How To Tell If Your Bacon Has Gone Bad - Tasting Table

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How To Tell If Your Bacon Has Gone Bad By Chris Sands Updated: March 1, 2022 7:19 am EST Igor Normann/Shutterstock

Few if any foods smell or taste better than crispy bacon. Unless of course, horror of horrors, the bacon has gone bad. Like all foods, bacon is susceptible to spoilage. Luckily, there are several easy ways to check your bacon before cooking that should leave no doubt as to whether you're about to have an epic breakfast or optimized cheeseburger ... or whether you're going to have to make another trip to the market.

The one mistake you don't want to make is eating spoiled bacon, as like other delicious foods such as poultry and eggs, bad bacon can cause salmonella poisoning. So always make sure to examine your bacon carefully before cooking. According to Healthline, there are three telltale giveaways when bacon goes bad, all of which are easily discoverable by checking the look, feel, and smell of your beloved salt-cured pork.

When it comes to looking, for example, don't just eye the expiration date and assume all is well. Look at the bacon itself. Fresh bacon should display a white or pinkish color, whereas bacon that has been open too long can become gray-brown, or even (egads!) develop green spotting. Smelling bacon also offers an instant tip-off (spoiling meat has an unmistakable odor), as does checking the texture, as Home Cook World explains.

How to properly store bacon to keep it fresh longer

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If you have a large family, it is definitely possible to go through a package of bacon at a single meal. For singles or couples, meanwhile, that's not the case. So enhanced care in storing your bacon properly will help to ensure it never goes bad. Per StillTasty, bacon should safely last seven to 10 days in the refrigerator after being opened. But don't just put the open package back in the fridge. Keep it airtight in a resealable plastic bag for best results. If you want to keep bacon in the freezer to extend its shelf life, the outlet recommends overwrapping the original packaging with aluminum, plastic wrap, or freezer bags. Unopened, bacon should be good for two weeks in the fridge, or up to two months in the freezer.

Should culinary tragedy strike, and your bacon does go bad, it's not enough to just throw it out. It's also important to take care when disposing of spoiled food. Street Smart Kitchen favors wrapping the package well and throwing it in the trash outside, so the smell doesn't remain indoors. Wash your hands thoroughly afterwards. However, this eventuality should be easily preventable if you keep bacon airtight and well-refrigerated. The Food and Drug Administration endorses keeping your refrigerator temperature below 40 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent bacterial spoilage.

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