Cooking Tips: Color of ground beef

Why is pre-packaged ground beef red on the outside and sometimes grayish-brown on the inside? These color differences do not indicate that the meat is spoiled or old. Fresh-cut meat is purplish in color. Oxygen from the air reacts with meat pigments to form a bright red color which is usually seen on the surface of ground beef purchased in the supermarket. The interior of the meat may be grayish-brown due to the lack of oxygen penetrating below the surface.

Submitted by: USDA

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