Warning Signs Your Ground Turkey Has Gone Bad - Tasting Table

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Warning Signs Your Ground Turkey Has Gone Bad By John J Lee April 25, 2022 3:55 pm EST Natali Samoro/Shutterstock

In a world of newer recipes and dietary alternatives, ground turkey has found a very real, very tasty, and very healthy niche as a poultry substitute in dishes that normally use ground pork or ground beef. As you begin to embrace the versatility of ground turkey, it's also imperative that you are able to recognize when your turkey meat has gone bad.

According to Foods Guy, typically the ground turkey you buy at the store includes a blended mix of the lighter breast meat, the darker leg meat, and some smaller amount of fat and skin included as well. These cuts are ground up into a sort of coarse paste that can go bad very quickly if kept in the wrong conditions for too long. Temperatures that are too high (anything above 40 degrees Fahrenheit) and have too much air exposure will turn your ground turkey into a bacteria playground, so be sure to handle your turkey with care.

How to tell if it's too late for your turkey

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Thankfully, it is generally very easy to tell if your turkey has gone bad, and if you're paying attention, bad ground turkey should never slip by you. Fresh ground turkey will be a light pink color and should appear to be glistening as if moist. If you look and see any off coloring, particularly a graying color or mold, and the meat appears slimy then your turkey meat has gone bad, per Today.

The look of it will definitely be off putting, but the smell will rob you of house and home and may even stink up your kitchen and your fridge for a disconcertingly long time. According to Cully's Kitchen, poultry that has gone bad has a characteristically sulfuric smell and if you get even a whiff of it, your turkey is not safe to eat. Make sure that you are not consuming any ground turkey that is exhibiting any of these signs and more importantly, make sure to wrap the meat airtight before throwing it away (that smell is no joke)!

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