Can refrigerated sauerkraut go bad?

[SusieQ]

This package of sauerkraut has been refrigerated since I bought it. "Best used by" date is 09/09/25. It smells ok. What do you think? Can I still eat it? It will be cooked with other ingredients. 

[FeChef]

I can't speak for that brand, but i have had kept bags of silverfloss in a container in my fridge for well over a year and they never went bad. I keep them till the kraut losses its krunch.

[gfweb]

I have a Kissling's that I've been dipping into for at least a year.

[SusieQ]

I should have clarified that my Cleveland Kraut has no preservatives--just green cabbage, kosher salt, and caraway seed. I see that both Silverfloss and Kissling have sodium benzoate and sodium bisulfite as preservatives. I wonder if that makes a difference?

[liuzhou]

Yes, it can but I routinely ignore sell by dates. The manufacturers build in wide margins of error to cover their backsides. Your sauerkraut is only four months over. I'd bet its OK, but read this before you decide.

 

https://www.chefsresource.com/faq/what-happens-if-you-eat-bad-sauerkraut-2/

 

 

Edited January 26 by liuzhou
typo (log)

[haresfur]

I have had homemade sauerkraut turn to mush in the fridge. Don't really know why that happened. 

[Maison Rustique]

I'd been wondering about freezing sauerkraut and see in the article @liuzhou provided that it says yes. Anyone tried it? I don't want to end up with a bag of mush, although if that happened, I'd likely just mix it into mashed potatoes.

[rotuts]

Why bother , even if the risk is ' small ' ?

 

and dont do it again

[SusieQ]

7 hours ago, rotuts said:

Why bother , even if the risk is ' small ' ?

 

and dont do it again

You're right. That's what I always think when I read posts like mine. And yet -- I went ahead and made my dish last night and ate some of it. So far, so good. But the anxiety isn't worth it. Next time I'm going to throw out the questionable item. I'm just such a penny-pincher, though, it goes against the grain. 

[KevinG]

With refrigerated fermented sauerkraut, as long as it doesn't smell bad, you are ok to eat it. It's healthier if you don't cook it as you will benefit from the good bacteria.

[liuzhou]

13 hours ago, KevinG said:

With refrigerated fermented sauerkraut, as long as it doesn't smell bad, you are ok to eat it. It's healthier if you don't cook it as you will benefit from the good bacteria.

 

Given that smell is a subjective sense, I'd give that suggestion a wide berth. 

 

What smells bad to you maybe appetizing to someone else. And vice versa. 

 

Think some cheeses, stinky tofu, durian etc. Love it or hate it. 

 

 

[Tropicalsenior]

I probably should explain, again, my extreme aversion to sauerkraut. Every fall my little German grandmother would make sauerkraut. My grandfather grew mountains of cabbage and she would process it in five or six 10 gallon crocs in her basement. All through September and October her house would smell of fermenting sauerkraut. It was worse than the city dump on the hottest August day. There was no power on God's green earth that would make me enter her house until all of that had been canned and put away in hermetically sealed glass jars.

Even then, her house didn't return to an acceptable olfactory level until she started baking hundreds of springerly cookies for Christmas. But that's a horror story for another day.

To make a short story long, I don't know if sauerkraut will go rotten in the refrigerator. To me it's just rotten cabbage to begin with.

[liuzhou]

Returning here to say that all food can go bad, except honey. Samples thousands of years old have been discovered and proved edible.

 

[haresfur]

Maybe good to set out a few things that can go wrong with sauerkraut in general, not specific to packaged products.

 

The first and obvious one is mould. In homemade kraut this tends to be white to green spots that float on the surface of the liquid, or attach themselves to bits that are at the surface. That is why it is so important to keep everything submerged with cabbage leaves, weights, mesh or whatever. Easier said than done when dealing with things like caraway seeds that float up. Some people say a brine with 2% by weight salt is ok to eat if you skim the mould off. Others are adamant that you chuck it if it is mouldy. 

 

The second is Kahm yeast. This is a wild yeast that forms filaments or a layer on top of the ferment. It is basically harmless and can be skimmed off. Best to skim then keep the sauerkraut in the fridge.

 

I previously mentioned my sauerkraut turning to mush. I generally prefer my kraut crispy so don't pound it to draw out the brine the way some people do. I'd rather top up with salt solution if necessary.

 

One thing to remember is that people have been making sauerkraut for a long time using much less sophisticated crocks, jars, etc. than we have these days. That doesn't mean their techniques are safe, but I believe it means they are quite safe they won't usually harm you. You can go down a whole rabbit hole of fermentation methods and variations. My tendency is to accept some risk but ymmv.

 

Report back if you die

[SusieQ]

16 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Returning here to say that all food can go bad, except honey. Samples thousands of years old have been discovered and proved edible.

 

Thank you for this posting!

 

[SusieQ]

2 hours ago, haresfur said:

Report back if you die.

I didn't die. I didn't even have any bad after-effects. 
But I also didn't eat the leftovers. I didn't want to press my luck.