There is a particular pause that happens over an open packet of meat that has been in the fridge a day longer than you meant. You lean in, you sniff, you turn it over in the light, and you try to decide. I do it too, and the checks are worth doing, but I want to be straight about what they can and cannot tell you. Your senses catch meat that has spoiled. They do not catch meat that is dangerous. Those are two different things, and understanding the gap between them is what keeps you well.
The short answer
Meat has gone off if it smells sour, sharp or sulphurous, if the colour has turned dull grey-green or the surface feels slimy or tacky after you dry it. Any one of those and it goes in the bin. But passing all three does not prove meat is safe: the bacteria that cause food poisoning often leave no smell, taste or change in appearance at all. The use-by date and proper cold storage are what actually protect you, so treat your senses as a veto and the date as the real deadline.
What fresh raw meat should look and smell like
You cannot spot wrong until you know right, so start with the baseline.
- Beef and lamb are a deep red when freshly cut, and often a darker purplish-red in the middle of a vacuum pack, which brightens to red within a few minutes of hitting the air. That colour shift is oxygen doing its job, not a warning sign.
- Pork is a pale pink to greyish-pink, with firm white fat.
- Fish should look bright and almost translucent, with clear (not sunken) eyes on a whole fish, and firm flesh that springs back when pressed.
Fresh meat of any kind smells of very little: a faint, clean, slightly metallic or neutral note, nothing you would call a smell. The surface looks moist and glossy but your fingers come away clean. Anything that has drifted a long way from that deserves a hard look and quite possibly the bin.
The three signs it has gone off
Smell. This is the loudest signal and the one I trust most. Meat on the turn develops a sour, sharp, ammonia-like or faintly sulphurous smell, and once you have met it you will not mistake it. It does not fade when you rinse the pack or open a window, because it is coming from the meat itself. One honest caveat: vacuum-packed beef and lamb can give off a slightly gassy, sour whiff the instant you break the seal, which clears within a minute or two in open air. That first-breath smell I give the benefit of the doubt. A smell still there after a couple of minutes, I do not. Fish is stricter still: fresh fish smells of clean sea or nothing much, and any strong “fishy”, sour or ammonia note means it is past it.
Colour. Be relaxed about small shifts, because raw meat browns in contact with air in the same way a cut apple does, and a slightly duller surface is not a safety problem. What you are watching for is a clear move towards grey-green, a yellowish or iridescent cast on the flesh, or any fuzzy patch that could be mould. Green or grey on the meat itself, rather than a tired-looking surface, means bin it. On fish, watch for flesh turning grey, milky or dull, and for slime.
Texture. Fresh meat is moist but not slimy. If the surface feels slippery, sticky or tacky, rinse a small patch, pat it dry with kitchen paper, and feel again. Genuinely fresh meat feels clean once dried. If the slimy, coated feeling comes straight back, that is a film of bacterial growth and the meat is done.
Any one of these on its own is enough for me. Two together is not even a decision.
Why these tests are a veto, not a green light
Here is the part that matters most, and the part most articles skate over. Passing the smell, colour and feel tests does not prove meat is safe. It only proves it has not obviously spoiled.
The bacteria that make meat dangerous, including salmonella, E. coli O157 and campylobacter, are invisible, and they do not smell. The organisms that trip your nose are mostly spoilage bacteria, which announce themselves loudly as they break the meat down. The organisms that put you in bed are a different set, and they give no warning at all. A steak or a pork chop that looks and smells perfect can still make you very ill if it has been kept too warm, kept too long, or was contaminated to begin with.
Mince makes this especially important. Grinding folds whatever was on the surface of the meat all the way through, so beef mince, burgers and sausages carry their bacteria in the middle rather than just the outside. That is why they must be cooked right through with no pink and clear juices, and why I never eat them rare. The fuller version of that argument is in how long does cooked mince last.
So use your senses as a veto. If meat fails any of the three checks, it is out, no argument. But never let it passing them talk you into eating something the date or the storage says you should not. The nose catches rot. It does not catch risk.
The use-by date is the real safety line
Because your senses cannot see the dangerous bugs, the thing that actually protects you is the use-by date and keeping the cold chain intact. Raw meat and fish carry a use-by date, not a best-before, and the Food Standards Agency treats use-by as a genuine safety deadline: eat or freeze it by that date, and do not eat it after, even if it looks and smells completely fine. That is the opposite of how a best-before date works, which is only about quality, the way I explained for eggs in how to tell if an egg has gone off.
You can freeze meat right up to the end of the use-by day to stop the clock, and there is more on doing that well in freezer storage times. Once it is defrosted, treat it as fresh again and cook it within 24 hours, and defrost in the fridge rather than on the worktop, the method set out in defrosting food safely.
Kept in the fridge, raw meat has a short life: a day or two for mince, poultry and fish, and up to three to five days for a whole cut of beef, pork or lamb, provided the fridge sits between 0 and 5C. The door and top shelf run warmer, so raw meat belongs on the coldest shelf, usually the bottom, in a covered dish that cannot drip onto anything below it. The wider picture is in how long food lasts in the fridge.
What about cooked meat?
Cooked meat plays by its own clock. Once cooked, it keeps about two days in the fridge if you cooled it fast, and the spoilage signs are much the same: a sour smell, a slimy surface, a grey or dull cast. The same veto rule applies, and the same warning that a clean smell is not a guarantee. Reheat it once, until it is piping hot all the way through, and never a second time. The full set of rules is in how many times can you reheat food.
Frequently asked questions
Is grey beef safe to eat? A grey tinge on beef that has been sitting in the fridge or vacuum-packed is usually just oxidation, not spoilage, and it is fine if the meat is within its use-by date and smells clean. Grey-green, slimy or sour beef is a different matter and goes in the bin.
Does off meat always smell bad? No, and this is the crucial catch. Spoiled meat usually smells off, but the bacteria that cause food poisoning frequently leave no smell at all. A clean smell tells you the meat has not obviously rotted; it does not tell you it is safe. Trust the use-by date first.
Can you cook meat that smells slightly off to make it safe? No. Cooking kills bacteria but does not destroy the toxins some of them leave behind, and it will not undo spoilage. If meat smells off or is past its use-by date, cooking it is not a rescue.
Can I rely on the sniff test for fish? Fish is the one meat where smell is the most reliable early warning, because fresh fish smells of almost nothing and off fish smells strongly sour or of ammonia. Even so, the use-by date and the cold chain matter just as much.
When in doubt, bin it
I will finish where I began, because it is the only rule that never lets you down. A packet of meat costs a few pounds. A bout of food poisoning costs you several days flat on your back, and for someone very young, elderly, pregnant or already unwell it can be far more serious than that. If the smell is off, if the colour has gone grey-green, if the feel stays slimy after drying, or if it is simply past its use-by date, there is no clever save and nothing to weigh up. It goes in the bin, and you cook something else. That is not waste; it is the cheapest insurance in the kitchen.
This article is general guidance, not professional food safety advice; when in doubt, throw it out.