Inspection conducted after receiving a complaint that raw ground beef purchased at the facility was red on the outside but when cut open during cooking had a brown color. Upon inspection, I observed raw ground beef being packaged and the ground beef appeared to be of wholesome appearance. PIC stated that raw ground beef with a red exterior and brown interior is a commonly observed phenomenon for packaged ground beef. Further review of USDA document "Ground Beef and Food Safety" dated February 19, 2016 recovered from URL sheets/meat-preparation/ground-beef-and-food-safety/CT_Index> covers this topic in depth and states that this is a normal phenomenon that occurs in packaged ground beef due to a lack of continued exposure of the pigment oxymyoglobin to oxygen in the interior of the meat. Observation of this phenomenon does not indicate that food is not wholesome or has spoiled unless both the interior and exterior of the meat appears gray or brown.
Finding: No food safety issue observed at time of inspection. |