Slightly green ‘mold’ on the outside of the pellicle after 30 days?

[Ryan Lange]

I just opened my 30 day dry-aged ribeye and noticed a little green on the outside of the pellicle. Pictures attached. Is this safe to trim off and use the meat?

[Ron Pratt]

There’s a lot of questions raised if that green mold has occurred after just 30 days! Where did you buy that meat? Was it still sealed in a cry-o-vac bag or from some supermarket or butcher’s display case? Was the meat blade tenderized? Where have you been aging it? Are you using a modern frost free refrigerator which get s opened daily and not a dormitory frig or a wine cooler? What temperature? It’s not an old beer cooler in your garage or basement is it?
Ron

[Ryan Lange]

Below is a link to the exact meat I dry aged. It was vacuum sealed. I cut off 5lbs of it to eat without dry aging. With the remaining 10lbs I cleaned the vac seal bag and transferred into an Umai bag. I am using a fairly new high end refrigerator, about 4 years old.

The only thing I can think is that the airflow may not have been good enough on the bottom side of the steak. The drying racks were just slightly off the bottom of the refrigerator. Could this have caused it?

Is it safe to eat after trimmed? As you can see in the pictures the mold is white-ish/extremely light green. The smell is similar to a stinky cheese. It definitely smells stronger on the parts of the steaks that had the mold, even after trimmed.

https://www.steaksandgame.com/wagyu-rib-eye-ms4-whole-111452

[Ron Pratt]

Based on what you are saying then my guess is you should be OK – meat is sterile inside, unless blade tenderized which can thereby bury bacteria inside and ruin the meat during an aging process. Please understand most people who buy blade tenderized meats consume them immediately or at least quickly freeze them, but not age them.
Ron

[Ryan Lange]

Thanks Ron. It all looks good once I trimmed it. Just wanted to get a professional opinion.

This is high quality meat from a reputable shop and doesn’t mention being blade tenderized anywhere so hopefully its all good.

I’ll try it tomorrow, hopefully I live to tell the tale of how great it tastes.

[Joseph Michael]

Hey man I might be having a similar problem. I was just wondering if you remember if that mold smelled like anything? I feel like I might have smelled a little fishy smell coming from the moldy area around my meats bones. Not sure if I would be able to trim that or that’s the meat just bad or just the mold area.

[Ryan Lange]

Hey! I ended up not risking it and threw it away. The mold had a blue cheese smell to it. It was green/blue/white mold. Only on one part of the meat that had slightly rested on the bottom of the fridge and didn’t dry out completely.

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