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Is the meat still good?

post #1 of 6
1/23/08 at 4:33pm
Thread Starter 
This morning, out of the freezer, I took out an 8 lb package of beef ribs, back ribs. I left them on the counter all day today. They are completely defrosted. The exp date is 09/03/07. They've been kept frozen until this morning. I am questioning them becuz I left them on the counter all day and the date is four months ago. Quick help, please. They're for dinner tonight. Thanks so much.:confused:
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post #2 of 6
1/23/08 at 6:37pm
Thread Starter 

Disappointed

I am disappointed that I didn't receive an answer to my question even though 13 people viewed it. To be safe, I threw my ribs away. Hope to get responses in the future.
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post #3 of 6
1/23/08 at 6:55pm
You did the right thing rhodaj! Thawing proteins at room temperature can cause a foodbourne illness. In this case the best way to thaw would have been to take the ribs out of the freezer two days ago and place in the fridge. The next best thing would be to place the meat in a container under a slow stream of running cold water for about 1 1/2 hours, or use the defrost cycle on your microwave.
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post #4 of 6
1/23/08 at 6:58pm
Sorry nobody responded. Two schools of thought on this one to consider in the future. One says, when in doubt, throw it out. The other is that unless it smells bad, and considering that ribs have to be cooked for a long period of time to get tender, anything that may have been growing on there is going to be long since dead when they are done. That being said, there are some types of foodborne illnesses that produce toxins which cooking cannot kill. You did the right thing.
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post #5 of 6
1/24/08 at 5:33pm
Thread Starter 

Thanks

Thank you so much for your answer. I get worried when I defrost meat that has an expired date. So it would've been okay to eat if I defrosted it one of two ways you suggested, even though the meat expired in Sept 2007?



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post #6 of 6
1/24/08 at 8:47pm
Using meat frozen for 31/2 months is fine as long as it was packaged properly first and there is no evidence of freezer burn. Generally meat will keep indefinately in a frozen state but it will degrade in quality, picking up rancid odors for instance. General rule of thumb is to use in 8 to 12 months time.
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