Does covering meat cause "bad" bacteria to grow?

[Ferocious]

I am not sure if this is a myth or not, but I've read it several places on here. Anyway, I'm barely starting on raw meat and find it disgusting already. when I leave it uncovered and it gets the crust I find it even more disgusting. I like it to be covered, without the crust. I've read about Aajonus eating meat in jars for long periods of times. And high meat seems so much crazier it would seem like it would get you sick but it apparently doesn't. So I don't understand why covering meat for a couple days would cause it to have any ill effects on me. What is this bad bacteria and what negative effects can it have, if it exists? I would like to keep my meat covered so it does not get that crust, but I want to be assured that it won't get me sick.  Thanks!

[Techydude]

Yeah, usually anaerobic bacteria(botulism, etc) bad bacteria, but it depends. Keep everything open and breathing.

[goodsamaritan]

What techydude said ^^^

[raw-al]

I do not air my high meat as regularly as I should, so I would have to say that is sort of true. But I do air it occasionally. The longer I do not air it the more disgusting it smells.

I leave meat in the fridge with no cover on it for a number of days with no problems. It keeps the stink from building up. BTW I can relate to your being revolted by the smell of meat

[raw]

If you get the high quality meat, even anaerobic bacteria is usueful for our bodies. My son is testing rotten brain recently which is solely anaerobic bacteria. Trust me, he 's glowing! Good health is being a blessing. So high quality meat is the best to make high meat aerobic or anaerobic bacteria, doesn't really matter.

[sabertooth]

Covering meat seems to cause a bad tasting slime to develop on the surface although it hasn't made me sick or anything.

I love the taste of meat that has been setting out for a couple of days uncovered.

[PaleoPhil]

The biggest concern about anaerobic bacteria is a particular form of it - claustridium botulinum. In large enough quantities, it can be lethal. Since some of the Eskimos started sealing high meat in plastic the rate of botulism poisoning has increased substantially:

The risk is exacerbated when a plastic container is used for this purpose instead of the old-fashioned method, a grass-lined hole, as the botulinum bacteria thrive in the anaerobic conditions created by the plastic.[12]>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermentation_(food)

[Fermenter Zym]

I'm with PaleoPhil on this. That is definitely a concern of mine.

I just ate some beef heart that was sitting in a bowl almost entirely covered with its own blood for a week in the fridge, covered with saran wrap. It tasted a bit fermented (sour or alcoholic almost) and was surely a bit slimy. I aired it out a few days ago, but I was wondering if there could have been botulism growing in the blood because that would be an anaerobic envrionment. I'm a bit worried. Any thoughts?

If it could cause botulism, how do you treat it?