When it comes to buying meat from a local shop or store, the procedures and checks to take are quite straightforward. You can directly check the meat as you choose whether or not to buy it. 

Purchasing meat through an online vendor is slightly different. You can’t physically see the meat before buying it. Even if you were to receive a confirmation picture, you would still have no way of knowing the condition of the meat other than the outside color. 

The possible dangers involved are quite serious. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t safely shop for meat online. There are a few specific mistakes that you can avoid if you’re aware of them before you go about trying to purchase meat online. 

In this article, we’ll take a look at a few of the most common mistakes that the average online shopper makes when purchasing meat. It is our hope that you will be able to avoid making the same mistakes thanks to our explanations here. Enjoy! 

#1 – Ignoring the Potential of Frozen Meats

It is widely believed that frozen meat doesn’t cook or taste as good as fresh meat. Well, this is true in some respects. Obviously, freezing food of any kind degrades it slightly. However, it also freezes the natural degradation process that fresh meat typically undergoes. If left unfrozen, meat tends to spoil within a few days to a week at the most. Since you’re buying online, you have no way of knowing how many days this meat has been held before you receive it. 

When your meat arrives, the trip to your door will also cause some degradation. (Though honest and efficient online companies that sell meat should use well-refrigerated vehicles to transport them) Even if the meat is only a day or two old, it has still been through that ordeal before you receive it. 

Should you choose to buy frozen meat, chances are it was flash-frozen within a day of being processed. This is especially true for options like frozen chicken, which often retains its freshness due to rapid freezing methods. (Make sure to confirm this before purchasing it, of course) This means you can rest assured that your meat is still very fresh even though it is frozen. Simply make sure to thaw it out correctly before you use it, and it will be none the worse for wear! 

#2 – Failing to Look Into How the Animal was Raised Before Being Processed

Not all meats were raised equally! The meat you purchase may look alright from a picture. However, what you really need to know is how the animal was looked after and what it was fed while being raised. 

For example, an animal that has been kept caged and fed supplements or artificially-designed foods rather than natural diets will likely produce poor-quality cuts of meat. This kind of product is likely to be cheaper than others, but that doesn’t mean it will taste better, much less be healthier for you! 

It is important that you learn how the animals are looked after, especially with meats such as chicken. This helps you to avoid getting swindled by companies with poor quality products and lowers the chances of you getting sick from your own purchase! You want to make sure that you are buying organically grown meats, this includes poultry. Websites like https://gtameats.ca/ ensure that all the products being sold are organic and are fresh when delivered to the customers.

#3 – Not Doing a Background Check on All Potential Online Purchasing Portals

The first and most important thing you need to do when shopping for meat online is to do a background check on the portal you choose to purchase through. You need to know exactly who has the best reputation, quality of goods, and prices in your area. 

You can accomplish this by looking into any awards or online authority certificates that are owned by these potential clients. Knowing that they have reached a certain level of quality and efficiency approval from expert inspectors, etc., is highly useful in learning what portals are safe to make online purchases from, especially with something as sensitive as meat. 

Another method of analyzing the potential of specific online shopping portals is to take a look at their customer reviews. Companies with a high level of positive reviews tend to be safer to shop with in comparison to a portal that has quite a few negative reviews. 

Try to find a portal that has a high percentage of positive reviews but not a perfect review score. It is almost impossible for any legitimate business to achieve a perfect score as there will always be certain people that are never satisfied, no matter how good your quality and customer services are. 

This generally means that a company with a perfect review score has falsified its ratings somehow. It is best to avoid them unless you can confirm that the reviews are legit somehow. 

#4 – Purchasing a Large Amount of Meat on the First Purchase

Regardless of the amount of research you do before deciding on your online shopping portal, you can never be certain about the quality of the meat you’ve purchased until you see it with your own eyes. Because of this, it is always best to make a small purchase to start off with. While this does mean you will need to pay a substantial delivery fee and receive not much in the way of product, it helps you avoid the risk of buying a large amount of a poor-quality product. 

Make a few small purchases of a few different types of meat. (The ones you plan to buy quite often) Once it arrives, you can inspect the quality of each piece. If the company is good enough to continue purchasing from, all pieces of meat should pass your personal quality check!

What Do You Think?

Did we cover everything you might need? Do you feel as though you are informed enough to search for an online shopping portal that sells meat now?

If any of you readers have experience with shopping online for meat or if you go off and try it out using the quality checks that we’ve suggested, we would love to hear about it! Drop a comment down below and share your experiences with us!

Happy online meat shopping!