Although most of us consume food several time a day and many of us even cook meal on a daily basis, there are some simple things about food safety we might be not aware of. Actually, knowing some of these facts can even save our lives at a certain point, while other facts might seem pretty obvious. Read this article in order to make sure you are aware of these crucial facts about nutritional products and the way of food preparation.
Keeping food out of a refrigerator
Undeniably, a wide range of food do not require being kept in a fridge. Some food can be kept there optionally, depending on how much time you will need to consume it. Yet, there is also food which cannot be left out of a fridge longer than for two hours or, if the temperature surrounding it is higher than 30 ℃ even for longer than an hour. As you can imagine, such a temperature will boost the proliferation of all types of microorganisms including pathogens.
The food that absolutely should be kept inside a fridge includes dairy products and any types of meat and fish. It doesn’t relate exclusively to raw products, since the cooked food can be spoilt easily as well especially the dishes including large amount of water such as sauces and soups. This is so because many microorganisms, can multiply in wet surroundings even more effectively.
Cooking ground meat safely
Cooking ground meat seems to be easier than cooking a whole meat loaf since this product was divided into thousands of small pieces making it easier to heat it up appropriately so as it will be ready for consumption in a quite short time. Actually, according to microbiologists, it is enough to heat the ground meat up to the temperature of at least 75 ℃ for just a moment and the majority of pathogens will be killed.
In the reality, the situation is somewhat different. For instance, frying ground meat on a frying pan seems like a guarantee of the safety of this product since the temperature of the pan itself is between 200 and 230 ℃. Unfortunately, it is not thus simple to warm the meat thus well so as it will reach the temperature of 75 ℃, especially, in its internal parts even if the ground meat appears to be ready. For that reason, it is recommended to cook the meat thoroughly, especially if you want to make sure you get rid of not only any possible bacteria, but also of their toxins which can withstand far more higher temperatures than the microorganisms producing them.
Frying eggs safely
A quite similar situation takes place with eggs as well. The safe temperature for consuming an egg is around 70 ℃. However, if you are frying eggs, you can see the denaturation of their whites, although the temperature has risen only to 60 ℃. Unfortunately, it is not enough for killing pathogens in the product.
Even though the eggs coming from modern farms are in the majority of cases free from such severe pathogenic bacteria, as, for example, salmonella, there is still some risk of egg contamination. As a rule, salmonella is located on the surface of the egg shell, however, cracking an egg can easily get the bacteria inside. For that reason, it is better to fry eggs in such a way, as both whites and yolks become hard.
The rule of a couple of seconds
Have you ever heard about the rule of a couple of seconds? We bet you have! In all likelihood, at least one of the adults in your childhood allowed you to eat a piece of food fallen on the floor since it hadn’t spent there exactly this couple of minutes. For some people it is only three seconds, whereas for others the time can be stretched even up to seven seconds. Needless to say, the rule is totally ungrounded and is more about some folk wisdom.
In case you still believe the food contamination is not possible within a very short time frame after touching the surface full of microorganisms, other pathogens or even inorganic dangerous substances, it’s high time to forget about such a rule altogether. All these unsafe substances and organisms are spread to the food immediately after the contact. Furthermore, the majority of microorganisms under the normal conditions are in the state of proliferation which means their number can increase rapidly after getting to the food that was dropped on the floor.
Do not believe in such a myth yourself and never tell about it to your children. Keep an eye to other people who tend to spread this misinformation so as your children will not apply the rule to practice.
White plaque on the surface of the chocolate
Finally, let’s talk about something which is not harmful for your health at all, although the majority of people are not aware of it.
Presumably, everyone has ever noticed white plaque on the surface of chocolate. In fact, this plaque can occur not only on cheap products, since it doesn’t depend on the price or even the quality of the chocolate. Furthermore, it is even not the result of reaching the date of expiration since you might come across such a white layer on the fresh product as well.
The culprit of it is the fluctuations in the temperature and humidity surrounding the chocolate which causes a part of sugar to dissolve in condensate. Once the condensate evaporates, the sugar remains on the surface creating the plaque which, albeit doesn’t look attractive, still doesn’t have any effect on either the taste or safety of the product.