Improperly stored food or food left outside in hot weather can easily spoil, potentially causing food poisoning if consumed. So why does food spoil, what are the signs, and how should food be properly stored? Let’s explore this further with TasteVN in the section Cooking Tips right below.
1. What is spoiled food?
What is spoiled food?
Spoiled food is a phenomenon where food has a sour taste, appears bubbly, moldy, deformed, or has a rotten smell to the point of being inedible. It may even be unsafe to eat due to harmful bacteria invading and growing inside the food.
What are the signs of spoiled food?
It can be seen that spoiled food exhibits very characteristic signs due to harmful bacteria invading, as you can observe with the naked eye, smell, and taste. Specifically:
Food changes color: Cooked food tends to change to different colors and shows additional signs of mold, bubbling, or slime depending on the level of spoilage.
Food changes smell: Unpleasant odors such as sour or foul smells appear to the extent that they are hard to bear.
Food changes shape: Depending on the type of food, the level of deformation will vary. For example, with bread, you will clearly see that the shape of the bread can become misshapen or puff up, possibly accompanied by leaking moisture from the filling inside.
2. Why does food spoil?
There are many causes for food spoilage. TasteVN can categorize them into 3 main groups as follows:
Left out in the environment
Each group of food has different storage times, and even when they are cooked, there is still a certain shelf life.
Therefore, leaving food out in the environment for too long will inevitably lead to the invasion of some harmful bacteria that exist in the air, causing the food to spoil.
Improper storage
Leftover food after a meal, some families have a habit of leaving it outside and covering it with a lid (or basket) to prevent flies and other insects from getting in, and then reheating it for the next meal to use. This is a very wrong habit.
Because during the time before you reheat it for continued use, food tends to be invaded by bacteria from the air, and if they encounter favorable conditions like warm and humid temperatures, they will develop, causing the food to spoil.
Moreover, the habit of mixing many foods together or covering them too tightly can also become a reason why food easily spoils.
External influences
The external environmental influences mainly come from temperature and humidity, which will affect the chemical reaction processes of the compounds in food.
Specifically, low temperature and humidity will slow down the process of food spoilage. In contrast, high temperatures (from 25 – 40 degrees Celsius) along with high humidity on hot sunny days like summer will cause food to quickly sour and spoil, as well as show other signs of food spoilage.
3. What happens when eating spoiled food?
When food is spoiled, it means that harmful bacteria have invaded and altered the taste of the food, especially the activity of bacteria will produce some compounds harmful to health.
Therefore, consuming spoiled food will cause the body to show signs of food poisoning such as indigestion, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, or other signs related to the digestive system. Especially for those with weak immunity, such as the elderly, children, and pregnant women, it can be life-threatening.
Moreover, spoiled food will almost lose its nutritional value, so don’t feel regret and continue to use it!
4. Ways to preserve food to prevent spoilage
Once you clearly understand the signs and causes that make food easily spoiled, it’s not too difficult for you to find ways to preserve food to avoid this situation before use. You can refer to a few preservation methods like:
Reheating food regularly
It cannot be denied that reheating food will inhibit the growth of bacteria, while also making you feel like eating more deliciously.
However, this preservation method usually only applies to a sufficient or small amount of food and should be used as soon as possible. Because if you reheat food regularly, it will cause the nutrients to disappear, and sometimes even produce some harmful compounds unexpectedly for health.
Storing in a cold environment
The refrigerator is an essential household appliance for modern life, as it provides many benefits in preserving food from raw to cooked forms.
You can place leftover food (after a meal) in a food container, then put it in the refrigerator’s cool compartment to preserve it. The usage time is from 1 to 2 days, the sooner the better to prevent food from deteriorating.
In addition, you can still preserve food similarly but place it in the freezer of the refrigerator or freezer (if available at home) for a longer usage time. However, you should also take the opportunity to use this food to ensure its nutritional quality!
In addition, you can still preserve food similarly by placing it in the freezer or freezer (if available in the household) for a longer usage time. However, you should also take the opportunity to use this food to ensure its nutritional value!
Use a dedicated food warming cabinet
It is a fact that microorganisms tend to thrive best at temperatures between 25 – 40 degrees Celsius. Therefore, to help prevent food from spoiling, you need to pay attention to this temperature range. Instead of using a refrigerator or freezer as previously mentioned, you can now choose a food warming cabinet.
This is a specialized device often used for large quantities of food such as in supermarkets, restaurants, or canteens in industrial zones, schools, and hospitals, aimed at preserving the heat, flavor, and nutritional value of the food.
Hopefully, the above sharing has helped you understand why food spoils? What are the causes, signs, and proper food storage methods? In the Cooking Tips section, you will discover even more interesting things about food.
