Curious Hub. Is smell the only telltale sign? If the meat is dated properly, is a function of bad storage temps or something?
Cryovac is very thick and tough, sealing out air and contaminants. However, if the meat inside is stored at the wrong temperature germs already present will multiply even in the absence of ambient air. In my experience the meat looks fine through the plastic and it is impossible to tell if it is tainted without opening the seal. All of the bad meat I've bought in cryovac was well within its date range and looked just fine.
While it is possible that something sharp could break the seal, I've not had any bad meat due to inadvertent "opening". Thus, my opinion is that it was improperly stored -- probably left out to thaw too long since most meats are frozen at some point in the packing/delivery process.
My bad experience has mainly been with ribs. A curious thing I've noticed is that my HT store now puts the ribs in the display case frozen. They thaw very slowly there due to the refrigeration. I've not had a problem with frozen ribs. They thaw almost completely on my granite countertop (absorbs the cold) in about an hour. Long story short, I think the meat department staff used to put stacks out to thaw as a customer convenience but didn't do a good job of timing the effort.
If you have a good store (and I'm not saying HT is a bad one) they WILL remove the cryovac for you, whether the meat is frozen of thawed. If nothing else, I don't have to cut plastic with one of my good meat knives
Opening it for a quick sniff is the best insurance against a return trip and an exchange or refund.
Hub
