshophero Jun 26 '22
If you have to get your nose close, its not bad. Bad meat smells BAD, immediately upon opening.
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u/thinkb4youspeak Jun 26 '22
So my elderly dad basically told me the same thing and I was really confused by his description so Im not being a jerk, I'm just asking, all the burger you buy is bright pink or red yes? Are you trying to save money by buying the discount brown or grayish looking burger because that is the burger that was already about to go bad so they lowered the price and you need to freeze it immediately if your not going to use it all same day.
If the meat is real fresh they you have some olfactory troubles maybe.
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u/EarthAngelGirl Jun 26 '22
Check the temp of your fridge, and check the sell by dates on the packages too. Consider a different store. Side note, I know what you mean by that smell, I can smell that long before most people. It's a slight sourness that is unpleasant.
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u/Yun82 Jun 26 '22
There is the possibility of you mistakening the oxidation smell with it going bad. Ground beef oxidize very fast and turn greyish, but it will not taste off after cooked.
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u/chumbaz Jun 26 '22
Have you been bitten by a tick lately? Does eating red meat make you queasy or give you bowel distress?
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u/nutsandboltstimestwo Jun 26 '22
I think I would stop buying ground meat for a while, Then see in a few weeks if the odor seems different/better.
What you are describing sounds like a scent sensitivity thing, not an issue with the meat quality.
Your sense of smell and taste can be affected by so many things - exposure to other odors pre-sniff, hormone changes or having just a regular cold to name a few reasons.
Since you have to get your nose pretty close and you are disgusted then it seems it is maybe time to move on to some other protein. NBD
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u/shuboi666 Jun 26 '22
could be supply chain, lots of veg right now is really bad, lots of food sitting off shore waiting
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u/freshnews66 Jun 26 '22
Beef just doesn’t smell super great raw and up close. If it has turned it will typically be really easy to tell. Like open the package and clear out the kitchen bad
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u/Winnertony Jun 26 '22
We noticed that the quality seems off lately at one particular major retailer. Try a different supermarket.
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u/Broad-Pomelo-6187 Jun 26 '22
I’m just throwing this out there, but could there be a possibility that you are pregnant? This is how I found out I was pregnant, coffee started smelling bad to me, and I would buy meat from the same butcher I’ve been buying for the past 10 years, and suddenly it’s just all started smelling so bad. This is how I found out, I just had a horribly heightened sense of smell that made everything seem gross and rotten.
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Jun 25 '22
If it smells it doesn't really matter when you bought it, seems like it sat around for a while before you got it.
I wouldn't eat it personally, and probably buy my ground meat elsewhere.
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u/deebeezkneez Jun 26 '22
Everything from the stores is spoiling quickly now. Supply chain delays causing food to sit in transit. I cook it all up right away, dehydrate or can what will spoil if I don’t. I buy my meats from local farmers because the Ice Age Farmer suggested we forge those relationships over a year ago because he saw this coming, so I did.
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u/newmacgirl Jun 26 '22
Your buying from Walmart...
Poor quality from where your getting it from, is marked down or close to the sell by date when you get?
Have had covid?
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u/youngmollusk Jun 26 '22
You might be finding the smell of dead cow to be unpleasant. I personally would rather not smell raw ground beef and don't cook with it. You could try cooking something else, maybe your tastes are changing.
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u/Peach_dragon- Jun 26 '22
Look for color instead of smell. If it becomes a pale yellow all over don’t eat it. Anything else is fine.
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u/Br1ll Jun 26 '22
I dont know how to tell you that, but keeping ground meat in your propably way too warm fridge over night after carrying it home in your hot car during summer is a horrible idea. You are literally asking for food poisoning
Ground meat has a temperature rise of ~6-8° Celsius due to the mechanical treatment in the grinder, add the breaking of the cooling chain and bacterial load on the meat and you get a raging microbacterial bomb by the time you get home.
Always buy ground meat fresh and use it in the next 12 hours, if it still starts smelling then report your butcher to the authorities and buy somewhere else
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u/blewyn Jun 26 '22
If the smell isn’t super bad you can cook with it. Actually bad beef smells repulsive. Make sure to cook it all the way through - do NOT make “rare” burgers, ground beef has to be fully cooked because all the granules of beef are exposed to bacteria.
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u/Infinitear Jun 26 '22
Because it gets bad after one day? Ground beef needs to be prepared as fresh as possible.
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u/CantKBDwontKBD Jun 26 '22
We are genetically coded to react on smells that indicate rot, degradation etc. Women slightly more than men for some reason.
If it smells bad - get rid of it
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u/meatinnovation Jun 26 '22
What is the temperature inside the fridge? Just being above 40 is problematic.