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How to determine the freshness of meat or fish?

Fresh meat or fish products are a guarantee of health, but often one has to deal with the problem of inability to determine the freshness of meat or fish due to the use of chemical technologies for processing meat or fish products or due to packaging in which it is difficult to see the quality of meat or fish.

There are several signs by which one can judge the freshness of meat or fish long before these products reach the table.

How to determine the freshness of meat?

Fresh, non-frozen beef is red in color, but the older the animal, the darker the meat. Veal has the lightest shade on the cut - it resembles the color of pork. Fresh poultry should be pink in color.
The meat should be elastic to the touch - this means that when you press on the cut, the meat springs up and a hole appears, which is immediately smoothed out.
Chilled or frozen meat is more difficult to visually inspect, but even here you can assess the freshness of the meat by such signs as the absence of white spots on the cut (frostbite), yellow spots (old) or dark burgundy or blue spots (bedsores).

In order not to spoil fresh meat when purchasing it for reserves, it is divided in portions and only then is frozen. This must be done in order not to defrost several times - to freeze the same piece, since defrosted meat is a perishable product, even if defrosting occurs at the correct temperatures - from 36 to 43 degrees Fahrenheit (two to six degrees Celsius) in the refrigerator.

How to determine the freshness of a fish?

Fish is an even more perishable product than meat, and certain requirements must be made to its quality so as not to spoil your food or get poisoned. A safe bet is to buy live fish, but this is often impossible to do, since some types of fish are caught far from the regions where they can usually be sold. Therefore, by adhering to several rules, you can protect yourself from acquiring stale fish:

The fish disappears from the head, and therefore, it is necessary to start the study for freshness by examining the head of the fish. For obvious reasons, try to buy fresh fish with a head on it.
Fresh fish have clear eyes, not cloudy, and no unpleasant odor should emanate from the branchial part.
The carcass of fresh fish is elastic, the fish fillet bends when pressed and immediately straightens without residual dents.
If the fish is covered with ice glaze, then there should be no places with loose scales under it - this is a sign of repeated defrosting - freezing of fish. White spots on a fish carcass indicate its freezing, and yellowed spots on a fish carcass or fillet are a sign of old fish.

When storing fish for a long time, it is necessary to put it in plastic packaging (bags) in portions - in the amount necessary for a single defrosting, since defrosted fish should not be frozen again - this will turn it into a spoiled product. Fish is thawed at a temperature of 36 to 43 degrees Fahrenheit (two to six degrees Celsius) in a refrigerator.

When purchasing meat or fish products, it must be remembered that it is they that most often cause severe food poisoning, which can be fatal. For this reason, one should not neglect the attention to purchased meat or fish products that claim to be fresh.