Gray Chop Meat

[Ann-Marie]

Has anyone seen a grocery store sell chop meat that is gray and tell you that it is perfectly normal? I went to my local Stop and Shop. The store is one of the worst, but is the only one near me unless I drive 15 minutes to another grocery store. The meat counter had chop meat out for sale that was absolutely disgusting looking. I said something to the manager, and he told me that the meat is not packaged in the store anymore, and it is perfectly normal for it to be gray and still be fresh. He said that it even smells bad, but he was told that it is perfectly safe to eat!! Has anyone heard this nonsense??

 

[djs]

Sounds crazy to me. Perhaps you could buy it and then invite him over for dinner; if he refuses you'll know the true answer about the meat

Makes me think of this epsiode of The Simpson's

 

[ricoba]

What is "chop meat"?

Even though I don't know what it is, I don't think I'd purchase gray meat!

 

[KenK]

Meat that is run through a meat grinder. Usually beef ( cheaper cuts) can also have pork or something else.

I remember when I was a kid, the A & P would add some red tomato juice (?) to make it redder, and got in trouble. (That practice wasn't only limited to the A & P food stores)

Also called ground beef, ground meat, ground sirlon, ground chuck, ground undetermined....

 

[DeniseM]

Ohhhh...Hamburger!

The gray meat might be OK - the blood in meat turns red when it is exposed to oxygen, so if a pkg. is tightly wrapped and air tight - the meat wouldn't be exposed to oxygen in the pkg. and wouldn't be red. If you are used to seeing unwrapped meat or loosely wrapped meat - there would be a major difference in appearance between the two. My guess is that before this, you were seeing meat that had been freshly packaged right there in the store and therefore, recently exposed to oxygen, thus the red color.

Of course this assumes that everything else has been done correctly like the storage temp., sanitary handling, age of meat, etc.

 

[Passepartout]

Many butchers dip their meat in a solution to keep it redder longer. But if it's not dated, smells 'off' and generally doesn't look like something I'd fed my family, a 15 minute drive seems pretty reasonable. Perhaps a letter to management at Stop 'n' Shop expressing your concern would get their attention.

Jim Ricks

 

[BevL]

The colour wouldn't bother me, but if it smells "off", I wouldn't chance it.

But then again, I smell everything before I put it in my mouth. Drives my husband nuts!!

 

[Ann-Marie]

Even if it smelled OK, it is so unappealing looking. It's enough to make me a vegetarian!

 

["Roger"]

You can try reading this:

USDA on meat

 

[ricoba]

Ohhhh...Hamburger!

I guess Chop Meat is an East Coast expression.....you are right Denise, we out here in the Wild West just call it Hamburger....or if we want to get fancy....Ground Beef!

 

[falmouth3]

I grew up on Long Island and ground beef was called chop meat. I lived in other parts of the Northeast and I've never heard that term anywhere else.

There was recently a story on the news about how some groceries and butcher shops treat their meat to keep it red. That is not permitted anymore so you may start seeing ground beef that isn't that red color. See the link in an earlier post. If the meat is still within its expiration date and you have no reason to believe that it's been left unrefrigerated, it should be OK.

Sue

 

[mrsstats]

I live on Long Island too. Which store is it so I can make sure to avoid it. I dont buy grey chop meat.

 

[Ann-Marie]

Stop and Shop in Oyster Bay.

 

[AwayWeGo]

Trade Jargon ?

Insider term denoting mystery meat ?

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[glenmore]

My father was a federal meat inspector . . if it smells bad, absolutely, positively DO NOT EAT IT!!

 

[KenK]

I guess Chop Meat is an East Coast expression.....you are right Denise, we out here in the Wild West just call it Hamburger....or if we want to get fancy....Ground Beef!

Fancy (?) ground beef or hamburger where we live is sometimes called Salisbury Steak....which I thought was named after the town in Maryland....but that is wrong:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salisbury_steak

Just make a hamburger a bit bigger & charge twice as much.....

 

[AwayWeGo]

Leftover Mystery Meat ?

Our friend's daughter once worked at Wendy's fast food hamburger joint. Based on her behind-the-scenes work experience there, she said never order the chili at Wendy's. She did not explain.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[easyrider]

Many years ago I worked in the meat dept of a major grocery store and was amazed at what hamburger is. It was all the trimmings and meat parts that couldn't be sold any other way put in a tub until there was enough to grind up. It could take a few days to fill the tub.

I saw a lot of grey smelly hamburger at my next high school job at a burger shack and no one ever got sick eating it . I would cook 300 + burgers a day of this smelly grey meat. It would take on a make you drowl scent and color after it was cooked. It went from smelly grey to delicious juicy brown.

Meat can be smelly but shouldn't make you gag. If you have any doubt about the meat you probably shouldn't eat it.

 

[Fern Modena]

My dad was a meat cutter, and my mother a wise woman. As a result I don't eat gray meat or yellow snow.

 

[Kona Lovers]

Whether "safe" or not, grey raw meat is just downright plain disgusting.

Marty

 

[jkkee]

May not be a problem

See this article: http://homecooking.about.com/od/beef/a/groundbeefcolor.htm

Also this one - color isn't always a good indication of freshness, some places use small amounts of carbon monoxide to make thier meat keep that nice red color: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/...-fresh-7-06/overview/0607_spoiled-meat_ov.htm

 

[arlene22]

Fancy (?) ground beef or hamburger where we live is sometimes called Salisbury Steak....which I thought was named after the town in Maryland....but that is wrong:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salisbury_steak

Just make a hamburger a bit bigger & charge twice as much.....

I always thought that was a WWII thing-- you know, to Americanize the German term. I guess it predated that!

BTW, I grew up on Long Island, also, and knew exactly what chop meat meant

 

[Noni]

When I was a young bride many, many years ago, the butcher told me to never buy prepackaged ground meat. Always have the butcher grind it fresh. It's always good.

 

[Tia]

No way would I buy it, yew. Some dolt once told me it was okay to eat undercooked red hamburger meat......