How to Tell if Frozen Ground Beef Is Wormy

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Ground beef is a versatile ingredient that you lot tin can apply to brand burgers, taco meat, spaghetti sauce, and and so much more than. If you have beef in your fridge and you lot're non sure if it'due south even so skillful to use, yous can check in a few piece of cake means to see if it'south spoiled. Just remember never to eat meat that's gone bad!

Signs That Ground Beef is Bad

1. ane

   Check to run across if information technology has turned a dull brown or grey. ^[1] Fresh beef will be bright carmine in colour, but it may accept a few brownish spots in the middle since ground beef is taken from different parts of the moo-cow. Your ground beef will turn more grayness the longer you keep information technology. If all of your beef is grey rather than reddish or brown, it'south all-time to throw information technology away.^[2]

   • Prepackaged basis beefiness develops a brown color on the inside considering oxygen is not able to achieve the eye.^[iii]

2. 2

   Aroma the beef to see if you observe a sour olfactory property. ^[4] Fresh beef will have a slight smell, but beef starting to go bad will smell rotten or sour. The smell is produced from gases made by some of the bacteria on your beefiness. If there is a stiff aroma, avert eating information technology.^[5]

   • Many bacteria that cause food-borne illnesses like salmonella cannot be smelled and tin exist found on fresh beef. Always cook the beef thoroughly to kill bacteria. If you don't feel comfortable eating the beef, throw it away.

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3. iii

   Touch the meat to run across if it feels slimy. Clasp the meat in your fingers to feel its consistency. Fresh meat should break autonomously in your hands easily and separate into chunks. If the meat is viscous or has a slimy texture, it has most probable gone bad.^[6]

   • Always launder your hands before and later you handle raw beef and so you don't spread bacteria or contaminate surfaces.

4. iv

   Cheque the sell-by date on the packaging. Raw ground beef is safe to use only i or 2 days after the recommended sell-by appointment. Bank check the agenda to determine how many days have passed since you bought it and throw it away if information technology's old.^[7]

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1. ane

   Shop uncooked ground beef in the fridge at or below 40 °F (iv °C). If you plan to cook the beef presently, store it in your refrigerator. Beef left out at room temperature will beginning to harbor harmful leaner colonies within 2 hours. Never get out meat out for longer than 2 hours at room temperature, or for more than 1 hr if information technology is above 90 °F (32 °C).

   • If you don't program to melt your beefiness right away, freeze information technology.

2. ii

   Cook the beef inside 2 days of the sell-by date. If the beefiness has been in a fridge the whole time, information technology volition stay fresh and safe to use up to 2 days afterwards the date listed on the packaging. Make sure you use the beef soon afterwards you lot buy it so it doesn't go to waste.^[viii]

3. 3

   Proceed raw beef in the freezer for upwards to iv months. Keep the beef in freezer-safe plastic numberless and label them with the sell-by engagement listed on the packaging. Squeeze all the air out of the pocketbook before sealing it to conserve freezer infinite.^[9]

   • You may start to notice white freezer spots on the beef after a few months. These areas can be cut off if there are only a few. Otherwise, throw the meat away.

4. four

   Thaw the beef in the fridge or in a sink filled with cold water. Transfer the frozen beef to the fridge 1 to 2 days before you plan to use it so information technology has time to completely thaw. If yous want to thaw the meat in the sink, make full your sink with cold water and submerge the beefiness. Change the water every 30 minutes until it'southward completely thawed.^[ten]

   • Beef thawed with h2o needs to be cooked right away.
   • Never leave the meat to thaw at room temperature.
   • Beef can be thawed in the microwave but it needs to be cooked right after it's finished thawing to avoid whatever contamination.

5. five

   Cook basis beef to 160 °F (71 °C) before storing or eating it. The simply style to kill the natural bacteria in your beef is to melt information technology entirely. Use a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature of the meat while you're cooking it.^[11]

6. 6

   Store cooked ground beefiness in the fridge or freezer. Cooked footing beef can be safely stored in the refrigerator for seven days before information technology starts to spoil. It can also be stored for up to 8 months in the freezer. Be sure to store it in an air-tight container!

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Add New Question

• Question

  Froze 2lbs of ground beef on 3rd day of refrigeration. It turned nighttime brown when thawed in fridge. Is information technology bad?

  

  This answer was written past one of our trained team of researchers who validated information technology for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Reply

  Check the smell and texture of your ground beefiness. It does change color as information technology gets older, just if it doesn't aroma or feel slimy, information technology should still be okay.

• Question

  Can I cook ground beef that sat in the fridge for an unknown amount of fourth dimension?

  

  This answer was written by 1 of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Answer

  Throw information technology away if you aren't sure when the sell-by date was. Information technology may have gone bad.

• Question

  Is my basis beefiness safe to swallow the next day if I defrosted it in the package in h2o all day and put it in the fridge for overnight?

  

  This answer was written past 1 of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accurateness and comprehensiveness.

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Reply

  Ground beef should exist cooked immediately after you thaw information technology in water. Otherwise, bacteria could grade.

• Question

  I packed my hamburgers in divide freezer numberless and left them on the counter for 6 hours in 74 degree weather. Can I freeze them now?

  

  This answer was written by 1 of our trained team of researchers who validated information technology for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Answer

  Yous shouldn't refreeze them since they probably developed leaner while they were thawing at room temperature. Ever thaw your beefiness in the refrigerator or in a sink with cold water.

• Question

  What would cause meat to taste sour later it has been frozen?

  

  This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated information technology for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Answer

  The longer you keep food in the freezer, the more likely it is to develop freezer spots that could attribute to the flavor.

• Question

  Is it safe to cook and swallow beef that has turned dark-brown? It has been frozen and thawed.

  

  This answer was written past ane of our trained team of researchers who validated information technology for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Answer

  Meat will plow brown over time. Cheque to see if it smells or has a slimy texture.

• Question

  Can I boil my basis beef if I am not sure it is bad?

  

  This answer was written past one of our trained squad of researchers who validated it for accurateness and comprehensiveness.

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Answer

  When in doubt, throw the beefiness abroad. It is only adept to use up to 2 days after the sell-by date if information technology's been in your fridge.

• Question

  I bought 5 lbs. of hamburger at Grocery Outlet and froze it immediately. Sour tasting, strange clear colored juice came out when frying. What happened?

  

  DividedGuitarist

  Community Answer

  Your beef may have been freezer burned or it was expired when y'all bought it and you had never noticed it. The clear colored juice may take been a watery mixture that leached out while cooking.

• Question

  If beef smells slightly off, will cooking it thoroughly salve it?

  

  No, it will not. The issue with nutrient poisoning is that whatever baddies are in the meat accept left backside toxins - that's one reason it's chosen food poisoning and non food. If the beef has gone off, so yous tin can't cook it to salvage information technology, it must be tending of.

• Question

  If I feed my dog ground beef that was left out 2 days, volition it injure him?

  

  Yes, it is likely to hurt him, just as it would a human.

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• Keep cold foods beneath xl °F (4 °C) and hot foods above 140 °F (60 °C). Anything in betwixt these two ranges is in the "Danger Zone" and will start to develop bacteria.

• Wash your easily afterwards handling raw beef so yous don't contaminate other surfaces.

• Ever cook beefiness to an internal temperature of 160 °F (71 °C).

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Commodity Summary X

If you're not sure whether your ground beef is still practiced, lean close and smell information technology. If the meat smells sour or unpleasant, it's probably bad and you should discard it. If information technology seems okay, use your fingers to test the texture. Meat that has turned bad volition experience sticky, tacky, or slimy and should exist thrown out. You tin can also employ the color of the meat as a guideline. Ground beefiness that is brown or gray is nevertheless safe to swallow, but if it is turning green, you should throw it away. Read on for tips on storing ground beef to keep it from spoiling!

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