Can I Eat This? Tofu edition

September 14, 2017 1:36 PM

Frozen tofu in sealed supermarket packaging, thawed in fridge for a week or more, safe to eat now?

So I froze some tofu in its little plastic case. Somebody (not me. Argh.) took it out of the freezer hmmm last week sometime? Before that? Our sources are unclear! Let us say on an indefinite date but within the last 14 days. It has been sitting in the fridge ever since, still in sealed packaging. Took it out of the packaging tonight to press and then bake and it smells. . . not exactly rotten, but definitely sour. What think you, oh hive mind? Is it OK, just interesting? Or will it kill me?

posted by mygothlaundry to Food & Drink (10 answers total)

I usually go off the scent of it. If it smells sour, I would throw it.
posted by tofu_crouton at 1:37 PM on September 14, 2017 [5 favorites]

I'd toss it and I happily eat terribly dodgy things sometimes. Like, I love a proper very alive yogurt past its normally socially acceptable prime. I've had a couple that were darn near carbonated and they're alarmingly delicious.

Anyway, soy ferments with and supports unusual bacteria that you wouldn't find in, say, dairy yogurt or sourdough culture. I'm presuming this has everything to do with the natural PH and nutrient qualities of tofu.

Via random research I know that making and inoculating fermented soy things like fermented soy sauce or tempeh is a more fiddly thing than brewing beer or making yogurt. As far as I can reckon it's a notch or two above kimchi or kraut, both in safety issues and flavor control difficulty.

And part of my equation of this is seeing a bunch of random videos of about how commercial tofu is produced. I love tofu and I eat any given form of it, but the bulk manufacturing and packaging process definitely supports and allows for some bacterial counts and loads because of how it's mostly a cold process.

Short of full UHT pasteurization these natural bacterial counts are mainly unavoidable and harmless when the tofu is fresh and hasn't soured, but I wouldn't trust it after it's developed further and soured when we're talking about USA marketed commercial tofu.

(Fans of stinky tofu/dofu are free to disagree, but that's a carefully made fermented product, not a random block of American packaged tofu.)
posted by loquacious at 1:54 PM on September 14, 2017 [3 favorites]

When it goes REALLY bad it turns kinda pink. Tofu that hasn't had its water changed can smell a bit off but still be okay. You can rinse it really well several times then check the smell again. I have eaten tofu that was pink and didn't get sick but YMMV.

My credentials: have worked at a food co-op for 34 years and have eaten mountains of tofu in the last 40 years.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 1:56 PM on September 14, 2017 [5 favorites]

I have not eaten mountains of tofu or worked in a co-op, so YMMV. :)

I normally support not wasting food, but off tofu freaks me out a little more, and I'd be happy to be wrong about this.
posted by loquacious at 1:58 PM on September 14, 2017

EAT
(Qualifications: I have been a vegetarian for 30 years)
posted by latkes at 2:02 PM on September 14, 2017

Response by poster: I tossed it. I rinsed it a couple times but the smell just got stronger - like, extremely strong - so I chickened out and decided it was a bad idea. It probably would have been delicious.
posted by mygothlaundry at 2:11 PM on September 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'd eat it unless it smells funky, is off-color, or the corners/edges have hardened. I'm saying this as someone who eats *a lot* of tofu.
posted by ryegent at 2:46 PM on September 14, 2017

I got the sickest I've ever been off a slightly-weird block of tofu. I was down for days. You made the correct choice.
posted by goodbyewaffles at 3:29 PM on September 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

death by tofu would make an amazeballs band name.
posted by speakeasy at 11:43 PM on September 14, 2017

In my experience, tofu in the standard aseptic sealed tub starts to ferment just after its "Best By" date (evident by the sensation of light carbonation in the center, before cooking), but if I had tofu that had a sour or "off" smell, it wouldn't go anywhere near my mouth.

Unless it was supposed to, anyway.
posted by WasabiFlux at 7:11 PM on September 15, 2017