Attention, meat shoppers: Your supermarket may be selling ground beef
and steaks packaged with gas that keeps it looking red for a month or
longer. Our tests found that meat packaged using that method stayed
red even if it was spoiled.
The process, used in factory-wrapped (or case-ready) meat, replaces
most of the oxygen in the package with other gases. Those include tiny
amounts of carbon monoxide, which react with the pigment in meat,
producing a red color. The shelf life for ground beef sealed in that
mix of gases can be extended from about 14 days to 28 days, and about
10 days to 35 days for whole cuts.
Some supermarket chains, including Kroger and Publix, refuse to carry
meat packaged with carbon-monoxide, citing concerns about appearance
and freshness or quality.
Bacterial counts that indicate spoilage in meat may make it taste and
smell bad, but food safety experts say that it is generally not a
health hazard. Thorough cooking will kill bacteria that cause
foodborne illness, though it won't necessarily undo spoilage odors or
bad taste.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration determined as recently as July
2004 that it had no objections to the use of carbon-monoxide
packaging for fresh meat. In November 2005, Kalsec, a company in
Kalamazoo, Mich., that uses a different meat packaging process,
petitioned the FDA to ban carbon monoxide for that use. The company
argued that federal regulations prohibited substances that "make food
appear better or of greater value than it is." At press time, the FDA
was still reviewing the company's petition.
Consumer Reports decided to do limited testing to check whether carbon-
monoxide-packaged meat can stay red even when spoiled. Since there's
no requirement that the process be listed on meat labels, we called
manufacturers to verify that the brands purchased were packed with
carbon monoxide. We tested 10 samples of locally purchased ground beef
and steaks from three companies. We found that the meat appeared red
even if it was spoiled or had bacterial counts that were close to
indicating spoilage.
By their use- or freeze-by date, seven samples were fresh but two
packages of ground beef from one company were spoiled; an additional
sample was on the brink of spoilage a day before the stamped date.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Ask whether your grocer sells meat packed with carbon monoxide. If so,
don't use color as the only guide to freshness. Check the package and
buy meat whose stamped date is a couple of weeks away. With all meat,
check for signs of spoilage, such as surface slime, and discard meat
that smells bad.