Signs your Crab Meat may have Gone Bad

Being bottom feeders, crabs tend to carry bacteria around with them. It’s cooked away when you steam or boil the crabs, but that’s only if they lived long enough to reach the pot. It’s easy for a dead crab to get cooked, which is the most common way to get bad crab meat. Unfortunately, the only way you can really tell a crab went bad is when you open it and look at the meat.

I don’t want anyone eating bad crabs, so I’m going to go over a few signs that your crab meat has gone bad.

1) The crab meat has an off-putting white color.

Contrast to an almost sweet-tasting white-colored normal crab meat, “chalky” crabs have a strong white pigment and taste stale. While this is a subtle difference, it’s a sign that the crab died before being cooked and it’s unsafe to eat. Get a second opinion if your crab meat ever tastes funny.

These crabs get it’s name “chalky” from the color of its meat. It’s so glaringly-white and tasteless that it’ll make anyone stop eating and think twice about their crab. These are common and everyone ends up with a chalky crab every once in a while. It’s easy to mistake a dead crab for a live one when cooking for a crab feast

2) The crab meat is a blue or black color.

Crab meat that has turned a shade of green or black is unsafe to eat. It’s a common sign of crab meat being undercooked and going bad. An enzyme that’s usually cooked out of the crab meat can caused undercooked crab meat to change color if it sits out long enough.

This is most common when there is a delay between cooking and eating the crab meat. It’s also a sign that your cooking process is flawed. Make sure you are putting the crabs in the boiling or steaming pot after a steady boil. Starting a timer for crabs in a pot that’s still heating up will cause your crabs to be undercooked and unsafe to eat.

This is not to be confused with black spots on the crab meat, which is known as Microphallus bassodactylus, a flatworm that’s prominent in crabs along the Maryland Eastern shore. This parasite is killed during the cooking process, leaving black spots in the meat that are safe to eat. You can learn more about this in my article: What Do Black Spots on Crab Meat Mean? (Is it safe to eat?).

3) The crab meat is mushy.

At first bite, mushy crab meat will raise eyebrows for anyone eating crabs. It can mean a few things.

A mushy crab on its own does not mean the crab is necessarily bad. Crabs that were boiled will be heavier and more water dense than a steamed crab, seeming mushy. However, mushy crabs paired with a poor taste or ammonia-like smell means the crab died before being cooked. This crab is unsafe to eat.

If you steamed your crabs, don’t dismiss the possibility that your crabs were boiled. If you overfill your steamer with water. The bottom layer of crabs could have been submerged and boiled instead of steamed. This will cause the crab meat to absorb the water, making it mushier than the rest of your crabs.

Some people described overcooked crab as chewy. It’s like chewing an overcooked steak with tougher meat and less flavor. While this is not necessarily unsafe to eat, it is unappetizing compared to sweet and tender crab meat.

4) The crab meat smells foul or like ammonia.

There are several reasons why crabs could smell like ammonia. They could have died before being cooked, kept in a dirty tank, or even caught in waters with increased ammonia levels. Regardless, do not eat any type of crab that smells foul.

I go over all the reasons why crabs smell like ammonia and what to do in that situation in my article: My crabs smell like ammonia!