Brown raw steak mince????

[toffeeapple]

Hi I'm just about to cook some lasagna for supper and the lean steak mince I'm about to use is brown.
It was lovely and red when I bought it.
On the pack it says use by 22nd Jan, and admittedly I normally use minced steak more or less straight away or freeze it, but I forgot to this time.
It's off isn't it?

Think it's fine. I've used mince that was brown and we all survived.

It should be fine, but smell it just in case

does it smell ok?

I'd probably use it if it smells ok & the date on it is todays

If you buy meat that has been matured it is always brown and is much better than the bright red stuff you get - it will be fine as long as it doesn't smell dodgy.

There's no smell to it at all. Just beefy.
Thanks for your replies, it's just that I heard that germs spread extremely quickly in minced beef. I know what my dad would say: For god's sake just cook it, do you think my mum worried about that in her days?

if it smells sickly sweet then it has started to degrade - I have used it in this state before and been ok (I just fried the meat off for longer until the smell disappeared, not long), but it's not in the best condition. The degradation is the breakdown of the proteins in the meat - the smell is caused by volatile nitrogens.

Is the meat organic? non-organic meat usually has additives added to it to stop the colour change.

Being brown usually just means that the air has got to it. You'll probably find that in the middle of the mince it's still red.

But as others have said, if it smells odd then don't use it.

toffeeapple, my dad used to wash the bacon if it had gone a bit slimy...
we never had any problems.

Apparently most beef meat should be brown and not red. I'd think twice about cooking with it if it was green though

I'd make sure you cook it really well to kill off anything you might be worried about. But if it's going in a lasagne, it'll be fried and then in the oven, so I would use it if I were you. (In fact I have done in the past, as long as it smells ok, like others have said)

Thank you all, the beef is brown all the way trough. Strange?
Smells sickly sweet

up to you then - AS I said, I have used it in that state before and fried it until the smell goes off - the colour change is chemical, not due to bacterial spoilage, so it is unlikely to make you unwell but it is really up to you.