General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: At WalMart, food safety is their #1 priority. Ha ha ha ha ha! GOT you, sucker. Enjoy your beef. [View all]KurtNYC
(14,549 posts)The same spoilage methods would apply -- growth of pathogens and fat going rancid. Once meat is cooked the original pathogens are dead so in a home you would only have the pathogens that already live there (the ones on you, your counter top, etc) and a quick nuke will kill those. Most of us can tolerate a fair amount of pathogens and the ultimate proof of whether it is safe to eat or not is whether it made you sick. The smell (has to be thawed or cooked) and the first bite are your best line of defense against eating spoiled foods.
"Best before" dates are just a guess, usually conservative, of when the product will begin to show signs of age, not necessarily when it will go bad. I have seen it on bottled water !? Ironically for this thread, it was WALMART that got all the processors to put "best before" on their packages in readily readable format. They used to do it in a simple code. Theories are that Walmart wanted to hurt other grocery chains and leverage their ability to move product before it hits those dates when smaller stores may not be as able to do so.
Medicine is different because some will lose effectiveness and others may do something worse.
I love day-old pizza.