With so many health scares in the news related to the foods bought at the supermarket, it is of utmost importance that you inform yourself of find the freshest and safest ingredients to feed your family. Fresh meat, in particular, is worth learning about as bad meat can make your loved ones very sick. Add this to my Recipe Box.
Instructions
1. Look at the sell-by date. That helps you get a good idea of the meat's freshness. Remember that the shelf life of meat is shorter than the one for poultry.
2. Consider the kind of meat you are thinking about buying to determine if it is fresh enough to purchase. For ground beef, the sale date is just one day because it is highly perishable. For chops and steaks, the sale period is 3 to 5 days. For vacuum-packed cuts of meat, the sale period is much longer (21 to 28 days).
3. Look at the meat's coloring. Beef and lamb should be a bright cherry red. Pork has a pale color. Ground beef could be red on the outside and purplish inside--that is OK. It only means that the meat was exposed to very little oxygen. It is normal for vacuum-packed cuts of meat to have a dark color.
4. Now that you have almost chosen, do one last test to determine freshness. This works for steaks and pork chops. Press firmly on it; if the meat is fresh, it should spring right back.
Tags: cuts meat, sale period, vacuum-packed cuts, vacuum-packed cuts meat