oh my, what did i grow??

[Ioanna]

so a couple weeks ago 'my' farmer did not make it to the market, so i got a couple of cuts of grass-fed from whole food market.  i aged it as i usually do my meat, but had problems (digestion) with it. frustrations aside,  i just left this meat in the fridge to use as dog treats. well, it's been in there almost two weeks and white fuzzy specs are all over the outside surface.  i must have been growing this for at least a week if not more is my guess, i just hadn't really been paying attention to it since i had already decided not to eat it.

i threw it away, but any ideas on what happened here?  thanks!   

[Paleo Donk]

I'm pretty skeptical of whole foods grass-fed meats (I think djr81 had a pretty bad experience with the supplier once). I suppose this will vary wildly from store to store but the place I buy from, the meat has a different oder than slankers. Perhaps this is because whole foods is not frozen but the smell wasn't pleasant. And to answer your question, I don't know.

[KD]

I get the majority of my muscle meat from WF, as I prefer unfrozen meats. I get organ meats frozen from a local farmer, but the muscle meat is actually more expensive than WF.

What I have noticed is that in my area, there are a number of different suppliers of grass-fed which I suspect come in a range.

This is one brand that claims to be 100% grass finished
http://www.americangrassfedbeef.com/grassfed-beef-standards.asp

judging by the taste, and fat content almost identical to the buffalo they also sell I trust it as being grass-finished. Sometimes If I am buying form the container or other packaged cuts that don't have this sticker, they also tend to have a bit more fat on them. These with age tend to start to smell repulsive, with my only reference being the New Zealand lamb (that is known to be at least partially grain-fed) that also tends to get pretty rank with age. So I suspect, even though there is no antibiotics, there might be something in the meat that is susceptible to problems with breakdown. I've read their 'natural' beef is allowed to eat bakery waste as long as it is <15% of their diet. I don't know if this applies to their grass-fed labels as far as what percentage can be non-grass and exactly what that is. Although I could be wrong, I think all meat needs some fresh air to avoid spoilage and molds eventually, especially if there is already mold within the container. The healthier fed might just be hardier with more integrity.

[Neone]

it sounds just like the fuzzy mold that grows on meat when you leave it out, just happened slower in the fridge..

It wont hurt you, it just has a weird taste.. Ive never had a problem eating the mold that grows on my meat.

The funkiest so far would be my mutton bits that were mainly fat, a little meat. they had been sitting out on the bench for about 5 weeks and in all the folds of the chunk, a wet blue mold was growing so we sliced the fat up like blue cheese and ate it like a fancy treat haha. It was pretty intense tasting.


Another thing i dont get is raw fat going 'rancid'. How long does this usually take? right now i am eating a piece of fat that I left here on the desk about oh, 17 weeks ago, its pretty tasty...

[ForTheHunt]

I thought that meat didn't get mold?

I thought that there would only be bacterial sludge

[cliff]

The whole foods by my house said none of there meat is grass finished, yet they advertise as grass fed lol!  Tricky bastards

[William]

The whole foods by my house said none of there meat is grass finished, yet they advertise as grass fed lol!  Tricky bastards

Not really. All beef is grass fed.
It's what they eat in the last few weeks of like that make the difference.

I propose a hierarchy for the sake of our health, like so:

1- Leaf and grass finished.           (oxen are naturally browsers as well as grazers)

2-  Grass finished.

3- Grain finished.    (as long as the grain is not soy - that meat makes me sick)

4- Commercial fodder finished.             (you wouldn't believe what's in it)