Can You Smell It If Meats Go Bad?

When a batch of Choya's raw food packs arrived last month, I thought a few packs looked off-color to me. But I threw them into the freezer anyway. There was one that went off, but I didn't think much of it and wrote it off. But over the weekend, I discovered 4 more packs of venison and chicken feet that stank to high heaven when I cut them open. That was an anomaly. 

We've been using the same vendor for her meats and such all along, and everything had been top notch. I wasn't fussed, but I thought I should make a note to the vendor. They were concerned, and agreed to replacement packs, and I managed to save three opened but spoilt packs (ziplock-ed to death) to return to the courier for investigation and analysis.

When the reply came, I raised my eyebrows. If the reply was meant to be reassuring, I'm not too sure I'm reassured. The vendor said that, 

We have conducted immediate examination upon receiving the three meal packs and the findings came back with no compromise to the meal quality. My team has examined each pack and found no unusual smell other than the natural gamey smell of the venison meat. We have retrieved the same batch of venison meat records and do not find any issue with it. Hope this clarifies.

The highlights in beige are mine. That line didn't sit too well with me. I didn't bother to argue with them. To begin with, I wouldn't have flagged this as issue if I didn't smell anything beyond the 'usual natural gamey smell of venison'. I've been ordering raw venison flank from them for two years. I know their cut, quality and 'freshness'. I know how to store, thaw out and handle raw food for Choya. Those five packs were definitely not okay. It was nowhere near smelling gamey. They smelt putrid. 

Those five packs didn't smell the same as the other packs which were fine. It was to the point in which I could identify them in the freezer should this happen again. The meat was mushy, and the color was way off. The vendor's info pages on the website under 'ingredients' also warned us that, 

Meats that have been stored too long or packaged badly during storage may exhibit some oxidation and freezer burn, discolouring meat to a darker grey or brown colour. A cursory smell test is also helpful when determining meat freshness. Meats that have an excessively fetid ('eggy') smell or sour smell may indicate that the meat is not fresh.

I do cook. I'm not vegetarian. Although I try to avoid it, but I'm also very used to handling dead chickens, raw fish and prawns, mussels and such and innards, raw goat, mutton and lamb, crocodile, kangaroo, and whatever other legally-permitted meats. I know when meats go off slightly (okay if you're cooking it thoroughly) and when it's deader than dead. 

The smell of fresh-enough raw meat is actually really gorgeous. If I have the least bit of suspicions about the freshness of meats and innards, I wouldn't feed them to Choya. Heck, I didn't even consider adding salt and pepper and grilling them to eat it myself. 

I'm particularly cautious these few weeks because Choya has just recovered from a bout of gastro-bacterial infection. That bout was likely nothing to do with her food and more to do with giardiasis or random clostridium, or stress colitis. But I am still careful anyway. I'm also conscious of whether I'm being over-sensitive or the food has indeed gone off.  

Ahhh well. 5 spoilt packs (by my definition) out of 500 packs is an acceptable ratio. The new batch of food that arrived two nights ago was fine, and the vendor is sending five replacement packs of venison next week. I politely told the team that I would flag and expect replacement packs if I get a whiff of that sour smell again. At least I could smell it. The really insidious bacteria would be the types that we can't smell or taste. They're just there waiting to be eaten and then begin wreaking havoc in our gastrointestinal tracts.