Can I eat it: Salmon edition

September 10, 2022 7:34 PM

I got vacuum sealed refrigerated salmon from Trader Joe’s on Wednesday. The best by date on the package is tomorrow, but it smelled pretty strongly fishy when I opened it a bit ago and the Internet says that’s bad. Can I eat it?

I’m seeing advice to cook salmon within 1-2 days, and maybe vacuum sealed can go longer (2-3 days), which is sooner than what the best by date would suggest. It looked totally fine- same color and texture as it was when I got it. But there was definitely a clear fishy smell, more so than what I’m used to. I already cooked it and took a small bite and it tastes fine, but now I’m psyching myself out!

posted by deus ex machina to Food & Drink (10 answers total)

Normally I’d say “I’d eat it”, but I don’t like salmon. My wife does, though, and I’d cook it for her without a second thought.
posted by kevinbelt at 7:41 PM on September 10, 2022

I've been eating a lot of frozen fish recently, and once it's thawed and it's ready to eat I take it out, pat it dry with a few paper towels, and leave it on a plate for a few minutes before giving it a sniff. Often the oils/juices in the package can smell strongly, and once I've cleaned the fish off it smells just fine.
posted by skycrashesdown at 7:51 PM on September 10, 2022 [3 favorites]

I dunno, salmon always smells pretty fishy to me and I always eat it anyway and I’m fine.
posted by mekily at 8:01 PM on September 10, 2022 [4 favorites]

Vacuum sealing meat products accentuates the smelliness of the meat once the package has been opened. This is not a sign of spoilage and I'd assume the same would be true with fish.

I'd give it a rinse and a pat dry with paper towel and see how the salmon smelled after that. I'd probably eat it.
posted by arha at 8:10 PM on September 10, 2022 [4 favorites]

If it looks fine, it's fine. Salmon always smells a bit fishy to me as well, so if the color/texture are fine, you're good to go.
posted by coffeecat at 8:11 PM on September 10, 2022

I eat a lot of vacuum packed salmon and other fish, and they all usually smell pretty fishy (so does fresh fish, but I don't live somewhere with access to fresh-off-the-boat fish for comparison). Never had any issues.

I would eat it without hesitation unless there's something else weird or the smell seems "wrong".
posted by randomnity at 8:23 PM on September 10, 2022 [3 favorites]

It doesn't pass your personal confidence limit - don't. Toss it.
posted by porpoise at 9:41 PM on September 10, 2022 [2 favorites]

You can try a small amount and see it it causes trouble. Salmon has a strong smell, and I would probably test it out of caution, then happily enjoy it.
posted by theora55 at 10:17 AM on September 11, 2022

99% of the time I am on team Eat It. However, I recently got some wild salmon I felt didn’t pass the smell test but I cooked it anyway (because, team Eat it.) I took a bite and it was foul. Therefore I will always now trust that smell test for salmon.
posted by tatiana wishbone at 11:16 AM on September 11, 2022

I was car camping once, and thought the salmon smelled quite a bit off. Since we had no backup food, I cooked it anyway, but one of the guests almost gagged on it (she was, interestingly, an Alaska native and had dealt with a lot of salmon, and knew her fish). Should have trusted my gut (nose).

In that case, the 'bad smell' was like 85/100.

In fact, the fridge had failed, and the salmon was quite spoiled.

In a more recent case, the salmon gave me the tiny tiny whiff of being a bit off (like 1/100) but only to me. Cooked it anyway, and everyone thought it was great.

TLDR: rinse it first, and the nose knows.
posted by soylent00FF00 at 4:55 PM on September 11, 2022