When is meat rotten

Not all microbes are dangerous. However, if your meat is contaminated with pathogenic bacteria such as salmonella , staphylococcus, clostridium or E. The Mayo Clinic says that food poisoning can cause symptoms such as abdominal pain , nausea, vomiting, fever, diarrhea and other gastrointestinal issues. Cooking and eating spoiled pork, old chicken or any other bad meat isn't guaranteed to make you sick, though. Whether you'll get sick will also be determined by whether or not you fully cooked your food.

Many bacteria can be killed during the cooking process. For instance, if you've made a boiled stew or soup and cooked your meat for a while, you may not get sick.

However, heat isn't a guaranteed way to prevent food poisoning. This is because certain bacteria also release toxins, according to the Mayo Clinic. Even when you kill these bacteria by cooking them, their toxins will remain in the food and cause you to become sick. According to the U. Food and Drug Administration , you should always keep meat and meat products in your refrigerator at 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

This helps prevent spoilage. However, the duration of time meat can be kept at this temperature depends on the product. The FDA states that:. Meat that is left at 40 degrees F for longer than this amount of time will slowly start decomposing.

If you don't plan on eating your meat within the FDA-recommended time periods, you can keep your meat from going bad by freezing it at 0 degrees F. The USDA says that freezing food at this temperature inactivates bacteria and other microbes. Freezing food can even help destroy certain parasites. However, your meat's quality will decline if it's kept in the freezer for too long. But is it dangerous? Well, it purely depends on how the meat is left.

Eating uncooked meat is not a new, nor necessarily harmful trend — steak tartare involves raw beef and has been enjoyed for centuries, while meat is regularly left to dry out into various treats, such as jerky and cured meats.

There is a huge difference, however, between rotten and fermented: fermentation is a controlled process using specific environmental conditions to grow beneficial microorganisms with the meat; rotting is where the meat has spoiled and is contaminated with harmful microbial life.

This exposes them to a host of harmful and even deadly bacteria that would love to make a home inside your gut, including Staphylococcus aureus , salmonella , and more.

Unsurprisingly, consumers of high meat report some serious upset stomachs, described as being "explosively incontinent" , and that is lucky considering the potential dangers. Acute food poisoning can leave some people hospitalized and others with days' worth of pain, nausea, and vomiting. One Twitter user shared their experience of eating some completely rotten beef, complete with flourishing bacterial colonies and all the trimmings.

A good rule of thumb is two days past the sell-by date as a cutoff. Also, if you find yourself with ground meat that has gone past the sell by date by more than a day or two, just cook it but never cook it if it smells bad.

Cooked ground meat will stay good for a week if properly stored. I always ask to smell fish before I buy it and you should, too. Another indicator for fresh fish is moist, firm flesh that bounces back when you touch it. IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Share this —.