Lunch meat is slimy on outside?

pasta_paul

Sometimes when I buy lunch meat cuts, from the supermarket, they quickly get slimy on the outside. Regardless of the date which is indicated by the sticker. I perform taste, smell, and visual checks for discoloration, but the cuts of meat seem to pass all those criteria. Is this a sign that it's about to expire? Also, why does it get slimy? FYI: This happens on Dietz BBQ chicken, and this other chicken cut I get from Costco.

Originally asked by chrisl-921fb74d on Stack Exchange (cooking) (CC BY-SA 3.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

The rate of slime of a piece of food has to do with the amount of surface area it has. At each point, a food's surface is an entry point for bacteria. Since there is always bacteria on any cutting utensil or machine, every cut piece of meat has been seeded with a bacteria culture. Although it might not kill you or make you visibly sick, the slime is coming from microbes which will stress your immune system that might be fighting other things instead. Unless it's Nato beans or oysters, slime on food is no good. If the cold cuts are sliming quickly, it might be because the grocer is not cleaning their machine properly or somebody's refrigeration is not cold enough, even if just 5 to 10...

Full answer by Adam S: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/15644 (CC BY-SA 3.0).

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