Grocery shopping can be overwhelming. Beyond just figuring out what you want to eat, there’s also a lot of conflicting information regarding what you should and shouldn’t buy. Food safety is crucial, but it can be difficult to decipher what exactly you need to watch out for. So when we saw a TikTok about buying packaged meat from the grocery store circling around, we instantly took note.
In the video, a shopper in the meat section of the store shows a seemingly bloated meat package, where the plastic is puffy and rounded on top. They say that if you see a meat package that has bubbled up and is bloated in appearance, “Bacteria has built up in here. You don’t want that. It’s bad.” Instead, they say to make sure you’re getting meat packages that are flat and flush, where the wrapping is “literally touching the meat.”
Seems pretty alarming, right? When I first saw the video I thought, well that makes sense. I assumed when containers are bloated, it means some gases are expanding in there that you don’t want. Another Kitchn editor agreed and said, “If it’s true, this is concerning.”
To be 100% sure, we decided to speak to an expert to see if this is something shoppers should really be concerned with. I spoke to Dr. Donald W. Schaffner, professor and chair of the Department of Food Science at Rutgers University, and extension specialist in Food Science. I sent him the video, and what he had to say might surprise you.
For starters, it’s not totally accurate. “While it’s true that bacteria can form gas that gets trapped inside packages and cause bloating, there are other explanations,” says Dr. Schaffner. “Manufacturers can use a process called modified atmosphere packaging (MAP). When using MAP, manufacturers deliberately put gases like carbon dioxide or nitrogen inside a package. This can prolong the shelf life and may inhibit the growth of spoilage bacteria. The presence of these gases inside the package causes them to look bloated. The two bloated-looking packages shown in the TikTok video look like MAP to me.”
However, he did say that in some cases, bloating can be an indicator of bacteria. Here’s how to tell. “If all the packages of a certain kind of meat from the same manufacturer are within the shelf-life date, and they all look OK, and they all have the same appearance, it’s most likely modified atmosphere packaging. If most of the otherwise identical packages are vacuum packaged with the plastic wrap tightly touching the meat, and there’s one package with the same exact packaging, but it’s bloated, that one might be spoiled.”
Regardless, when buying meat you should always check the expiration date and inspect your meat once you get home for signs of spoilage. “If the meat looks and smells OK, it’s not slimy, and within the shelf-life date, that meat is perfectly fine.”
However, he notes that food poisoning is always a risk, no matter what the packaging looks like. “There are species of bacteria that cause spoilage (e.g., Pseudomonas) and there are different species (e.g., Salmonella) that can cause food poisoning. If you buy meat and you don’t properly cook it you can get food poisoning — no matter what the package looks like. If you cut the raw meat on a cutting board, and then later use that same cutting board for your salad, that’s called cross-contamination, and you can get sick from the salad.”
So keep your kitchen clean, wash your hands, and the next time you go to the grocery store see what all the other meat packages look like on the shelf before grabbing one.