How Can You Tell if Pork is Spoiled? Check Out These 4 Signs.

Have you ever watched those TV cooking competitions where the judges ridicule the chefs when they serve chicken that is still pink on the inside? and remind them of the dangers of undercooked meat?

Well, there’s something worse than serving or consuming undercooked chicken: serving or consuming spoiled pork! When pork goes bad due to warm temperatures, bacteria, fungus, or packaging, you can get very sick if you eat it.

Here are some key ways to determine if the pork you’re considering cooking is spoiled:

1) Smell

smell

A plain old smell is the best way to determine if the pork is rotten. Fresh pork has very little smell. As meat spoils, it undergoes structural and chemical changes that alter the scent of the meat. A sour or rancid odor indicates that the pork has gone bad.

Bad pork smells like ammonia, fish, gas, or sulfur; the meat is no good. Don’t cook it or eat it. Sometimes the packaging, especially plastic or foam, will add a funny smell to pork. That does not necessarily mean that it’s spoiled.

If you’re unsure, go ahead and rinse the pork, pat it dry, and smell it again. If the pork smell is gone, it might have been the packaging smell. If the smell remains, then it’s spoiled.

Pro Tip: Although everyone’s olfactory senses vary, and what smells sweet to one person smells stinky to another, the particular scent of spoiled pork is pretty easy for your nose to confirm.

At the store: If you’re at the grocery store, you can sometimes smell the rot when you walk back to the meat section. You may want to shop at markets where you’ve purchased quality pork before or at a grocery or butcher where they package the meat to order.

You can, however, ask the butcher to unpack the meat so that you can examine it before buying it.

2) Touch or Texture

Spoiled pork feels slimy to the touch and has a stickiness (sometimes, you can even see the slime). Raw pork that is not spoiled has a particular tender but firm feel; if the meat is soft and squishy, it has started to spoil.

Additionally, the texture of fresh pork will be consistent throughout the cut of the meat. If the texture is inconsistent, that is a sign that the pork is spoiled.

The change in the texture of rotting pork once again results from the presence of bacteria and the chemical and structural alterations that their presence creates.

3) Appearance

Rotten pork experiences color changes that are easily recognizable with a visual examination. It is past its prime if you see a greenish-yellow, shiny, almost opalescent tint to the meat (you can often see this tint illuminating if you turn the pork slightly).

Interesting fact: Sliced deli ham (also a pork product!) also gets that shiny opalescent tint when it’s going rancid.

The yeast that develops on spoiled pork makes the color change. Other changes you might see are a greyish, brownish, or greenish hue. Fresh pork will be pink and the fat white.

Check the underside of the pork, too. Sometimes the bottom part that is sitting next to the packaging changes color, indicating spoilage, even if the top of the meat is still pink.

Mold. If you see mold on a piece of pork, that’s another visual indicator that the meat has spoiled. I know mold makes life-saving penicillin, and most of us have accidentally ingested “homemade” mold on cheese or bread, but meat is another story. Also, your fridge is not a lab, so 1) you can’t create sterile conditions, and 2) you can’t separate the penicillin mold from molds created by other harmful bacteria.

Freezer burn. If you have stored your pork in the freezer for too long, you might see freezer burn, which is another indication that the pork should be thrown out. Freezer burn does not necessarily mean the pork will make you sick, but freezer burn certainly has its particular taste, and it’s not fresh.

4) Check the packaging

This may seem obvious, but all prepackaged meat has a printed expiration date. This might say “Enjoy by…” or “Freshest by…” or “Best before….” or “Expires on…” with the date stamped next to it. Check that date, and toss the pork if it’s past that.

Pro-tip: There are two significant reasons for wanting to keep spoiled meat:
1) No one likes to waste food, especially when nearly 30% of the world’s population is experiencing food shortages; and
2) you might not have anything else to substitute for the meal you’re preparing.

Neither of these reasons will matter at all if you’re writhing in pain from food poisoning. And you don’t want to risk getting your loved ones sick, either.

Can I cook off the bacteria and still eat the meat?

Bacteria spreads quickly, and it also spreads toxins. You may be able to kill the bacteria by cooking the rotten pork, but the toxins will remain despite the cooking process, and you can still become very ill. Please don’t try to cook the rancid off and eat the pork. This is very dangerous.

Cooking spoilt pork will have a distinct off-putting smell and taste. It might also have a weird texture.

If you get food poisoning, you may experience fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and severe stomach cramps. Other signs of food poisoning include loss of appetite and weakness; staying hydrated is essential, especially if you have diarrhea and vomiting, which can cause dehydration.

However, the easiest solution is to do your best to package, store, and keep track of your pork’s expiration date to avoid getting sick in the first place.

Packaging and Storing

If you have a grocery or butcher selling sealed, pre-packed raw meat, you can refrigerate it for a day or two. If your butcher packs the pork for you from the meat counter, you might consider repackaging it if you’re not using it the same day.

If it will be uncooked for longer than that, wrap it with freezer-grade foil or plastic. Ground pork will last about 3 months in the freezer; other cuts up to 6 months. Make sure you label and date the meat.

Bottom Shelf

Pork and all meat should always be stored on the bottom shelf of your refrigerator or in one of the bottom drawers. If you store pork on the top and the juice drips down, you risk contaminating the vegetables, fruits, and other staples on the shelves below the pork.

Pro tip: I always put raw meat (well wrapped, of course!) on a silicone mat or towel in the refrigerator to avoid cross-contamination and prevent dirtying the fridge.

Thawing

Always thaw meat in the refrigerator. Don’t leave it on the counter to defrost all day or overnight. Extended time in a warm environment is a breeding ground for bacteria. The USDA outlines the proper handling of raw food. The USDA’s “Danger Zone” is 40 °F to 140 °F (4.44 °C to 60 °C).

Raw food needs to be stored below 40 °F, so keep it in the refrigerator (or on ice in a cooler if you’re going camping) until you are ready to cook it. Food should never be left out of refrigeration for more than 2 hours. If you’re in sweltering weather, above 90 °F (32 °C), reduce that limit to 1 hour.

There are a number of harmful bacteria that flourish on room-temperature meat:

1. - Staphylococcus aureus (you do not want a staph infection)
  - Salmonella Enteritidis
  - Escherichia coli
  - Campylobacter
  - Listeria monocytogenes

These bacteria grow exponentially in a very short period – in just 20 minutes, they can double in number.

Check the temperature of your refrigerator, too, to ensure you’re at 40 °F or less. If you’re barbecuing in the backyard, store your meat in a cooler by the grill or put food containers on ice.

After Cooking. We’ve covered proper storage for raw meat, but you can’t forget about food safety just because pork is cooked. Remember the other end of the USDA’s “Danger Zone:” keep hot food hot.

Cooked food needs to remain hot, above 145 °F (60 °C). Don’t keep a platter of grilled pork chops on the patio in the middle of summer: use a chafing dish, warming tray, or steam table.

Inside, keep things on very low heat in the oven (covered to keep it from drying) in a dutch oven on the stovetop, in the oven, or a slow cooker.

Tip: Put a metal pan on the bottom rack of the oven and put an inch of water in the pan. This will keep the pork that’s heating on the middle rack moist. Be sure to use metal, not glass, as the glass can shatter in the oven. Trust me; you don’t want to have to clean that up.

Also, fill the pan with water after situating the pan in the oven. If you fill it before, water will slosh all over. I usually boil water in the kettle on my stove and then pour it into the pan. Hot water won’t sizzle like cold water, and then the kettle spout controls the direction of the water. I can even pour it through the middle rack.

Our quest to prevent pork spoilage does not end after the meal ends. People often worry about foodborne illness in relation to raw food, but not cooling cooked foods correctly is one of the easiest ways to get food poisoning.

Even if you have cooked pork safely, you can reintroduce bacteria if you don’t cool and store the food properly. Make sure to store cooked pork in shallow containers – if you stack pork pieces on top of each other, they’ll take longer to cool to the safe 40 °F temperature.
Cooling must occur within 2 hours of cooking to ensure safety from bacteria.

Cooking Pork – Internal Temperatures

Guidance from the USDA for cooking pork changed recently – to summarize from their website:

Check the internal temperature of whole cuts of pork, including pork chops and roasts to be 145°F (63 °C); include 3 minutes of rest time so that the pork can be juicy and tender
or cook pork to 160°F (71 °C) without any rest time

You can find some great meat thermometers on Amazon – check here for a couple of suggestions.

Refreezing

Once you have defrosted a package of pork, you have to cook and consume it. Never refreeze meat that has already been frozen. Some pork says “previously frozen” on the packaging. If that’s the case, don’t freeze it again.

Planning

If you plan your meals out for the week, you’re less likely to forget about pork and other meats stored in the fridge, decreasing the chances of the pork spoiling.

You can use your calendar to mark the day you purchased a cut of pork or mark the week that you need to pull some frozen pork out of the freezer so that you can cook it before it goes bad.

Conclusion

Pork must be handled carefully and consistently the whole time it is in your possession. That begins when you choose a cut of pork at the market or butcher and continues until all the pork has been consumed.

Remember these tips:

- Look for pork that is fresh and pink on all sides. Ask the butcher to show you the entire cut. Notice the expiration date on prepackaged meats.
- Use raw meat within two days of purchasing or freeze it according to the above specifications.
- Ensure that packaging is secure at the store and home, both in the refrigerator and the freezer.
- Keep your pork out of the USDA’s “Danger Zone:” keep food temperature cold below 40 °F (4.44 °C) and hot at 140°F (60 °C) or above.
- Prevent bacteria growth by not leaving pork unrefrigerated before or after cooking.
- Check pork at every stage for signs of spoilage: smell (sour, ammonia, sulfur, gas); touch (sticky, slimy, soft); and appearance (any color besides pink), and discard any pork whose freshness you can’t verify.
- Cook pork to a minimum of 145°F (63 °C) and let rest for 3 minutes; or cook to 160°F (71 °C) with no rest period
- Check social media, news outlets, and the USDA website for reports of recalled pork, and make sure you don’t have any recalled products in your refrigerator or freezer.
- Using a tracking system to monitor when you purchase cuts of pork so that you use the meat before it spoils.
- Incorporate meal planning into your food routine to ensure the freshest use of your high-quality pork products.