Why does my dishwasher make everything smell like old meat?!

[pongy]

We recently moved into a rental, and the dishwasher makes everything that goes into it smell terrible. It’s worse on things that get heated eg pans or mugs for tea. I can only describe the smell as… hot horse meat? It’s not a damp/mildew smell.

things I have done:
run a cleaning cycle with dishwasher cleaner
cleaned out all filters
scrubbed the inside with bicarbonate and water paste, followed by a cycle with a cup of white vinegar (this was the most effective)

even though the smell diminished after the scrub, it’s still there and makes it impossible to enjoy a cup of tea, and I can smell it every time I start to cook.

Any ideas?!!!

Have you pulled the dishwasher out and checked that the waste water is actually running out, it could be there’s a blockage in the waste pipe, making the water not run away, so coming back into the machine.

check the drainage pipe? Could be blocked.

sorry for the delay in replying, thank you so much for your advice! We finally pulled it out today, the drainage is fine but there is something in the water intake that the handyman said didn’t look like normal limescale but something else. I am fearful it’s mould or something! But we are in a rental and already seriously fighting the landlord about mice so I don’t want to add this into the mix too. I have tried googling but no one seems to advise oN how you could actually clean the water intake. 😩