As for what to look for, eat by date states that once the water separates, and a pool starts to form at the surface,.

How do you know when sour cream is bad. As with most things, sour cream will develop an unfamiliar look, taste, and smell after spoiling. With its naturally tangy smell and tendency to separate, sour cream can be difficult to gauge when you're trying to figure out if it's still good. You can tell if sour cream has gone bad if you notice dark mold on its surface, bright bacterial marks, pockets of watery liquid and a sharp, bitter flavor.

You can always tell a bad cream by the smell. Its consistency resembles cottage cheese. If it smells moldy, rancid, or stinky in any way beyond the usual sour smell, it probably has extra growth in it that will affect the flavor.

Take a whiff of your sour cream. It'll smell different from the normal sour smell of sour cream). Once the sour cream goes bad, it becomes very difficult to remove the moldy smell and taste.

The water in sour cream separates itself from the cream when it is getting spoiled. Bacterial growth can quickly intensify that acidic smell in a nasty way, and once. Of course, if it's got furry, black and green splotches.

You can tell if sour cream has gone. How to know if sour cream is bad? If you notice that your sour cream has become.

If your sour cream smells moldy and stinks, then you can be sure that it has started to decay. When should you throw out sour cream? On warm days, put the sour cream in a cooler or insulated bag to keep it cool on your trip home.