how do you like your steak

Timothy Sly: , Food-borne diseases epidemiologist


Step one, take off the label showing the “expiration date” and throw the label in the garbage without looking at it. (Do this every time from now on)

Step two, approach the steak. Does it look, feel, smell, like a steak? No slippery surface slime? No sour smell? No grey-green appearance? If it passes this test, you are free to cook and enjoy it. (Even if it were beginning to deteriorate, it’s your choice to cook and eat it if you wished. Many people around the world prefer their meat to be somewhat over-aged or “gamey”, but if that’s your preference, there is still no actual danger to your heath because these are spoilage bacteria, not pathogenic types.)

And for those who feel compelled to claim that certain bacteria produce heat-resistant toxins, please note that Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus do not grow on raw meat, only on meats after cooking (where the competitive exclusion from spoilage organisms is absent), and Clostridium botulinum will under certain conditions grow in raw meat (e.g. stored in a cold cave close to the freezing point for months), but the neurotoxin is destroyed during cooking long before you reach 100C/212F. Botulism is extremely rare and appears in improperly canned/processed foods, improperly prepared and stored foods, and sometimes among northern populations in the way they store fish and marine mammals for extended periods, which are then eaten without cooking.