The smell of your frozen fish should never be anything less than pleasant. If it’s not, then you probably need to get rid of that bad boy as soon as possible!
Frozen food is safe and good for consumption when the package maintains a cold temperature during transport. But if left at warm temperatures they can spoil.
Be careful with how long you leave them out before cooking because there are no second chances once this nasty stuff starts going rotten
Signs of Spoilage & How to avoid!
- Fishes have a chance of drying up when they are left in the freezer for too long. Freezer burn can be recognized by white or light brown patches on your fishes that most often appear at its edges.
- Lighter than the fish when it went into the freezer, a sign of moisture evaporation.
- The sell-by date is a way to know if the fish has gone bad. If you have been keeping it in your fridge but forgot about, check for the expiration before deciding whether or not to cook it up and find that much sooner than expected!
- Inspect the fish – when you take it out of the fridge, feel to see if there’s a slimy coating on it. As time goes by and your food starts going bad, its outer surface will get wetter until eventually they develop thin layer of slime that is very good sign for spoilage!
- Your olfactory system should always be on high alert for the fishy smell. The only exception to this rule is when cooking it, as happens with many seafood dishes.
- Fish that has already gone bad will have a stronger and more pungent aroma than fresh ones, so if you notice an increase in odor after opening your fridge or freezer then don’t hesitate to get rid of any other food items stored there too!
- Avoid packages with signs of frost or ice crystals for freshness, as the fish may be stored for a long time.
- If you want your fish to taste like the ocean, make sure it’s frozen hard. When you bend a piece of “frozen” fish flesh should be firm and not able to be bent much at all!
- Fish will emit a rank smell if it has gone bad, and the occasional ammonia odor as well
- Eyes. The eyes will be sunken and cloudy like a cataract.
- Gills. These are behind their head and are either yellowed or gray.
- Guts. Fish spoiled by the spoiling process will have swollen, flaccid bodies and sunken eye sockets.
Finally, If something tastes sour or acidic, it means that it is not fresh. You can tell if food is still good to eat by how it tastes.
We hope you learn these signs and use them next time you go for frozen fish shopping.
