Can olives go off?

December 19, 2023 8:50 AM

I deep-sixed a tub of olives but was I being paranoid?

Sealed plastic tub of mixed olives, green and black. I've had various olives from this small local brand before and they've always been fine.

When I peeled off the seal there was a whiff of a sulfurous sort of smell, which hung around them.

I tasted one green olive, which seemed OK, but then I decided I'd better not. Last week I had gastro, so I'm probably being a little more cautious than usual what I eat.

But can something so salted and pickled even go off?

posted by zadcat to Food & Drink (9 answers total)

Normally I tell people that it's probably fine to eat stuff, but if you smelled something that seemed not right, no point in second-guessing that. There's stuff that can live in those geothermal vents in the ocean, so certainly there is something that can live in your olives.
posted by number9dream at 8:56 AM on December 19, 2023 [10 favorites]

Trust your sense of smell above all things. FWIW I've seen green olives in an unopened jar of brine get an orangey fungus once. There can be imperfections even in industrially packaged pickled things.
posted by MiraK at 9:33 AM on December 19, 2023 [7 favorites]

Hell yeah they can go off. You did good.
posted by tiny frying pan at 9:40 AM on December 19, 2023 [2 favorites]

Yeah they can go off. One time I ate some leftover Castelvetrano olives from a shared fridge. They didn't taste or smell bad, but they coated my mouth with a bitter, vomit-y taste that lingered for hours. I didn't get sick, thankfully, but it put me off olives for years.
posted by sportbucket at 10:11 AM on December 19, 2023

Yeah, it takes a long time, but they can go bad.
posted by coffeecat at 10:37 AM on December 19, 2023

Ever since I read Ali Colia, Merchant of Bagdad in the Arabian Nights, I've known that olives can go bad
posted by olopua at 12:44 PM on December 19, 2023 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks all. Olives can indeed go off – although they shouldn't've done, in a sealed package, bought recently.
posted by zadcat at 1:27 PM on December 19, 2023

I've seen tubs of kalamata olives at my parents house develop a kind of white scum if kept long enough (rare for them to last that long in my house). I looked it up and resources seemed to say it's a kind of yeast and not harmful—but it does impart a kinda gross and lingering taste that even rinsing them won't get rid of. And I'm someone who likes many ferments with a yeasty flavor. Not this one.

I suppose there could also be enough fat to congeal and go rancid.
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:14 PM on December 19, 2023 [2 favorites]

Recently I underwent a change of attitude on possibly spoiled food. I used to be reluctant to chance wasting it. Nowadays if I have the slightest doubt, I throw it out.
posted by kingless at 3:08 PM on December 19, 2023