My Shrink Wrapped Steaks are Brown when I thaw them!
My parents bought a slab of steaks from my cousin who personally shrink-wrapped them. But when they thawed them out they were brown!
Are they still good to eat? What's going on?
My dad didn't cook them.
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I assume the steaks were frozen or packed in ice:
The freezing process, especially slow freezing damages the cellular properties of organic material. This results in discolouration, texture changes(it'll be tough) and flavour loss. Snap freezing, using the Birdseye process (The company and the process are named after Clarence Birdseye) reduces cellular damage and preserves flavour, resulting a better preserved product.
If your meat is frozen sufficiently it should keep for around one year. But the texture and flavour will never be as good as a fresh steak. It should be fine.
Steak in the supermarket is wrapped in permeable plastic to let oxygen reach the muscle and keep it bright red. Shrink wrapped meat is not, so it can often look brown. This doesn't necessarily mean it is bad.
Of course, the existence of one reason for brown meat that doesn't mean bad meat is not at all the same as "go ahead and eat brown meat from your freezer no matter what." Defrost it, smell it, poke it with your finger, and if it seems ok, it probably is ok. Most "freezer damage" is dehydration, which makes the meat less pleasant to eat but not unsafe.
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