{"id":301,"date":"2022-01-12T21:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-12T21:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/salmonfacts.org\/?p=301"},"modified":"2022-06-06T18:35:18","modified_gmt":"2022-06-06T18:35:18","slug":"is-my-salmon-safe-to-eat-6-clues-that-your-salmon-is-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salmonfacts.org\/is-my-salmon-safe-to-eat-6-clues-that-your-salmon-is-bad\/","title":{"rendered":"Is My Salmon Safe to Eat? 6 Clues that Your Salmon is Bad"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Salmon is one of the world\u2019s most popular fish–each year, salmon fisheries produce over 32 million pounds worth of the fish–and for good reason, as its unique flavor fits into a variety of cuisines. And it’s also a fact that salmon is one of the most nutritious fish<\/a>… when it’s fresh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But anytime you\u2019re cooking with fresh fish (as you should, for reasons related to both taste and sustainability), there\u2019s the inevitable worry about its freshness. Since fish already smells different than meat and poultry, it can be challenging to know the telltale signs of spoilage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article, we\u2019ll break down salmon food safety<\/a> facts by using seafood safety guidelines to ensure you only eat the best salmon each time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rancid Smell<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although it might be our first instinct to jump to visual clues, the truth is that evolution has provided us with another excellent spoilage detector: our noses. While visuals can sometimes be difficult to parse (especially if salmon has been frozen and thawed), the smell is a reliable way of assessing salmon\u2019s freshness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While many assume that fish always has an odor, fresh salmon should not have a particularly noticeable smell at all–it might have a mild odor if you get close, but if it\u2019s just been caught, even this will be subtle. If your salmon has been pre-frozen, it might have a more noticeable fishy smell, though if it\u2019s fresh, it still shouldn\u2019t be smelly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, you know that salmon is no longer safe to eat if it has a smell that\u2019s rancid, trash-like, or overpoweringly fishy, which sounds a little subjective. However, if you\u2019re handling rotten fish, you tend to know it–the fish has an unavoidable, overpowering, and unappetizing smell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dull Color<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The next thing you should look for in assessing your salmon\u2019s safety is its color, which is intuitive for salmon, as one of its signature traits is its bright pink flesh. If your salmon is so dull that it appears gray or if it becomes black, that\u2019s a sure sign to steer clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, the challenge with giving salmon an ocular pat-down is that plenty of salmon filets aren\u2019t radiant pink so much as orange or rosy. That isn\u2019t necessarily a bad sign: when salmon is frozen (as it often is, given its popularity), the formation of ice crystals can dull its natural color. That means that when you thaw it, it will be less brightly colored–but still safe to eat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can take a bit of critical judgment to notice the difference, but rotten-colored salmon will be fairly obvious based on context and other factors like smell and texture. That\u2019s all to say that you should be on guard when your salmon has an extremely dull, gray, unappetizing look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slimy Skin<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A third way to check your salmon\u2019s freshness is to check out its textures, as they contain several clues that your salmon has gone bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, your salmon should not be slimy. Now, it\u2019s possible that your salmon might feel moist since it is a biological creature with natural oils–not to mention the fact that, when frozen salmon thaws, the ice crystals inside it melt and collect in the receptacle around it. That said, this moisture should be very light, and you should be able to dry it off with one pat of a paper towel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, rotten salmon flesh will give way. When you press the flesh in, your finger will leave an indent that will not go away or break the skin apart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fragile Flesh<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Fresh salmon flesh will have the consistency of, well, flesh! It will be firm to the touch, and when you press it, it will stay firm and bounce back into place without breaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, rotten salmon flesh will give way. When you press the flesh in, your finger will leave an indent in the fish that will not go away–or it might even break the fish skin apart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep in mind, of course, that this is all relative. We\u2019re not talking about testing the fish\u2019s firmness by pressing on it as hard as you can; a simple touch of pressure will do the trick. If the salmon flesh falls apart from that, it\u2019s a sign that the fish is decomposing and should be thrown away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Marbling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Another visual way to determine your salmon\u2019s freshness returns us to the realm of the visual. If you\u2019ve ever seen a salmon filet, odds are that you\u2019ve noticed the white lines that run through the flesh, which is marbled fat. It\u2019s especially common in farm-raised salmon (wild-caught salmon tend to have less fat because they have to swim through fierce currents all their lives)–and if the marbling is off, then the salmon may be bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thankfully, you don\u2019t need to be a culinary scientist to investigate this marbling. If the lines are clear, bright white, and stripe across the salmon in well-defined lines, then you have a fresh piece of fish on your hands. If they\u2019re extremely dull (not just a pale white, but full-on gray) and seem to be diffused throughout the salmon, that\u2019s a sign of bad fish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Final Clue<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So, you\u2019ve given your salmon a smell, done a thorough visual examination, and given it a rigorous test–but you still feel uncertain about whether it\u2019s safe to eat, and you\u2019re still asking how to know if salmon is bad. What are you to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The simple answer is to use your context clues and think about how you got the salmon. If you bought it pre-frozen, there should be an expiration date–and if it\u2019s past that date, throw it away. If you bought your salmon fresh, it won\u2019t stay good for more than three days in the fridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using these cutoff dates can be a great decision-making tool if you\u2019re feeling on the fence. Using these salmon food safety facts will help you determine if your salmon is okay to eat. The most important thing is your safety–no matter how well you cook your salmon, it won\u2019t be a successful meal if it gets you sick! So when in doubt, throw it out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Salmon is one of the world\u2019s most popular fish–each year, salmon fisheries produce over 32 million pounds worth of the fish–and for good reason, as its unique flavor fits into a variety of cuisines. And it’s also a fact that salmon is one of the most nutritious fish… when it’s fresh. But anytime you\u2019re cooking … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salmonfacts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salmonfacts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salmonfacts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salmonfacts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salmonfacts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/salmonfacts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":496,"href":"https:\/\/salmonfacts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301\/revisions\/496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salmonfacts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salmonfacts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salmonfacts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salmonfacts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}