How Long Until Ground Beef Goes Bad

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Basis beef is a versatile ingredient that you can use to brand burgers, taco meat, spaghetti sauce, and and so much more than. If you have beef in your fridge and you're not sure if it's still good to apply, you can bank check in a few easy means to see if information technology's spoiled. Just remember never to swallow meat that'southward gone bad!

Signs That Ground Beefiness is Bad

1. 1

   Check to meet if it has turned a dull brown or grey. ^[1] Fresh beef will be bright red in color, only it may have a few dark-brown spots in the centre since ground beef is taken from different parts of the cow. Your ground beef will turn more than grey the longer y'all go along it. If all of your beefiness is grayness rather than red or brown, information technology's best to throw it away.^[2]

   • Prepackaged ground beef develops a brown color on the inside because oxygen is not able to reach the center.^[iii]

2. 2

   Odor the beef to see if you discover a sour smell. ^[4] Fresh beef will accept a slight smell, merely beef starting to get bad will smell rotten or sour. The smell is produced from gases fabricated past some of the leaner on your beefiness. If there is a stiff olfactory property, avoid eating information technology.^[five]

   • Many bacteria that crusade food-borne illnesses like salmonella cannot be smelled and can exist establish on fresh beef. Always cook the beef thoroughly to kill bacteria. If you lot don't feel comfortable eating the beef, throw information technology away.

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3. 3

   Touch on the meat to see if it feels slimy. Squeeze the meat in your fingers to experience its consistency. Fresh meat should pause autonomously in your hands easily and separate into chunks. If the meat is glutinous or has a slimy texture, it has almost probable gone bad.^[6]

   • Always wash your hands before and after you handle raw beef then you don't spread bacteria or contaminate surfaces.

4. 4

   Check the sell-by date on the packaging. Raw basis beef is condom to use just 1 or 2 days after the recommended sell-past date. Check the calendar to determine how many days accept passed since y'all bought it and throw it away if it's sometime.^[7]

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1. i

   Shop uncooked ground beef in the refrigerator at or below 40 °F (4 °C). If y'all plan to cook the beefiness soon, store it in your refrigerator. Beef left out at room temperature will start to harbor harmful bacteria colonies within 2 hours. Never get out meat out for longer than ii hours at room temperature, or for more 1 hour if it is above 90 °F (32 °C).

   • If you don't program to cook your beef right abroad, freeze information technology.

2. 2

   Cook the beefiness within ii days of the sell-by date. If the beef has been in a refrigerator the whole fourth dimension, it volition stay fresh and condom to employ up to 2 days after the date listed on the packaging. Make certain y'all use the beefiness soon after you buy it then information technology doesn't get to waste.^[8]

3. 3

   Go on raw beef in the freezer for up to 4 months. Keep the beefiness in freezer-safe plastic bags and label them with the sell-by date listed on the packaging. Squeeze all the air out of the handbag before sealing it to conserve freezer space.^[9]

   • Yous may start to notice white freezer spots on the beef later a few months. These areas tin be cut off if there are simply a few. Otherwise, throw the meat away.

4. 4

   Thaw the beefiness in the fridge or in a sink filled with cold h2o. Transfer the frozen beef to the fridge one to 2 days before you plan to use information technology so it has time to completely thaw. If you want to thaw the meat in the sink, fill your sink with common cold water and submerge the beef. Change the water every xxx minutes until it's completely thawed.^[ten]

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

5. v

   Cook ground beef to 160 °F (71 °C) earlier storing or eating information technology. The merely way to impale the natural bacteria in your beef is to cook it entirely. Use a meat thermometer to bank check the internal temperature of the meat while you're cooking it.^[xi]

6. vi

   Store cooked footing beef in the refrigerator or freezer. Cooked ground beef can be safely stored in the fridge for 7 days before it starts to spoil. It tin too be stored for up to 8 months in the freezer. Be certain to store it in an air-tight container!

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Add New Question

• Question

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

  

  This reply was written by one of our trained squad of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Answer

  Check the odour and texture of your ground beef. Information technology does change color as it gets older, merely if it doesn't smell or feel slimy, it should still be okay.

• Question

  Can I melt basis beef that sat in the refrigerator for an unknown amount of time?

  

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

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Respond

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

• Question

  Is my ground beefiness safe to eat the side by side mean solar day if I defrosted it in the package in h2o all solar day and put information technology in the refrigerator for overnight?

  

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

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Answer

  Ground beef should be cooked immediately later on you lot thaw it in water. Otherwise, leaner could form.

• Question

  I packed my hamburgers in separate freezer bags and left them on the counter for half-dozen hours in 74 caste weather. Tin I freeze them now?

  

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

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Respond

  You lot shouldn't refreeze them since they probably developed bacteria while they were thawing at room temperature. Always thaw your beef in the refrigerator or in a sink with cold water.

• Question

  What would cause meat to gustatory modality sour after it has been frozen?

  

  This respond was written by one of our trained squad of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Reply

  The longer y'all proceed food in the freezer, the more than probable information technology is to develop freezer spots that could attribute to the flavor.

• Question

  Is information technology prophylactic to melt and eat beef that has turned brown? It has been frozen and thawed.

  

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

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Answer

  Meat volition turn brown over fourth dimension. Bank check to come across if it smells or has a slimy texture.

• Question

  Can I eddy my footing beefiness if I am non sure information technology is bad?

  

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

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Answer

  When in dubiety, throw the beefiness away. Information technology is only good to use up to 2 days after the sell-past date if it'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 information technology was expired when you lot bought it and y'all had never noticed it. The clear colored juice may accept been a watery mixture that leached out while cooking.

• Question

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

  

  No, it will not. The result with food poisoning is that whatever baddies are in the meat accept left backside toxins - that's one reason it'due south chosen nutrient poisoning and not food. If the beefiness has gone off, then you lot can't cook it to salve it, information technology must be disposed of.

• Question

  If I feed my canis familiaris basis beef that was left out two days, will it hurt him?

  

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

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

• Wash your easily later handling raw beef then you don't contaminate other surfaces.

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

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Article Summary X

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

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