Can you catch any type of diseases from eating slightyly old meat?

Question

My boyfriend eats meats up to a week after the pull date! I know he gets the runs. But I think that I could contract something from him. Also he's trying to tell me that when the beef turns brown that it is just from air geting to it.

Answer 1

I don't think you can catch a disease, but you can get awfully sick. If the meat is old and has gone bad, you could get sick enough to end up in the hospital. But not a disease.

Answer 2

It's called food poisoning. Fortunately, if the meat is kept well chilled, it often is okay up to a week after the pull-by date. Most of us do as your boyfriend does, but if that meat is inadvertently contaminated, the extra week gives it plenty of time to grow very, very nasty little germs that might not all be killed by cooking. One can become pretty dang sick from that! He is right about the meat turning brown, but it's also a sign that the meat should have been consumed days earlier or thrown out. If you share meals with him, there's nothing wrong with protecting yourself by insisting all meat be cooked well done.

Answer 3

Leave him ASAP. He is going to come down with something and end up killing you.

Eating meats, or anything else, past the date listed is just plain suicide. Quite frankly, it is what is done only in 3rd world countries today by the poorest of people - and they are inflicted with hundreds and thousands of diseases all the time, and die in batches of hundreds at a time when there is an outbreak.

Answer 4

You can get food poisoning from eating old meat. You might be able to get a tape worm.