Bought this fully frozen and it looked fine, but it’s been thawing in my fridge for a little over 24 hours, fridge temp is usually set to 36°F, and these white spots appeared. They don’t look like fat to me, and I can’t seem to move them or manipulate them through the packaging. Is this bacteria? Something else?
I’ve never actually seen this before.
It was packed on 4/28/25 and has been frozen since then.
by Embarrassed-Sand2956
45 Comments
The nose know, sniff test
Connective tissue, cartilage. Stew meat comes from tougher cuts like chuck and round, so lots of stuff to break down into gelatin by a long slow wet cook.
wiggling?
Looks like a parasite
Smell it and feel it. Does it smell off? Does it feel off? If not-send it.
Either ice crystals or something else idk
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Call those people who packed it.
Marinate it in milk. After cooking, slop it up with some water.
When in doubt, throw it out. Or, take it back to the store you bought it from
When you hunt wild ducks, once in a while, you get meat that has “rice” and this kind of looks like that. There’s a big debate about what the causes are actually are so I asked the Internet and this is what it gave me. That meat looks a bit like wild duck meat in that condition, for what it’s worth.
• Muscle damage or strain: Wild ducks, especially divers, use their muscles intensely during flight and diving, leading to small ruptures in muscle fibers.
• Freezing or improper aging: If the bird is frozen before rigor mortis completes, or if it’s aged too long in warm temperatures, the muscle structure can break down unevenly.
• Parasitic cysts (rare): Occasionally, tiny white cysts from parasites like Sarcocystis can resemble rice grains, though these are uncommon and usually harmless after cooking.
Eat it…worst that happens, is you get superpowers.
They saved you a step on the stewing part
The stew is stu!!!!!
When thawing meat it’s currently recommended that you pierce the bag, to prevent anaerobic bacteria from growing in vacuum sealed packaging.
Its just air escaping from the meat/packaging. It should disappear after fully thawed. If it doesn’t then it’s just fat globules that have frozen, they will definitely disappear after exposed to a flame or pan. This is how a lot of my hamburger looks if it’s been in the freezer or if I have thawed in the fridge and refreezed it. Im 29 years old and ive eaten this home grown beef for over 20 years and im alive and well. Your good boss 🫡
It’s fat it’s fine it’s red meat
I saw those big strings of fat and I was like “well obviously that’s fat” and then I zoomed in and saw all those liddle white dots and I’m honestly not sure. Not a very useful comment
Smell it. You will know if it’s bad.
I don’t know what that is, but when in doubt, throw it out.
There are white spots on the clear plastic edge also. Maybe it got splattered or it could be mineral deposits from water on the outside of the package. Try scrubbing it with a clean scrubby sponge before you open it. If everything washes off, then you are good to go
Is the white spots on the meat or in the liquid? If it’s in the liquid it’s likely just part of the purge. When ice forms it forms in crystals which rip through the cell walls of the meat and the fat. Was this IQF or did they use a traditional freezer?
https://preview.redd.it/sbec6hg5tyvf1.png?width=720&format=png&auto=webp&s=1d16cb0debe069ca1c50ba048f2535f24ab03021
The spots seem to also be on the packaging? Try washing them off?
today’s stew meat is TERRIBLE !!!
It kind of looks as if it was frozen, thawed, and then frozen again. I wonder if it’s just weird crystallization from that?
My saying for any meat is “if in doubt, throw it out!” Anything that looks unusual, a smell or sticky it’s better to toss it and not risk having the “rhea” for a few days
bro went to the udistrict farmers market 🥴🥴
It looks completely fine. Give it a smell test but when in doubt, chuck it out
I don’t know, maybe small fat particles? Or lil bits of bone dust from the processing? I’m not sure. Meat color looks fine
The only thing I can think of is bone dust from the band saw. You might have distributed it evenly by squishing the bag around. But I see similar stuff on saw cut steaks like t bones and ribeyes.
Just open and find out. If it smells weird, it’s no bueno
Hey I know exactly where this is from!!!
Its fine if it smells fine
Source: chef
If fine, open it and cook it, is it even thawed out yet?
Nothing
Looks like stew meat?
As my kids would say. Bruh.
Ice crystals.
I just watched monster “ed gein” on netflix
Venison?
The only issue I see is that it isn’t in any stew which is where it belongs.
Ice crystals for sure. I froze a bunch of beef in vacuum sealed packaging like this and over the course of a year or so the meat developed ice crystals like this. The key is to wrap in butcher paper first, and then vacuum sealed packaging. If you just do the vacuum sealed bags the meat will be okay for a few months, but not long term storage.
This happens in freezers that have a lot of moisture, like mine that had an ice maker. Or it can also happen in large chest freezers that are left open by accident allowing frost to form, which then makes its way into the packaging/meat once the freezer is closed again.
This meat it safe to eat as long as it has been frozen the whole time, but the problem you’ll run into is that the ice crystals impart can a flavor depending on where the moisture came from and what the taste/smell of the water crystals was. This can be particularly off putting if the meat was already a bit gamey to begin with (like grass fed). In my case I had to feed it to my dog as the meat was a bit too grainy and soft due to the ice crystal damage.
It looks like fat and a little connective tissue. Perfect for stew meat.
Pic 2 you can see some thin connective tissue and fat Pic 3 is fat
The strawberry 🍓 flavored beef
🥩 stew meat is horrendous !
My wife bought it at Ross on the sale rack in the dead of summer .
It was on a rack just hanging up by itself.. just stinking to high heaven 🙄!!
GOOD LORD IT WAS A SIGHT !!
So she said !
Anyhoo – she bought it regardless and brought it home 🏠
Our freaking dog 🐕 freeking jumped my wife as soon as she got home and ripped into the Ross bag and devoured the package and all !!
My wife was beside herself and so pissed that the dog just ate what she was so happy to bring home for dinner !
Jesus Christ.
Well .. she did the right thing regardless!
She got the hydrogen peroxide and forced the dog to drink it until the dog vomited 🤮 the entirety of it’s stomach contents out onto our new living room rug ! ( it was like shag carpet by the way) .
We had to pick though the vomit to find the pieces of strawberry meat but we got the majority of it ( plus some extra little nibbles of whatever “treats “ my dog had ingested that day ! ).
Oh my lord 🙄!
The plus side to the whole thing is the fact that the dog chewed the pieces of meat to mostly bite sized pieces. And between the dog chewing and the dogs stomach acids – it pretty much tenderized the meat beautifully!!
ACT OF GOD MUCH ?? Lmao
I’m sorry I don’t share my family’s recipe for our stew 🍲
But the dog helps 🐶
Just kidding !
Sometimes stew meat just looks weird! Idk 🤷
how does it smell? has the vacuum bag started to inflate?
looks fine, stop simping and chaw dow champ
Looks like Microplastics to me idk