Is this safe to eat?: Airy meatballs?

Cafe Society
1

About 2 and a half weeks ago, I bought these beef meatballs from the market. They are sealed, vacuum packed in a plastic bag so all the air’s been pulled out from it.

Today, I wanted to use them in a soup but when I took it out of the fridge, the bag has become poofy like a bag of chips! I know its still sealed because I squeezed the bag and no air came out. The air must have come from the meatballs themselves! I couldn’t see any mold or weird discoloration on them, but I was still kind of freaked out. Were these things good? I didn’t even dare to open the bag up to smell it

2

2.5 weeks? For non-cured meat, in the fridge? Heck no, I wouldn’t eat it, even without the air.

Isn’t there some kind of “use or freeze-by date” on the package?

3

  1. when in doubt, throw it out–and if it’s all puffed up, I would.

  2. you kept meat in the refrigerator for two and 1/2 weeks???

4

In my defense, I forgot about it

5

Raw meat? Cooked meat? What’s the expiration date on it? I’d throw them out.

6

Cooked, and it was Asian, so I didn’t see an expiration date

7

Dude. SOMETHING created that gas in there. Something rotting or perhaps fermenting. Now maybe you have some cool german sausage beer that would taste great but I doubt it.

8

Yeah, “produced gas in the container” is one of the two absolute rules where you definitely throw it out (the other one being “smells/tastes bad”). I wouldn’t even risk opening the bag.

9

I would. Of course I’ve never been known for my good sense. I’d take a sniff, maybe a nibble if it seemed less than horrifying.

10

Definitely don’t take a nibble. This is one of those cases where a single nibble really could kill you. If you’re lucky it might just give you a queasy stomach for a day or so, but death is really not implausible.

11

Don’t open, don’t eat. Didn’t your mom ever tell you not to eat anything from a swollen can? This is the same thing, in plastic.

12

I’m pretty cavalier about stuff like that and I wouldn’t eat those meatballs if you paid me.

Toss 'em. Far away. In a trash can with a tight lid so critters can’t eat them.

13

That ain’t air. Proceed at your own risk, and the risks are substantial(particular emphasis on the bolded bullet point at the end of the article).

Enjoy,
Steven

14

I read that line as “swollen cat” at first and thought, “Yes, I agree.”

I still agree, it just isn’t as odd a saying as I first read.

15

Don’t even think about it.

And thank you for posting an “is this safe to eat” question where the answer is “No!”

16

Dude, that sounds like a DARE to me!

I’ll hold your beer.

17

Another thing to consider.

If your food is BAD BAD BAD, like no way in hell you could eat it for any amount of money, do not feed 5 pounds of it to a 10 pound dog (Yes, I’ve had some dumb roomies, why do you ask?).

18

Yeah…my general rule-of-thumb is along the lines of “if it doesn’t smell bad, it’s probably fine”, but not in this case. Throw it straight in the trash. In fact, if you have a neighbor you don’t particularly get along with, throw it in *their *trash just to be safe.

19

This thread reminds me of this blog (Shoggoth the hell goo, a vivarium some dude on the web made).

Also, yes, nuke it from orbit. The meatballs are pretty much doing the same thing we do when WE rot–becoming bacteria food and blowing up like a balloon.

20

Bah. How can something as delicious as meatballs be bad for you?