Never Buy Bagged Salad if You See This

That pre-washed mix might look fresh—but it could be past its prime.

Bagged salads are a convenience that makes getting dinner on the table infinitely easier. Who has the time to wash, dry, and chop lettuce, much less assemble all the toppings? (Not me!) However, this shortcut isn't perfect.

As anyone who regularly shops the salad kits will know, sometimes you encounter a bag that's definitely past its prime. It's easy to tell when a bagged salad is done for—it's slimy, wilted, and stinky. But I want to know how to identify salad that's on the brink. I don't want to spend my grocery budget on a salad that will go bad the next day.

To figure this out, I spoke with Keith R. Schneider, a professor of food safety at the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Services. He explained which visual indicator will definitely let you know that your Caesar salad mix or bagged spinach is definitely not at its freshest.

You Don't Want To Buy "Wet" Salad

Most bagged greens are triple-washed and spun in centrifuges to ensure that they’re really dry before being packaged. If you see any accumulation of liquid in the bag, the contents inside are starting to go bad. According to Schneider, the lettuce is likely not at its peak freshness.

“They shouldn’t have any moisture inside them at all,” he says of bagged salads.

What Liquid Inside Your Bagged Salad Means

Even after harvest, Schneider notes that lettuce continues to “respire,” or essentially, breathe. Over time, that activity will cause the salad to decay. When you begin to see liquid, the leafy greens are starting to break down. 

That moisture is an ideal breeding ground for microbes, which won’t necessarily make you sick, but will make for a pretty unpleasant eating experience. (Schneider also says that even salad that looks perfectly fresh can carry pathogens, which is why thoroughly washing greens is so important.)

In some ways, the bacteria that break down the lettuce are keeping us safe. “I don’t really mind spoilage pathogens because they typically make me throw out food because it has a chance to become problematic,” Schneider says. “It’s nature’s way of making sure we don’t hold on to foods too long that could eventually make us sick.”

In some cases, you may see a small number of water droplets inside a bag of salad, and that can be totally normal. Schneider says it’s condensation, most likely from swings in temperature, which can happen whenever the salad moves from cold temps (the refrigerator) to ambient temps (your car's trunk).

What Should I Do if There’s Liquid in My Bagged Salad?

If you find a bag of salad in your fridge with a bit of standing liquid in the package, Schneider’s recommendation is simple: Toss it. It’s not guaranteed that the food is unsafe to eat, but these conditions make it easy for any yucky bacteria that might be in the package to multiply, which would eventually make you sick.

“Once things are starting to spoil, and you’re seeing that liquid built up, it’s best just to toss them,” he says. “It might be tough on your grocery budget, but it will keep you from putting any unnecessary strain on your gastrointestinal tract.”