A Spanish butcher, Mariano Sánchez Díaz, known on social media as @el_as_carnicero and with more than 33 years in the profession, issued a warning about buying ground meat, arguing that this is “the most delicate product in a butcher’s shop” and advising customers to always ask to see the meat being freshly ground.
The warning was released in a video on TikTok, cited by the Spanish portal HuffPost, and focuses mainly on freshness and the way the product is prepared.
“Never buy ready-made minced meat without knowing when it was minced.”
In the video, the butcher begins with a direct warning: “Never buy ready-made ground meat without knowing when it was minced”, adding that “what can fall on me is very large, but I have to count it”.
According to Mariano Sánchez Díaz, ground meat is more sensitive than a steak or a whole piece, for reasons linked to conservation and handling.
Why minced meat is more delicate
The explanation presented is based on the way the meat behaves after being minced: when minced, it “increases the surface”, which accelerates oxidation, reduces durability and makes any flaw in the process more evident.
Therefore, he leaves practical advice for those who buy: avoid already prepared trays when it is not possible to know how long ago the meat was minced.
The “key” to buying better: seeing the machine at work
The butcher insists that the consumer must ask the professional to chop the meat “in front” of whoever is buying it. For him, “good ground meat” is the one prepared at the moment.
In this context, he also highlights what, from his perspective, should not be present in the product: “rare mixtures”, preservatives, sulfites or “remains accumulated from other days”.
“What you don’t see you also eat”
The message is repeated as the main warning: “Ground meat is not forgiving”, he says, justifying it with the idea that what the customer cannot observe in the process may end up being consumed in the same way.
At the same time, he makes a point of highlighting that he is not saying that “good ground beef cannot be sold”, but rather that the customer must know “how to order” and what to demand.
The other warning: weigh before or after biting
Mariano Sánchez Díaz also remembers a practice that, he says, can harm the consumer: some professionals weigh the piece before chopping and only then deliver the already chopped meat.
According to the butcher, this can result in the customer paying more than they actually pay, because part of the product is retained in the machine.
The example shown: from 725 grams to 650
To demonstrate the impact, the butcher cites a case in which a piece weighed 725 grams before being chopped and, after the process, the meat delivered weighed 650 grams.
The difference, he explains, is linked to the material that remains in the chopping machine, which means that the “final” weight may be lower than the initial weight of the piece.
The procedure you advocate in your butcher shop
In the same content, Sánchez Díaz states that, in his establishment, the method is different: first you chop the meat and only then weigh it, charging “only and exclusively” what corresponds to the final weight.
The implicit recommendation for the consumer is simple: confirm whether the butcher weighs the meat before or after biting into it, to avoid discrepancies.
What remains for the customer
According to , the butcher’s message can be summarized in two requests: transparency at the time of preparation and attention to the weight charged.
For those who frequently buy ground meat, the alert leaves a set of signs to be taken into account, especially when there is no clear information about when and how the product was prepared.
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