Reason why your bacon sometimes goes green and if it's safe to eat

It's a staple of many fridges in the UK - slices of bacon ready to be cooked up in frying pans or air fryers. Bacon is a tasty food enjoyed by many and it can be enjoyed in a number of ways, whether that is on sandwiches, pancakes or even with pasta.

However sometimes bacon can have a strange green hue and people are just finding out the reason why. When fresh food features an unusual colour, we often assume that is has gone off and is no longer safe to eat. However that may not always be the case for bacon.

Taking to Reddit, one internet user wrote: "I opened it this morning, and the bacon looks kind of green. But only from a certain angle, almost like it's iridescent! From the left, it looks regular pinkish red, meat colour. But then I lean to the right, and it has this green shine."

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If your bacon features a green sheen, this may be a result of preservatives chemicals such as nitrite reacting with proteins in the meat known as myoglobins. As reported by FoodRepublic, this process will change a bacon's colour from red to green due to the nitrites degrading any leftover blood.

As a rule of thumb, your bacon should be safe to eat if it is properly sealed, well within its use by date and hasn't developed a strong odour or slimy texture. However if your bacon has been in the fridge for several days and has taken on a green hue, this could due to a build-up of funghi and bacteria and it's best to chuck it away.

Meanwhile, slate.com offered this trick to test if the bacon is edible: "To determine whether your iridescent raw meat is unsafe, lightly wipe the surface of the meat with a paper towel. If the sheen disappears, then the meat is likely harboring slime-producing microbes, and you should discard it."