Sprouts smell like nail polish?

[NotQuiteCockney]

Bought mung bean sprouts Sat. Opened them today, smelled really bad. Won't eat, will complain. Don't know what it is. Any ideas?

Any ideas?

Pregnant?

No, I'm not. I do have a good sense of smell, but DH could smell it, too, quite strongly.

Probably off then.

Were they in a plastic bag?

I've had a similar experience with bean sprouts - can't remember what they smelled like but it wasn't nice!

I now get them out straightaway and put them in a bowl of water in the fridge (as seen in an Oriental supermarket!). They need to be eaten pretty soon though. How about growing your own?

Probably a bit too damp, they start to almost ferment if you aren't careful.

They didn't have that feet-like smell that sprouts get. It was a really strong nailpolish smell.

Oh, and they were in a styrofoam container with plastic on top. But I took half of them out, rinsed them a bunch of times, and they still smelled really strongly of nailpolish (acetone?).

Beansprouts go manky very quickly if they're in a sealed container. I usually take them out of the plastic bag as soon as I unload the shoppping and put them in a paper bag, or a shallow bowl with a piece of damp kitchen roll over.

They do go off, but this wasn't the "sprouts-gone-off" smell. It was something weirder.