Ground Beef shelf life?
 

I put 1 lb. of frozen ground beef in the fridge on Thursday, but haven't used it. My wife doesn't think it will still be good today (tuesday), but I figured I'd ask you guys who probably know better than me. I figure it took at least 2 days to even thaw out, which means it's been since Saturday that the beef has been in the fridge unfrozen. Is it still good?

ps The ground beef was put in the freezer immediately after purchase

Does it smell OK? Does it look OK? If Both answers are yes,
Its Probably OK.

been there froze that....


worked for me =) but I'm only letting you know from my POV, should you do the same and it doesn't work for you :(

Depends on how it was sealed, but it "should" and emphasize should, be fine. If you still don't want to use it, you might just want to brown it, and store it, it will then last for another week or so, or longer if you freeze it.

You really shouldn't re-freeze meat after you have thawed it... It will just taste like crap

so it should be fine as long as it's not green or stinks to high heaven?

As long as it smells OK, and looks OK.. it should be OK - however, I if you are making burgers out of it-- I'd make sure the burgers were well done...

The nose knows. Fresh beef doesn't have much smell, old and iffy beef does.

This is day five, but the beef probably didn't entirely unfreeze until sometime Friday or maybe even early Saturday. So if the smell and looks is okay, cook it up.

ok. I'm just making hamburger helper with it, which means it will be cooking for a good 15-20 minutes when all is said and done

I would also check the color and smell, meat is not sopposed to be brown (before cooking) and should not be green!!!, also should not smell.

I don't usually push my luck with ground meats, particularly from the grocery store. Bacteria on the surface of whole cuts of meat get ground throughout, which makes them harder to kill with heat. Whole cuts are generally safe if they smell fine.