Beef OK to eat if I cook it now???

[carolinew]

I just received a parcel of beef - a day later than it was meant to arrive, thanks to the delivery company.

The ice packs are no longer frozen, the beef is cool but not cold. I know that it shouldn't reach above 8 oC, but it is all at 14 oC. There is a slight aroma.

Do you think it's too risky to touch, or should we get away with it so long as it is cooked VERY thoroughly, and cooked straight away?

Apart from the horrendous waste, I would love to be able to tell the person who slogged for 6 months to produce this veal that she doesn't need to refund all the money!!

Look forward to hearing from those with more clue than myself ...

[The Riff-Raff Element]

Well, personally, I'd just go ahead and cook it unless it really smells off. And even then I'd be more concerned with flavour than being poisoned, so I'd probably curry it.

Meat at room temperature does have an odour, but these days we rarely get to smell it.

I'd be amazed if just one day at slightly elevated temperatures were to send it off.

Mind you, I like meat that has been well hung and has a gamey smell about it.

Obviously I cannot tell you definitively that it is safe to eat; this is just my own approach.

[Ellendra]

Go by the smell, if it's bad it will smell very strongly. Since you cay it only has a slight odor, I'd chill it right away and try to use or freeze it quickly, making sure it gets cooked all the way through.

[becks77]

How about stewing it to be really sure, dont think the short time at raised temp should have to bad an effect if it really wiffs I'd ditch it.

[Shirley]

I would eat it too - if it didn't smell badly. However, I would think that any refund should come from the delivery company and not the producer, and the producer should think twice about using that company again.

[Green Aura]

I agree that if it smells beefy, it's probably OK to eat. Any other smell I'd be carefull of.

Please let the company know - even if you choose to eat it and don't require a refund.

I had similar problems, a while back with one particular company. Several times - despite telling them , they didn't appear to change couriers. So I stopped using them!

[carolinew]

We ended up ditching it - turned out it smelled strongly off. My husband smelled it the moment he walked in through the door. He just looked at me when I said it was slight, and pointed out that I'm totally bunged up with a cold!

[Millymollymandy]

What a shame, but really glad your husband could smell it!!! Sometimes when you've got a cold you just don't realise when you've lost your sense of smell (or taste), as one day I was cooking and hubby said in passing, "that smells nice". It hadn't occurred to me until that moment that I couldn't smell what I was cooking and as it turned out I couldn't taste it either!!!

[Thomzo]

When I worked for a meat processing company (they produced cooked meat for a certain supermarket) the food safety people used to say that you could pretty much do anything to beef before it was cooked. It didn't matter how many times it was frozen and defrosted or what termperature it was stored at. The important thing was that it was cooked properly.

However, off meat does have a very different and distinctive smell to meat that is just "a bit gamey".

If you didn't feel comfortable eating it then you were probably right.

Zoe