Tuesday, July 01, 2008

What Would You Do?

Today, Lucas and I went food shopping. We got home at noon, unloaded the car, and put everything away.

Or so we thought.

At 5:00 this evening, I noticed a grocery bag sitting on the kitchen table. The ground beef never made it into the refrigerator.

So I wonder: Is this ground beef still edible? Should we chance it or throw it out? Q and Lucas said it smells fine, but I wonder how long raw meat can sit at room temperature before it goes bad.

6 comments:

RainbowDishes said...

Not only do I work in a grocery store, but I used to be the Meat Manager in the store. Most questionable foods should never be left out at room temperature for more than 2 hours. Questionable foods would be mayonaise, meat, dairy products, etc. If I was at work, I would have thrown it out just to be safe.

Personally though, I would just eat it. If it smells fine and doesn't look bad, there is probably nothing wrong with it. Young children, senior citizens and people with compromised immunue systems should be careful, but pretty much everybody else should be ok.

SeangSTM said...

Yeah, I would cook it...but being OCD, I would make something that required the meat to be slow cooked for hours just for my own peace of mind.

Ms. Val said...

Not only do I work in a grocery store, but I used to be the Meat Manager in the store.

Craig, that's why I was hoping I would hear from you on this issue. The color of the meat is normal, It smells fine (or so I'm told...my sense of smell is minimal at best), and it doesn't feel slimey.

Sean, I bought the meat for making tacos. Not exactly a slow cooking meal, but I'll make sure we keep in the fryer a little longer than we normally would.

Ms. Val said...

We decided to throw the meat away.

Kroger beef recall expanded to 20 states

RainbowDishes said...

Kroger beef recall expanded to 20 states

That is as good of a reason as any to throw it away. I have little sense of smell too, which actually really helped in the meat department. I don't think I could have done that job if I had to smell those smells all the time. And I am not sure why ground beef doesn't bother me, but I will NOT eat anything that is close the expiration date. And I also am not very big about eating leftovers. About the only thing I will eat leftover-wise is Pizza and Chili. All other things are garbage. I know, I am weird. :)

Ms. Val said...

have little sense of smell too, which actually really helped in the meat department. I don't think I could have done that job if I had to smell those smells all the time.

That's the way I feel about having a cat. I don't smell the litter box. If the boys leave soiled clothes under their beds, I don't smell the funk.

My sister, on the other hand, will be the first one to tell me that my refrigerator smells like something died in it. Our dad was the same way.