A Little Brown Is OK

• All cows -- and all warm-blooded animals in general -- have a pigment in their bodies called oxymyoglobin. That pigment reacts with oxygen and turns red, which is why raw meats like ground beef are typically a rich red color. Sometimes, though, the ground beef in your package isn’t uniformly exposed to oxygen. This means that while the outermost part of your beef may be bright red, the inside may be a dull brown color. This is completely normal. If your beef is predominantly brown, though, that is most likely a sign of spoilage, and you should check the date on its package.

How Long Do You Have?

• When you buy ground beef, you have to store it properly -- ideally, in a refrigerator kept below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. In these conditions, your beef will last between one and three days, after which time you need to either cook or freeze it. If you freeze your ground beef properly, that will extend its longevity, but over time, it loses quality -- it will stay good for as long as four months. It will remain safe to eat after that point, but its quality will be severely diminished.

Freezing Your Beef

• While freezing your beef prevents it from spoiling and going brown, the freezer is an inhospitable environment. It sucks the moisture and color out of your beef over time, leaving it dry and tasteless. To make sure that your beef retains as much quality as possible, wrap it before you toss it in the freezer. Even if it’s already shrink-wrapped, wrap it in plastic or heavy duty foil -- this helps it retain its good qualities while staying cold.

Thawing It Safely

• If you don’t thaw frozen beef carefully, it can start to cook and turn brown. This is actually unsafe, because the beef is at high enough of a temperature for bacteria to develop but low enough of a temperature that the bacteria isn’t killed. To safely thaw out ground beef, transfer it from the freezer to the refrigerator -- this should take about two days. If you don’t have that much time, you can thaw it under running cold water. Running it under warm water is faster, but promotes the browning and unsafe temperature that you must avoid. Alternatively, you can thaw beef in the microwave, but only if you cook it immediately after, because the microwave can start to cook and brown the outermost part of the meat.