Beef and probably other red meats can get an oil-slick appearance pretty quickly from certain packaging. My very first job was grocery, part of which in the meat dept. This was always something that struck as odd: we’d get fresh (like bright red, truly fresh beef) that I’d personally cut and load it into those foam trays and plastic-wrap them. Come back the next day, and the trays I assembled would have this weird chromatic glisten like an oil slick, like they were starting to rot despite being on the shelf (refrigerated) for a single night. Dude in charge of the meat dept said it was something to do with it being sealed off from oxygen - it’d go away when cooked, and is totally fine to eat. (this could be total bullshit - but taking his word at face value. Grain of salt)
Actual rot has a similar chromatic glisten, but kinda permeates deeper into the tissue. When in doubt, the smell test will tell you everything you need to know.
Edit - getting downvotes, so just to clarify: I’m talking about mostly normal looking meat, but with that kind of multi-colored oily looking sheen. In NO WAY am I defending that strip of fucking road tar on the tray in OP’s photo.
Beef and probably other red meats can get an oil-slick appearance pretty quickly from certain packaging. My very first job was grocery, part of which in the meat dept. This was always something that struck as odd: we’d get fresh (like bright red, truly fresh beef) that I’d personally cut and load it into those foam trays and plastic-wrap them. Come back the next day, and the trays I assembled would have this weird chromatic glisten like an oil slick, like they were starting to rot despite being on the shelf (refrigerated) for a single night. Dude in charge of the meat dept said it was something to do with it being sealed off from oxygen - it’d go away when cooked, and is totally fine to eat. (this could be total bullshit - but taking his word at face value. Grain of salt)
Actual rot has a similar chromatic glisten, but kinda permeates deeper into the tissue. When in doubt, the smell test will tell you everything you need to know.
Edit - getting downvotes, so just to clarify: I’m talking about mostly normal looking meat, but with that kind of multi-colored oily looking sheen. In NO WAY am I defending that strip of fucking road tar on the tray in OP’s photo.