Actually, once a product on the shelf reaches the expiration date, it's supposed to be taken off. In Tom Thumb, and other grocery stores, it's common to see meat that has only a day left before the expiration date to be further reduced in price, and I have noticed that it looks rather brown, but the color doesn't bother me too much.
A thing about cows. When I was growing up, my Dad raised mink on his farm. (I know, the anti-fur people will freak over this). We had thousands of the critters, raised solely for the fur. He spent a lot of time grading the fur, and determining which ones to breed, and which ones to kill. Do you know how he killed them? He tried carbon monoxide from the car. And various other methods I suppose. But the most humane and quickest was just getting ahold of them by hand, (with very thick leather welding gloves 'cause they really bite hard) and broke their necks. Also, to produce the best fur he could, he would go to a little slaughter house down the road and buy tripe, which is from a cow to mix with their food. So I often watched them bring a cow or steer into the pen, shoot it in the head with a .22 rifle, and proceed to butcher it (without going into much detail). I guess my point in all this is that I grew up seeing this, and it's quite normal. These days people, including my kids (25, 18, 14) really have no idea where our food comes from. They go into a store and see the pretty packaging. And I regret that they have never seen what I did. I'm sure there are members on LP that remember growing up on a farm, and this brings back memories.
I don't believe in abusing animals for fun, but remember, we do not live in the Garden of Eden. God put man in dominion over animals.

"WOW" guys thanks for the education, I can remember see so many chickens killed by ringing there necks, but never wanted to see anything else... but i am open minded and willing to learn how everything is done, this just blows me away.....

CO is better than Red dye #4, it also slows down the process of spoiling in conjunction with continuous refrigeration. I always use the olfactory sense when opening any raw meat, beef, chicken, lamb, fish, etc. as soon as it is opened from its packaging, the nose knows best. Refrigeration is truly the most important to maintain with respect to freshness. In the past 5 years or so that I can remember I've seen 2 bad items. One was a tray of chicken that was bad, the whole area had lost power for days from a storm, I opened it and almost fell over it smelled like dead nasty chicken.

Then I went to a friends for dinner, an Aussie chap cooking lamb, my goodness the whole place stunk of bad lamb because he started cooking it and didn't know it was bad until it was too late. As the Aussies say: "it was a bit on the nose". So we ended up having rice and veggies.

Please forgive me, but at least I am being honest. rcbbuckeye, I started to read your comment and did not finish so I won't be responding to it. I did see your last sentence, but I won't start to debate biblical verses on a blog about food preparation and honesty in marketing, which is what I wanted to express. Just read Genesis again. "And God said, 'Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed, which is upon all of the face of the earth, and every tree with seed in it's fruit; you shall have them for food." There was no slaying of animals in the Garden of Eden. Once man sinned and began to kill his own brother, he also began to sacrifice animals. Dominion doesn't mean torture or exploitation. Why then would animals who are kept in small stalls be designed to run freely? Why would God give birds flight only to be shot down? I know - someone else will just quote another verse and give his/her interpretation of it. That's the problem with human history. We twist and distort everything to make life easier and convenient. I'm just as guilty, but it doesn't mean I feel good about it.

Sorry - my last comment did make sense when I said I wasn't responding to a comment. I was responding, but I meant that I couldn't read every word and I wanted to be polite and let you know. That's all. Nothing personal.

Oops again. I meant "didn't make sense."   I need to get a spellchecker that thinks for me.

As I was writing it dawned on me that it was probably a little too graphic. I do apoligize. My point is that I don't think you or anyone should be bad or guilty about eating or utilizing animals to make our lives better. As I sit here I'm thinking, "why didn't I just write that in the first place?"
I used to enjoy hunting. When I lived in Ohio, I would go deer hunting practically in my back yard. I tried to shoot a buck that had bigger antlers that the last one. And I always used the meat. Or rabbits, squirrels, (no antlers of course, LOL).
I would never say or suggest that anyone that is a vegetarian that they are wrong for not eating meat. But on the other hand, I happen to like steaks and hamburgers, a lot. I would not want anyone telling me I'm wrong for eating meat. Don't misunderstand, I'm not saying you said that, but I don't think you need to feel bad if you like meat. If you happen to like turkey, enjoy it without guilt!
At any rate, happy Thanksgiving!

What they do to food is terrible, that is what they do to people as people have to eat such terrible food.
They wax apples and maybe other fruits, they also might inject them to make them look red and or fresh, they give cows hormones and antibiotics that you drink with the milk and maybe with the meat too.
They irradiate meats, and many other kinds of foods, maybe most kinds of food.
They do gene transplantation and or other kinds of genetic engineering so when you eat an apple you might also eat genes from flies, roaches or whatever, it is not possible to know what they have done as they don't tell you, nor do they label the foods with the information, there are no longer natural foods to eat if you buy your food at a store, all foods have been tampered with in more ways than one.
Even the air that we breathe and the water that we drink are poisoned and nasty.
Fluoride and chlorine being 2 of the poisons that they add to the water:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=flouride&btnG=Google+Search
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=fluoride&spell=1
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Chlorine+in+drinking+water&btnG=Search
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=poisons+added+to+drinking+water&btnG=Search

Don't forget that worms are used as fillers in hamburger meat sold in fast food. That's a fact. Didn't believe it so I wrote the food and drug administration years ago. There is a fast food chain that is known for it. Hint - a little girl is in their logo. I don't eat hamburgers from that place.

Also there is a certain amount of maggots, flies etc. that is allowed in processing food.

A very short video that I just found:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Tm6B-mFR-o

Thank you Lantern. I watched it!
Tenaj, I was in the food business for many years. You forgot mouse droppings. :-)