You’re smelling your food wrong–experts explain why the sniff test is misleading

WE’VE all engaged in some form of the “sniff test” to learn if our food has gone bad or not.

You see the expiration date was for yesterday or the day before, so you smell the product to decide whether it’s still good to consume.

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Although many seem to believe the sniff test is a good way to determine if a food is still safe to eat, experts said this test is misleading.

Kristen Gibson, an associate professor of food science at the University of Arkansas, told the : “There’s no way possible to sniff and tell if a food is safe. You could probably tell the quality has gone downhill. But to know that it is safe is impossible.”

According to the Food and Drug Administration, the “Best if Used By/Before” dates on food describe when a product will be at its optimal flavor quality.

The dates don’t have anything to do with safety.

If you eat a food after the date, it may still be perfectly safe—but it just might not taste as good.

That’s where the sniff test will be useful: it can serve as a quick way to tell if the food will taste ok.

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But just because something smells bad—like milk—it doesn’t mean it will give you a dangerous disease like foodborne illness.

“I wouldn’t eat it or drink it,” Gibson said. “I think the experience would not be very pleasant. But it shouldn’t cause you harm.

“You may get nauseous just because you ate something that wasn’t appealing, but it shouldn’t cause any sort of infection or something.”

While curdled milk doesn’t sound appealing to drink on its own, that’s the kind of milk used to make yogurt. Meaning, it’s still safe to consume.

In conclusion, the sniff test won’t tell you whether a food is safe to eat—because your senses aren’t that powerful.

Martin Wiedmann, food safety and food science professor at Cornell University, explained this:

“You can’t taste organisms that cause disease in a food, and you can’t sniff it.”

Wiedmann said that most foodborne pathogens, such as E. coli or salmonella, can cause nausea or diarrhea at small levels, “way beyond a level where you can smell it or detect it.”  

In other words, the food wouldn’t appear spoiled until it’s inside your body.

So unfortunately, even if it doesn’t smell bad, it doesn’t mean it’s safe to eat.

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