Do Sweet Potatoes Go Bad?

Consider how much food people may have wasted prior to the use of refrigerators and freezers. However, even with the assistance of these gadgets, they will deteriorate, which is why we depend significantly on expiry dates.

These dates indicate when the food should be eaten, discarded, or kept. It makes no difference how long or short the date is since it is always helpful!

Sweet potatoes are one common meal that people may be concerned about going bad. In this post, we will determine if sweet potatoes may spoil and everything else you need to know about the subject!

Can Sweet Potatoes Go Bad, and if So, How Long Do They Last?

You shouldn’t be shocked to learn that sweet potatoes, like any other food, may spoil.

What distinguishes this cuisine from others is the length of time it can be kept fresh. This, of course, is subject to certain restrictions.

If these conditions are not satisfied, the sweet potato will not keep for very long.

The best approach to guarantee that your raw sweet potatoes survive as long as possible is to store them intact in a cool, dry environment.

This will allow it to endure for a maximum of four weeks before being used or discarded. If you chop the raw sweet potato, you only have three to five days if you store it in the fridge.

Never keep them on the counter since this ensures they will go bad. It may not happen in the blink of an eye, but it will happen quicker than you expect.

It depends on whether you’re storing cooked sweet potatoes in the fridge or freezer. Cooked sweet potatoes can keep in the freezer for 3 to 4 days before needing to be thrown or eaten.

In rare situations, they may be stored in the freezer for up to a month.

So it is dependent on whether the sweet potato is raw or cooked, as well as how it is preserved. The simplest things may sometimes lead to something getting rotten.

What Happens if You Eat Bad Sweet Potatoes?

The most serious danger of eating a rotten sweet potato is contracting food poisoning or a bacteria-borne disease such as salmonella or listeria.

These infections are often characterized by vomiting, nausea, stomach cramps, fever, and diarrhea.

You will just have a moderate to mild illness and will be out of action for a few days.

You may get extremely sick under exceptional conditions, although this is uncommon and does not usually occur.

In the next part, we’ll show you how to identify whether sweet potatoes are rotten so you don’t become ill.

How To Tell if Sweet Potatoes Are Bad

There are several clear indicators of a poor sweet potato. They are as follows:

• If the sweet potato becomes soft, shriveled, or mushy, it should be thrown.
• Any deterioration or mold on the sweet potato should be discarded immediately. This is one of those indications that is more visible than others since mold is quite simple to detect.
• Sweet potatoes should never have a foul odor. You know what to do if you notice a nasty stench. You must throw it away since consuming it would result in stomach pains and other symptoms.
• You can’t consume sprouts if there are a lot of them. You can only be if you remove all of the sprouts from the sweet potato.
• If cooked sweet potato has been in the fridge for more than four days, it should be discarded. After that, you must dispose of it in the trash. To make your sweet potato last longer, just place it in the freezer. Food stored in the freezer will survive longer than food stored in, instance, the refrigerator.

How to Safely Store Sweet Potatoes

You must store your sweet potatoes correctly to keep them from spoiling. You may do this by:

whether you follow all of these guidelines, you’ll be able to detect whether your sweet potato has gone rotten!

• We stated it previously, but sweet potatoes should be kept in a dark and cold area, such as a cupboard.
• Wrapping them in a paper towel or a perforated plastic bag can extend their shelf life even more.
• The two restrictions we discussed before apply to raw potatoes. Cooked potatoes are a bit different. When cooked potatoes are frozen, they last the longest. They may be kept securely in the freezer for up to six months, so if you want them to last, put them in the freezer.

By following these easy guidelines, you may ensure that your raw and cooked sweet potatoes last as long as possible.

Food is costly these days, so increasing the shelf-life of anything makes all the difference.

You won’t have to hurry out to the grocery shop and squander more money this way!

Final Thoughts

And there you have it, sweet potato enthusiasts! You now understand that sweet potatoes, like any other food, may become bad.

It is suggested that you do not consume rotten sweet potatoes, and the easiest way to prevent it is to be aware of the warning signals. Proper storage is another method to protect yourself!

Remember, we recognize that mistakes happen, and sometimes you may wind yourself eating food that has gone bad.

We’ve all been there at some time in our lives. The greatest thing you can do is to avoid making the same mistake again.