Not 100% true! I work in a fish market and we sell 100’s of pounds of mussels a week. Just because a fresh mussel is open does not always mean it is dead/bad. Live, healthy mussels will open up to warm up if they get to cold from being packed in ice. To check to see if they are, in fact, dead, close your fist around them for 5-10 seconds. If they start to close up (you can see the slow movement of the shell closing) they are fine. Another way is to spray them with cold water. It’s a reflex for them to close their shell to protect themselves!
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Not 100% true! I work in a fish market and we sell 100’s of pounds of mussels a week. Just because a fresh mussel is open does not always mean it is dead/bad. Live, healthy mussels will open up to warm up if they get to cold from being packed in ice. To check to see if they are, in fact, dead, close your fist around them for 5-10 seconds. If they start to close up (you can see the slow movement of the shell closing) they are fine. Another way is to spray them with cold water. It’s a reflex for them to close their shell to protect themselves!