Dates on Foods

Dates on food packaging are often used by consumers to determine if food should be eaten or not. 

Actually, there is no requirement to put sell-by or use-by dates on foods (except baby formula). Those dates are provided for convenience to allow the stores and companies to know when the food will start to lose eating quality. It helps them know when to take foods off the shelves of stores.

These dates are NOT indicators of food safety.

Best by/ Best if used by dates: Tell when a product will be best flavor or quality. These are not a purchase-by date.

Sell by dates: Tell the store how long to display the food.

Use by dates: Last date to use the food while at peak quality. These requirements are different for baby formula.

Freeze by dates: Last date to freeze food to maintain the best quality. 

  

Clean and Safe during COVID-19

Some folks are very worried about taking trips to the grocery store. 

Please know that the USDA does not know of any cases of  COVID-19 being spread through food or food packaging, but the virus may be found on lots of surfaces. So, some extra precautions after you visit the grocery store may help keep your family safe.

WASH YOUR HANDS - Washing your hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and warm water is one of the best ways to keep yourself safe from all germs you may encounter. Its especially smart to wash up when you get home every day, before you cook, after you handle raw meat, and before you eat.

Disinfect your phone. Your phone goes everywhere you do. Some experts suggest leaving your phone in the car when you go in public places, but that's hard. Its smart to disinfect your phone at least once a day.

Wipe off some groceries. When you get home, you may choose to wipe off boxes, cans, bags, and unopened, vacuum-packed meats like hotdogs or deli meats. Germs may be transferred from person to person on lots of different surfaces, so this step can help keep the virus out of your home.

Do wipe off fresh meat packages. Soap or disinfectants like bleach or ammonia may be transferred through the packaging and contaminate the meat. You don't want to consume those.

Do not wash your meat. Washing fresh meat in the sink can splash germs all over your kitchen. 

Do not worry about bacteria and viruses on fresh meat. When you cook meat to a safe temperature, any bacteria or viruses will be killed.

Aging Beef

When you go to a fancy restaurant, you may hear that their beef is "aged." Sometimes they may say that it is dry aged or wet aged. They may tell you it was aged for 14 or 21 days, maybe more.

But, what does that mean?

Aging beef has nothing to do with how old the animal was. When beef is aged, it is stored in refrigeration for a set amount of time. The beef is typically not frozen, just refrigerated (29 to 34°F).

Why?

Aging beef makes it more tender.

The protein in an animal’s body is constantly turning over; breaking down and being built back up. One set of enzymes break down the protein and another mechanism builds it. Even after the animal is harvested, those breaking-down enzymes are still active, continuing to work until they are broken down or the meat is frozen or cooked. If meat is stored in refrigerated temperatures, those enzymes will break down the muscle and continue to make it more tender for 4 or 5 weeks, even longer.

Sometimes, the whole carcass is held in refrigeration, but that requires a lot of space and energy. Cuts used for pot-roasts and ground beef typically don’t benefit from aging. So, most of the time, the beef is cut into different parts and pieces, and the tender ones (ribeyes, strip steaks, T-bones, sirloins) are aged, while the tougher cuts are sent directly to market.

Wet or dry aging.

Wet aging - After the beef is cut, the middle meats (ribeyes, strip steaks, T-bones, filets, and sirloins) are packaged in plastic bags and vacuum-sealed. Vacuum packaging protects the beef from bacteria and from oxygen that can cause it to spoil. The beef can be stored in a vacuum package under refrigerated temperatures for 4 to 6 weeks.  

We use the term ‘wet aging’ because the beef is aged in its own juices, not because additional water is added. If you hear that beef is aged without being specified wet or dry, chances are, it was wet aged.

Beef in a dry-aging cabinet in a grocery store in Texas. 

You can see how the edges have dried and darkened.

Dry aging – Rather than storing the beef in vacuum packages, dry-aged beef is aged without packaging in a specialized cooler or cabinet. The temperature and humidity are closely controlled. It is usually a dark room or lit with special UV lights that help control microbial growth. After the aging period, the processor must trim the edges off the cuts because they have dried out or perhaps even growth a little harmless mold (like some cheeses grow mold). This trimming and the evaporation during the aging process cause the beef to lose weight during dry aging, thus increasing the cost.

A rib in a dry-aging bag. This was sent
to me by a friend who was worried
about the dark coloration and mold.
I told them to just trim it off.

Some companies sell special bags that can be used to dry-age beef. They protect the beef from some moisture loss and microbial growth. Some people like to use them to dry age beef cuts at home.

Originally beef was dry-aged as whole carcasses, then with the development of plastics, vacuum bags were used for aging. They cut down on moisture loss and the conditions for aging were easier to control. Now some restaurants and stores provide beef dry-aged in specialized rooms, cabinets, or in bags at a premium price.

Can you taste the difference? Wet aged beef has a more acidic, more rare flavor, whereas dry aged beef has a more brown-roasted, well done flavor. Both will be tender and juicy. I think it’s a personal preference.

Does it matter what grade it is? Aging will benefit any grade of young beef. It doesn't matter if it is Select, Choice or Prime, it will tenderize with aging. Very lean cuts and Select cuts are more prone to developing off flavors when they are aged for a very long time (longer than 4 weeks). 

Does the animal's age matter to aging? Beef from older cattle will age some, but not as well. The toughness of older cattle is more due to connective tissue and it is not largely affected by aging. Tenderizing cuts from older animals usually takes plant enzymes like those from pineapple or figs.

That’s aging. It’s pretty simple. If you have any questions, just let me know.

It’s all in the package: Ground Beef

I'm not sure why I have this silly face.
I love to take #meatcounterselfies!

A few weeks ago, I made a quick stop in a local grocery store to pick up some stuff for office lunches. Of course, I had to swing by the meat counter for a #meatcounterselfie.

While I was there, I found four different examples of packaging ground beef in the retail case. So, I snapped a few pictures and made a quick facebook post. My post was so popular, I decided to recreate here in the blog.

Foam trays with over wrap.
One of the most popular types of packaging

Foam trays with over wrap. It's kinda like cling wrap. In the world of meat science, we call this aerobic packaging. It's aerobic because it allows oxygen to react with the protein and creates the bright red color consumers like to see.

This packaging type is pretty inexpensive and easy, but the oxygen makes the meat spoil in a couple of days. You also shouldn't freeze meat packaged this way because it's more likely to freezer burn.

Ground beef chubs

We call these packages ground beef chubs. These are 10-pound packages, but you can get chubs in 5-pound, 2-pound, and even 1-pound. They are not always in clear bags like this. Sometimes the chubs are white and only tie at one end.

This beef was packaged in the packing plant. That's good because it decreases the number of people that handled it and lowers the chances that it will spoil. They are essentially a vacuum package, which is why you see that purplish-red color. The vacuum isn't perfect. Sometimes a little air will get in on the ends.

Beef can stay safely in this package for several days, and you can stick it directly in the freezer. My friend, Dr. Casey Owens, commented that she likes to buy ground beef in these big chubs and divide it into 1-pound portions in zip-loc freezer bags. That’s a great way to save some money.

Modified atmosphere package

This is called a modified-atmosphere package. This ground beef was also packaged in the packing plant, so the number of times it’s been handled is decreased compared to foam tray packaging. It's kind of like a vacuum package because it's sealed, but it has a special blend of air in the package to help control the growth of bacteria and give the meat that pretty red color.

I wouldn't use this package to freeze the meat; I would re-package it in a zip-loc freezer bag or a home-vacuum packager.

Vacuum-sealed package

Last is a vacuum sealed package. This beef was packaged in the packing plant and is a completely sealed package. See how it's a purplish-red color?

This package will have the longest shelf-life, and meat will freeze in that package just fine. It's also nice and flat, so it will thaw easily, too.

The meat counter at this store had several different options of ground beef, and, as a meat head, it was exciting to me to see all these different ways to package it represented in one store. But, please know that all these packaging types are safe. Regardless of how the beef is packaged or processed or any claims made on the label, all ground beef should be cooked to 160 F and checked with a meat thermometer.

I have another neat post called 10 things you didn’t know about ground beef or you may enjoy any of my other posts about beef, food safety, or the labels you see on packages.

What questions do you have about things you see in the meat counter?

Packaging questions: Purge

It’s one of my most commonly-asked questions.

What is the deal with that blood or water in my package of meat?

Beef steaks and purge
Photo courtesy Macc Rigdon

When you take your tasty cut of meat out of the package, there is a pinkish liquid that is left behind. Most of the time, there is even a little soaker pad in the package to soak it up.

What is that stuff?

Short answer:



It’s a combination of water, lactic acid, and meat pigments that seeped out of the meat.

Longer answer:



Soaker pad in a chicken tray

In science class, we all learned that our bodies are largely made up of water. The same is true for animals, and a high percentage of that water is held in the muscles and stays in the muscle when it’s converted to meat.

Water in the meat is what creates the juiciness we experience when we eat a juicy steak, a tender ham, or a succulent turkey (#tokenthanksgivingreference). Water helps give meat the texture and flavor we expect. Meat without water is jerky, dry and tough.

Think of the proteins in meat as a sponge. As the meat ages and the more it is handled (cut, shipped, packaged, etc.), the protein sponge loses its ability to hold onto water. So, the water seeps out of the meat over time.

When the water seeps out, the protein that gives meat its color (myoglobin) flows out with the water. That protein gives the purge its color. Although it’s similar to the protein that gives blood its color (hemoglobin), it is not blood.



Pork chops in a purge loss study
Meat scientists have lots of
creative ways to measure purge
Photo courtesy Macc Rigdon

The ability of the meat to hang on the water is dependent on several different things, including the species and age of the animal, the fatness and grade of the meat, the length of time since the animal was harvested, which muscle the cut of meat was from, and how the meat has been handled and processed. Meat scientists spend hours and hours trying to figure out purge and what causes it.

Sometimes meat processors will add a solution to meat cuts to make them more tender, flavorful and juicy. That solution can change the amount of purge in a package, but the presence of purge does not automatically mean that water or anything has been added to the meat. Most of the time, purge is just a natural result of water leaving the muscle.

Some of the water in meat will evaporate out when it’s cooked. That’s why cooked meat is lighter in weight than raw. As the meat is cooked, the myoglobin will denature and lose its red color. So the juice that runs out of a rare steak may still be pink or red, but the juice from a cooked steak is colorless.

So, the water in meat packages is just purge, water and a little myoglobin. Maybe we should give it a better name.

Vacuum packaged pork with purge
Photo courtesy Macc Rigdon 

 

Something I learned from writing this blog: When you ask your meat-scientist friends to send you pictures of purge, be prepared to get a whole lot of them! I wasn’t pleased with my own photos, and a whole community of meat scientists responded when I sent out a request for pictures on facebook. Thanks, friends!

What’s in a food label? USDA

This week there has been a story circulating about a grocery store chain that was labeling their meat as USDA graded. My dad sent me a link to the story yesterday. You know you must write a post when your dad has a question, and I thought it fit into my labeling series.

According to the Washington Post story, the Giant supermarket chain was selling beef packages with the label “USDA Graded.” They were ordered to stop selling beef with that label, not because the claim was untrue, but because it was misleading.

What does USDA graded mean?

The USDA has two separate roles when it comes to evaluating the meat we buy in stores and restaurants.

1.       USDA Inspectors evaluate the animals before harvest and the carcasses and the meat afterwards for wholesomeness. I wrote a post about USDA Inspection last year. To be sold in interstate commerce, meat must be inspected by USDA. In my earlier post, I stated that when meat is inspected by USDA it either passes or fails. If it fails, it is discarded and not sold for human consumption.

2.       USDA Graders evaluate the meat for eating quality. They take into account the marbling in the ribeye, the color of the meat, and approximate the age of the animal and assign USDA grades, like Prime, Choice and Select, to the carcasses. Beef has another set of grades that indicates the lean meat to fat ratio of the carcass called Yield Grades, but it is rarely used in marketing to consumers.

 

USDA Inspectors and Graders both work for USDA, but their education and training is very different. Inspection is funded by the government, whereas meat processors pay a fee for grading.

According to USDA, over 75% of the meat that is inspected is also graded and assigned USDA grades of Prime, Choice, Select, etc. The packers can use these grades to market the carcasses according to their eating quality. Prime carcasses are worth more than Choice, Choice more than Select, and so on. 

When this store labeled its beef as ‘USDA graded’, all it means is that a USDA grader looked at the beef gave it a grade, but it doesn’t indicate what grade it was assigned. It’s kind of like a teacher grading your test. The teacher gave you a grade. It may be a good grade or a bad grade, but it wouldn’t make much sense to go around bragging that your test had been graded if you weren’t willing to share the grade with other people.

I'm not going to speculate why the store chose to label their beef as merely 'USDA graded.' Other stores use the label ‘USDA inspected,’ which I think is just as misleading. If meat is being sold, it is either USDA inspected or its state inspected. Otherwise, it would be against the law to sell it. Saying that meat is inspected is almost as pointless as saying it was graded.

I hope this clears up some of the confusion with this story.

Would you be interested to learn more about USDA grades?

Aloha from the Mom at the Meat Counter




Our family recently returned from a trip to Hawaii. That’s right, Hawaii, the Big Island. I want to go back so bad that I dream about flowers and lava rocks. In fact, I’d really like to just move there. We loved it!

My sister married a guy from Hilo, HI, and we went over for a reception with his family and friends. Then, we stayed for 10 days.

Ask anyone in the meat business and they will probably tell you that one of our favorite things to explore on vacation is local food. We head to markets or grocery stores, take pictures of meals, and ask anyone that will answer us about their food. I love to check out what people eat, especially meat, and where they buy it, and how they prepare it, and what they eat with it. Anything about local food interests me.

So, needless to say, that’s what I did in Hawaii. I thought I would share some of my Hawaiian food adventures on my blog.

At the wedding reception, my new brother-in-law wanted us to experience authentic Hawaiian cuisine. We were served octopus, a tomato and raw salmon salad, and poke, which contained slightly-cooked tuna. I wasn’t very brave that day, I only tried the poke, but the pork on the main dish was very good. I became braver later and even tried Sashimi, which is uncooked Tuna. It was very good!

 


As a side we had these Hawaiian sweet potatoes. They are white until you cook them, and they turn purple.


After church in Arkansas, we have refreshments of banana bread or cookies. After church in Hawaii, they served sushi. I had never had sushi, but felt it would be rude to refuse, so I tried it and I was so glad I did. I really liked it!

Asian culture is very strong in Hawaii. Mark’s family is Japanese and Korean. We had many meals with them. Such wonderful people! At my parents’ house, we have silverware in a little canister like this. My new brother-in-law’s parents also had chop sticks.






Ed had coconut pancakes with Portuguese sausage at the World Famous Ken’s Pancake House. They even had coconut syrup (the white one). I tried the Guava syrup, but it was not for me.

 

We had L&L Hawaiian barbeque in Honolulu the day we went to Pearl Harbor. Hawaiian barbeque is not slow cooked like on the mainland. It was heavily seasoned, thin sliced and cooked in a skillet. We had chicken, beef ribs and beef steak. It was served with a heaping helping of rice and either garden salad or macaroni salad. So much food!

We went to a Noni fruit and cattle farm. I’ve done research with Noni fruit in ground beef. I took more pictures of Noni fruit and Noni trees than anything. More about that in another blog post.

 

Mixed-breed cattle in Hawaii, like these, are called Poi dogs
These cattle eat grass and the Noni fruit from the trees. The Noni farmer loves it because the cows keep the trees pruned so it’s easier to harvest the fruit.

At the Noni farm, we also learned about Korean Natural Farming. I am going to do some more research on the subject. It was very intriguing.

 

I am not normally a big grass-fed beef gal, but this was delicious!

 

Our new friends from the Noni farm shared home-grown avocados, papaya, and tangelos (a cross of an orange and a tangerine). And, of course, a Noni fruit.

We always visit the grocery store when we travel. We head right to the meat case and see how things look.

Paniolo’s are Hawaiian cowboys. This store was up in the cattle-ranching area of the Big Island, near the Parker Ranch which is the fifth largest ranch in the US.

Hawaiian meat counters look a lot like those on the mainland, but remember that most of the red meat has traveled thousands of miles.

A more local choice was Big Island Beef that is raised right on the island.

Chicken feet are very popular in Asian cultures. I had never seen them in the meat case, though.

Beef casing. I guess for making sausage. 

Pigs feet. I have seen these on the mainland.





Chop Sui!

Beef tongue. I’ve seen this one on the mainland, too.



Pork tails.

 



Pork intestine. I had never seen it quite like this before.

Of course, loads and loads of fish.

  

It's not a great picture, but, yes, that is an octopus… in the grocery store.

 

 

We went fishing and Dad caught a Mahi Mahi. We gave most of the meat to the boat crew, but we tried some. It was really good!

This is the captain cleaning our fish. He and the other crew members were taking little bites of the raw fish right there. We were not that brave.

I know this post has been quite different from most my previous posts, but I really enjoyed our trip. We learned so much and had such a wonderful time. I am planning a trip to Florida in a few weeks. I’m sure I’ll have some pictures of food from that trip, too.

Bring it home safely

In the days leading up to Thanksgiving, I was doing some grocery shopping, and I saw some things in other shoppers’ carts that really concerned me. No, it wasn’t their dirty, screaming children. There were food safety issues all over the store.

One particular cart contained fresh, uncooked pork chops with a bag of Clementine oranges sitting directly on top of it. I considered (for a second or two) snapping a secret picture with my cell phone, but decided that might create a scene. Then, I considered recreating the incident and taking pictures, but that would have been so wasteful.

The store is responsible for keeping meat products in a clean environment and at safe temperatures, but as soon as you select a package and place it in your cart, it’s all on you.  Only you can control how safely that package is handled from the time you select it until it is served to your family.

To get things started, the folks at www.foodsafety.gov have a blog about keeping food safe while shopping called Start at the Store. It also contains a video. They talk about inspecting cans to make sure they are not dented and fruit to make sure it is not bruised.

A friend of mine sent me this picture. Se was extra careful about
keeping her fresh meat away from the rest of her groceries.

When you are shopping for groceries, you should always wait to buy milk, meat and eggs until last. They are perishable and you want to minimize the time they spend outside of refrigeration. You want to observe the “2 hour rule.” This simply states that refrigerated food should not be stored at room temperature for more than 2 hours. When it’s hot outside (above 90°F), you should have your refrigerated foods home in the fridge in an hour.

Also, when you are selecting that perfect cut, try to handle the packages by touching only the packaging. Don’t poke on the meat with your fingers. Even though they are wrapped in plastic, it is not a perfect barrier, so when you handle the meat, the germs from your hands could still transfer to the meat.

You have every right to examine every package in the case to find that perfect one, but when you find it, put the rest of the packages back where you found them. Don’t leave them stacked up on each other. Those coolers can only keep the meat cold if it is below a certain point within them. Most stores only stack their packages three deep so the coolers can do their job efficiently.

At most grocery stores today, there are plastic bags close to the meat counter for you to place the packages in. They will be just like the ones you’ll see in the produce section. You should use these to keep juices from the meat from dripping onto other foods in your cart.

Remember that sandwich meats and hot dogs are already cooked. They need be refrigerated, but you don’t want to get raw meat juices on them. Don’t put them in the bag with the raw meat.

When you put your raw meat packages in your shopping cart, keep it away from other food items. Do not set it on top of other foods. Do not set other foods on it. Remember those Clementine oranges? They were potentially contaminated. You will cook your meat to kill any bacteria that is on it, but fresh fruits and vegetables may not be cooked before they are eaten.

But, don’t oranges have a thick peel? Even if they have a thick peel, the surface could carry bacteria that could be transferred to your hands when you peel it and then to the interior of the food when you eat it! Just keep it separated!

After you go through the check-out line, make sure that raw meat packages are bagged separately from other foods. I think store employees are being trained in food safety and many of them will bag your raw meat items separately without you even asking.

If you like to use those environmentally-friendly, reusable shopping bags, use a disposable one for your raw meat products. The juices from your meat could drip onto the reusable bag and allow bacteria to grow in it between shopping trips. Then, it would contaminate your food on the next trip to the store.

If you are going to make it home and get your meat products in the fridge in less than two hours, everything should be ok without a cooler or ice pack. If it’s really hot outside (greater than 90°F), you should have it home in one hour and put your meat products in the front of the car in the air-conditioning rather than in the trunk.  If you can’t make it in an hour, you should put your meat, milk, eggs and other perishable items on ice.

Once you get home, get your perishable meats, milk and eggs unloaded and in the fridge.  Double check all your shopping bags for everything that needs to go in the fridge.

Enjoy this crazy Christmas season. I love it! I would also love some comments or questions for topics for my next blog. Thanks!