Signs That Your Cabbage Has Gone Bad

Fruit and vegetables are notorious for being particularly perishable food items, meaning that they require plenty of tenderness and care to reach their maximum potential. However, certain veggies are naturally accustomed to outlive their rivals, according to Dried Foodie – and one of these champions is the humble cabbage.

Cabbage has the biological advantage of containing low levels of water in comparison to other organic foodstuffs, meaning that the bacteria that gradually cause plant-based products to rot are less able to function effectively, allowing cabbage to stay fresher for longer. Despite this benefit, cabbages will of course eventually begin to go off, so it's important to be aware of common cabbage spoilage signs.

Although when a cabbage turns bad it won't do anything as dramatic as plot a ludicrous bank heist, it will start to go very soft, appearing discolored with a gray and black tint in places. A further giveaway is a foul smell. The scent of fresh cabbage is not overly enjoyed by everyone, so the smell of a decaying cabbage will be eminently clear (and certainly wouldn't make it into a perfume bottle). Finally, a cabbage can be deemed to have gone bad if it has a gut-wrenching flavor that is (obviously) not how it should taste.

Storing cabbage correctly is essential to giving it the best chance of a long survival. According to Cedar Circle Farm & Education Center, keeping cabbage fresh for longer relies on leaving as many of the outer leaves on as possible, not causing bruising through clumsy handling, and storing the leafy veg properly in a refrigerator. Although washing your vegetables immediately after buying them may seem like an efficient way of managing a kitchen, it is advised to not rinse your cabbage until you are actually ready to use it.

Looking after our food is a critical part of reducing food waste, which the FDA believes is the end result of 30-40 percent of the total food supply in the United States. Even though a few discarded chunks of cabbage may not seem a big deal, a shift in attitudes towards how we look after our groceries would help tackle the food waste problem and save us money in the long run.