Can I eat this? Canned Garbanzofilter

July 7, 2015 3:31 AM

Opened can of garbanzos; a cloud of sulfur/egg smell emerged. When I rinsed the beans and the can, they seemed more frothy than usual. Am I being paranoid or can I eat these?
posted by moonlight on vermont to Food & Drink (12 answers total)

Best answer: No, not being paranoid.
No, don't eat them!

Bad, bad, bad. Bad smell and froth means bad, bad.

Not overthinking this can of beans...
posted by Thella at 3:41 AM on July 7, 2015 [32 favorites]

Best answer: A can of garbanzos costs $1.29 at the grocery store...go buy another can of garbanzos. My treat if you send me the receipt...
posted by HuronBob at 3:48 AM on July 7, 2015 [21 favorites]

It would be dumb to eat this.
posted by ryanrs at 3:52 AM on July 7, 2015 [3 favorites]

Best answer: That funky smell is an indicator of Clostridium, which is an anaerobic spore-forming bacteria and one of the major causes of food poisoning.
posted by essexjan at 4:22 AM on July 7, 2015 [17 favorites]

Never eat anything that smells of sulfur.
posted by AlexiaSky at 4:23 AM on July 7, 2015 [12 favorites]

If you know something doesn't taste or smell the way it should, don't eat it. I learned this the hard way as a teenager. I made some tuna salad with mayonnaise that, unknown to me, was 6 months past the date. It didn't taste like normal tuna salad, though it didn't taste too bad. I ate it, and got very sick.
posted by Anne Neville at 5:37 AM on July 7, 2015 [4 favorites]

For the record, froth when you rinse canned beans is very common. Here's an explainer; the starch in the canning liquid traps bubbles.

However, who even wants to eat something that smells like sulphur? Everyone else is right that the smell is a bad sign.
posted by Juliet Banana at 7:05 AM on July 7, 2015 [4 favorites]

Smell is important. Trust your nose. Dump these beans.
posted by h00py at 7:21 AM on July 7, 2015

If it were me, I'd also make sure that I'd really scrubbed out the sink (and, if it were me, any dirty dishes that had been in the sink) where I rinsed the beans, too.
posted by jaguar at 7:30 AM on July 7, 2015 [1 favorite]

I know you have marked the "DO NOT EAT THROW AWAY" responses as best answers, but please come back at some point to confirm that you switched to PB&J and are still alive, reveling in your body being unpoisoned.

I eat a lot of foods that metafilter considers uneatable/dangerous, but anything that emits a cloud of evil-smelling vapor is firmly on the "poisonous (also potentially cursed???) DO NOT EAT" list.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 8:12 AM on July 7, 2015 [6 favorites]

Response by poster: Hi, a fiendish thingy, I threw 'em out, scrubbed out my sink and all dishes with 409, and am totally alive and ok and grateful for all of your answers. Thank you also for asking me to check in; I think I might not have been the only person here traumatized by that appendicitis asker disappearing a few years ago :/. Thank you guys for saving me from cheapness-induced likely food poisoning. <3
posted by moonlight on vermont at 4:13 PM on July 7, 2015 [3 favorites]

Yayyyyyy! TAKE THAT, FOOD-BORNE ILLNESS!!!!

Glad to have you still with us, moonlight on vermont! :)
posted by a fiendish thingy at 5:48 AM on July 8, 2015