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The meat has been treated with Carbon Monoxide, which causes the meat on the exterior to remain fresh in appearance only. Carbon monoxide produces the bright red color in meat and fish like Tuna. The approval of the "modified atmosphere packaging" by the FDA means you cannot ever trust the appearance of meat, but must rely on the use by dates on the packages.

Consumer Reports

NY Times

They should hire Mickey Rourke.

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I definitely think there are probably as many good incidents as bad. But the quality seems to be suffering. I'll try Morton Williams, is there parking?

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Yes, and the quality is dismal too.
Note that the new Morton-Williams in Newport Center has an actual real butcher. He is very engaging and enthusastic about his work, is happy to do custom cuts and often has specialy meat (I've gotten goat & rabbit). Overall M-W is more expensive than A&P but meat pricing is about the same with much higher quality and service.

Wow. I've never had anything but excellent service in the A&P meat department.

My spouse and I have a running joke about it now. We will rotate doing the shopping while one stands in front of the counter to see when we'll get served. A record was 11 minutes and still no one helped us. One time we waited and we could see one guy packing the meats in view of us talking on his cell phone. Both times we left before being served. Maybe their meats are getting old because no one is there to help us buy them....

i agree the service in the meat dept sucks. no one is ever there too help. there is an older guy in the fish area that is very helpful, friendly and knowledgeable. he has often come from the fish area to serve me in the butcher area. the deli manager is definitely a trip. he is damn excited about new cheeses. i haven't had any experience with expirations on the same day but once i was looking for skirt steak and i asked one of the butcher guys which one was better between two different packagings, one was more expensive i forget why exactly i think it was supposed to be better quality or something, but he just told me to buy the cheaper one because it was the same thing... i appreciated the honesty but it makes you wonder what is going on back there..

I'm dying to know what's going on - seriously, I don't know how decent grocery stores can get away with selling this stuff. Isn't it a health issue? For me to visually see the items shouldn't be on the shelf by their color and expiration...are they allowed to sell these meats?

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Actually, I was at the Hoboken Shoprite yesterday. I needed to buy ground beef. It was all dated to go bad the same day... but it was really bright red looking and fresh so I thought. When I got it home, I realized the inside meat was brown... not bad, but brown. So it made me think that they wrapped the old meat in some fresher stuff. I don't know. And the package said 85/15... but it definitely was sooooooo greasy and fatty I doubt that was accurate.

So, honestly, I don't think it's a better option or it depends what you get.

Oh if only Wegmans were closer than Woodbridge for the folks without cars........that meat dept. in the A&P is one of the worst I've seen in the area. It is true that most of the meats expire the same day. We wanted to grill a couple of burgers once on my day off and we stopped there for chopmeat - it looked terrible! If only I were at work that day and could have brought some really fresh wonderful less expensive Wegmans product home with me......

I thought it was just me having this same issue. I rarely buy meat from A&P and Shoprite lately. I force myself to make the trip to Whole Foods.

I'll start shopping in the Shoprite Hoboken butcher shop then. I am interested to know where I can get good meats local without having to drive all the way to edgewater and shopping at "Whole PayCheck", oops, I mean Whole Foods.

I've found most of the meat at the A&P expire the same day I am shopping. I visit the grocery store on different days and rarely is the expiration day further into the future than tomorrow. It seems they never have fresh meat. The Shop Rite in Hoboken has meat that is good for at least four or five days into the future.

On a positive note, the deli guy has been getting amazing stuff in. Great selection of gourmet deli meats and cheeses. Very impressed. He is always friendly to me and seems literally excited about cheese, LOL.

Has anyone noticed bad service at the A&P meat department in downtown JC's Newport area? You can't get those butcher's to come out from the back or make eye contact to get any service and they seem to let their staff go during the busiest times for customers to come. One literally shut the lights out and walked past me while I waited at 4:30 in the afternoon. Isn't this when we are all getting off work and need service?

Second, the meats were all on sale and I could see why. There was nothing, I repeat, nothing that looked safe to buy there....perhaps with the exception of some things right in the butcher area, but you need a magician to get them to go behind that counter and help you.

What is going on? We bought an already roasted chicken instead and it was such crap, burnt and tough and inedible that we are returning it today. We went somewhere else to buy meat in Hoboken and noticed the same thing. Is the economy slowing meat sales to a point they are trying to sell crap, older stuff?