DO these kidneys and this tongue look safe to eat?

[bharminder]

Hi everybody

I just got an order of organ-meats from Northstarbison from online, since they have 100% grass fed bison available. I get frozen out of convenience, but they have fresh available . It would be too costly to order weekly from them because of shipping, so I just order a bunch at once frozen.

Anyways, last time I ordered from them, I noticed something peculiar about the kidneys. One of the packages, was normal red looking color. It tastes good too. But in another package, a separate one, the kidney looked greenish color, and it had a much stronger smelling odor and taste than the previously described kidney.


So I didn't think too much about it, other than hoping that I wouldn't get any green looking kidneys on a future order. So I made that order a few days ago and got the shipment today. I got some heart, liver, tongue, kidneys, pancreas, testicles, spleen, and suet.


Well, out of the 3 kidneys that I ordered, 2 of them have a similar greenish hue to them...especially one of them. In addition, the tongue has a greenish hue on one particular side. Can you please look at these pictures and tell me what you think, and/ or if you've had any experience with anything like greenish colored organ, specifically kidney, but also tongue (though this is my first time ordering tongue so I don't know what it tastes like).







Here is a picture of 2 kidneys (top) and liver ( bottom) . the Liver is for comparison in terms of the color. I've gotten kidneys the same color as this liver, so is there something wrong with these greenish colored kidneys, especially the top left one?






Here is a solo picture of the kidney that was in the top left part of the last photo







and less importantly but still curious to know, in terms of this green tinge layer on one side of this tongue:









I appreciate your opinions, thanks. The other organs seem bright red and appear fresh. Since this has happened with the kidneys in particular once before, maybe I will just not buy kidneys from them. But, if there is nothing wrong with this greenish hue, then maybe it is no big deal, although....to reiterate the taste and smell are much stronger.

Thank you

[CitrusHigh]

No, they look deadly, you should send them to me! haha

No, that is normal, cows eat grass, and thence comes the green.

But do inspect all of your organs regularly (and make sure they are from 100% grass fed animals) so that when you do come across something unhealthy, you can recognize it. Learn to know what health looks like, then anything that is unhealthy will be quite obvious. Livers should be a deep puprle. Kidneys kind of a fuschia red. Hearts a deep red/purple. And so on. This will vary by breed and forage, but only within pretty well defined limits. Still they will always 'seem' healthy. The only thing you might not be able to see evidence of is trace toxins, but those should pose no threat if you're not consuming them on a regular basis and if you've worked to make sure that you're buying from healthy herds.

Organs should not be gray or have a 'foul' odor. That is kind of subjective, but you will recognize it when it comes along. They should be relatively odor free and have a healthy, clean appearance.

Enjoy!

Also if you've never had tongue before, I suggest slicing it very thinly!

[CitrusHigh]

PS: sometimes when meat is being inspected they will stamp different stuffs on it, usually in a blue or red color depending on where it's too be found. It annoys me, because they ruin perfectly good meat on the hearts I buy quite often, but oh well!

[Josh]

I've noticed discolouration like this on the tongue before with no problems.

[goodsamaritan]

The tongue looks normal to me.

[Haai]

It's probably easier to tell when they are thawed out and not in plastic.

[Iguana]

You can't tell by the look. Instead you'd better insure that the animal had no access to junk, modern, heated or processed food.

[Amris]

That's the top of the tongue, where the taste buds are. That's why it looks different from the rest of it. That's normal. The underside usually looks pinker and the top side where the buds are looks greenish, grayish, or whitish. Sometimes it'll be pink, but that's not standard.

I only know because I learned that from my local farm when I started buying from them.