Is It A Good Idea To Buy Clearance-Sticker Steak At The Grocery Store?

For budget-concious foodies, grocery shopping in 2025 can feel like playing "the floor is lava" while being chased by a bear — especially when it comes to buying meat. Spotting a clearance sticker on a nice steak might feel like a reason to celebrate, but is it? The short answer: It depends on how soon you plan to cook it.

According to sustainability firm Recycle Track Systems, the majority of food waste is due to wary home cooks misinterpreting "sell-by" labels (and others like them) on food that's totally safe to eat, leading them to toss it out unnecessarily. Navigating the clearance meat section is sort of like a public version of the private ritual where you gingerly sniff the milk carton to decide whether that "it went bad three days ago" label is lying.

If you spy clearance steak with an approaching "best by" or "use by" date, that simply means it doesn't have another week to wait around on the grocery store display before getting bought and cooked. It's totally fine to bring home and cook tonight or tomorrow without having to worry about losing quality. That said, it's a good idea to plan to use these "pushing it" meats as soon as possible after bringing them home from the store (within two days, says the USDA). Alternatively, you can tightly plastic-wrap and pop that steak in the freezer for use up to six or eight months later.

When assessing the freshness of clearance steak, visual cues alone aren't enough. Myoglobin, the natural pigment protein, can make perfectly safe meat begin to appear darker or brownish the longer it sits on the shelf. This is indicative of oxidation rather than any harmful microbial growth, meaning that brown ground beef is still safe to cook. Other color-impacting variables can include the age of the steer at the time of butchering as well as the contents of the animal's diet. Alas, the telltale signs of spoilage are a slimy feel or sour smell, neither of which can be discovered without unwrapping the steak's packaging (i.e., buying it and hoping for the best).

To shop meat sales like a pro, ask someone working behind the deli counter when your local grocery store does its markdowns. If you know that steak gets clearanced en masse on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month, then you'll know which days to arrive for the largest selection. Using less-than-brand-new meat is an important part of grocery shopping sustainably and reducing the food waste epidemic. To get the most out of a clearance steak, store it tightly-wrapped in cellophane at 40 degrees Fahrenheit or colder, and always cook it to 160 degrees Fahrenheit to kill any microbes.