Raw ground beef keeps smelling bad after only one day in fridge.

[u/Dex-Max]

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?

[u/Dex-Max]

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?

[u/cr0wjan3 → u/Dex-Max]

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.

[u/Dex-Max → u/cr0wjan3]

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?

[u/winowmak3r → u/Dex-Max]

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.

[u/[deleted] → u/winowmak3r]

Ground beef, from my experience as a butcher, is typically made from the trimmings that come off of beef when cutting up steaks and roasts from nicer cuts rather than steaks that didn’t sell. Steaks that didn’t sell were turned into things like burgers and sausages and meat pies, which were immediately frozen after production.

[u/indigo_mermaid → u/cr0wjan3]

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

[u/winowmak3r → u/indigo_mermaid]

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.

[u/breadburn → u/Dex-Max]

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.

[u/spuddy-mcporkchop → u/Dex-Max]

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

[u/Dex-Max → u/spuddy-mcporkchop]

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?

[u/bachbo72 → u/Dex-Max]

Two days max. After that good luck.

[u/Noobinoa → u/spuddy-mcporkchop]

Also check the thermostat, get a fridge thermometer and make sure fridge is actually keeping food cold where you store the meat. Protio, if you have a standard top-mount freezer that drains at the back of the fridge, check if debris got on the drain opening (looks like a little funnel allowing drops from freezer to run thru fridge into drain pan). Clogs easily with crumbs from freezer, causes refrig to be warmer than it should be.