Common Food Storage Mistakes That Are Putting Your Health At Risk
Are food poisoning and food borne illness the same thing? Food poisoning is technically a type of food borne illness.......CONTINUE READING THE ARTICLE FROM THE SOURCE>>>>>
What falls under the umbrella of food borne illness includes allergic reactions because of food, as well as food making someone intoxicated or giving that person an infection because it contains microorganisms or toxins from microorganisms. However, if toxins in food are the culprit behind your getting sick, then you specifically have food poisoning.
Fortunately, properly storing food can help lower the risk of a food becoming dangerous to eat. In addition to exploring food storage methods, we’ll also discuss some specific food borne illnesses. However, if you suspect you or someone else has a food borne illness, seek medical help right away.
1. Refreezing melted ice cream
It’s possible for Listeria bacteria to be in ice cream. For Listeria to cause sickness, there would have to be ” … tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of cells … ” of it in a single serving of a food. The milk and sugar in melted ice cream can create favorable conditions for bacteria (including Listeria) and recommends not letting ice cream thaw and then refreezing it.
A Listeria infection can range from a mild intestinal illness to a potentially deadly invasive infection. Although, anyone can become ill from Listeria, the odds go up for newborns, as well as individuals who are 65 years old or older, are pregnant, or have weakened immune systems. A Listeria invasive illness in someone who is pregnant can result in a premature delivery, a stillbirth, a miscarriage, or the newborn having a potentially deadly infection.
Listeria as an intestinal illness can involve vomiting and diarrhea. Listeria as an invasive illness can cause flu-like symptoms and a fever in both pregnant and non-pregnant individuals, and someone who isn’t pregnant might also experience balance issues, headaches, confusion, seizures, and neck stiffness. So, don’t eat ice cream if you suspect it contains even a small amount of Listeria.
2. Stuffing too much food into your fridge
It’s easy to overstuff a refrigerator, and not just with leftovers. For example, you might find a great deal if you buy in bulk. Or you might want to limit how many trips you make to the supermarket in a month, so you buy extra. However, the FDA warns that packing too much into a fridge can lead to foods not being properly refrigerated.
The air flow in a refrigerator is important for proper food storage. Stuffing too much into a fridge can result in less air flow, which can lead to foods not being refrigerated at the right temperature. Once this occurs, there’s a greater chance of bacteria multiplying. Studies state that too much food in the fridge can result in food poisoning because of how it can affect the fridge’s temperature and the potential growth of bacteria.
3. Storing eggs in the wrong place in your fridge.
Refrigerator doors typically have either built-in or insertable egg racks. But despite this, is a bad place to keep one’s eggs. While manufacturers sanitize the outside of eggs, that doesn’t mean the inside of an egg doesn’t contain bacteria. Sometimes deadly food poisoning known as gastroenteritis (a.k.a. salmonella) is caused by Salmonella bacteria. You can have a chicken that appears healthy but has Salmonella bacteria, which is how that bacteria can be inside its eggs. Symptoms of salmonella include having a headache, as well as diarrhea that can contain blood, nausea, vomiting, and stomach cramps.
Although the body can thwart salmonella bacteria via stomach acid and the immune system, if a large enough amount of salmonella bacteria gets through the stomach and the immune system, a person can develop salmonella. But cold enough temperatures can impede Salmonella bacteria from growing,. Eggs should be kept on the lower shelves of a refrigerator since that’s the coldest area of the fridge. Nevertheless, if you think something has Salmonella bacteria, don’t eat it.
4. Should you wash fruits and vegetables before refrigerating them?
To be clear, washing and cleaning your fruits and vegetables is important. But as WebMD points out, washing them, not drying them, and then putting them in the refrigerator while they’re still wet can increase the chances of bacteria growing on them.
For example, just as we get nutrients from fruits and vegetables, so too can bacteria. Also, these foods contain water, and moisture can help bacteria grow. So, if you add on top of that additional moisture from washing them, then that can set up a very favorable environment for bacterial growth. In fact, the fresh fruits and vegetables are at a high risk for bacterial contamination and it is advisable storing produce properly to reduce the chances of this happening.
To cut down on the chances of bacteria growing on your fruits and vegetables, doctors recommend waiting to wash them until right before you’re going to consume or prepare them.The key is to make sure whatever you’re washing is dried thoroughly before it goes into the fridge.
5. Keeping food in plastic storage containers
Even though plastic storage containers are commonplace, but keeping food in these containers could lead to chemicals in the plastic getting into your food. And one such chemical that has been garnering attention is bisphenol A .
According to research, food storage containers can contain polycarbonate plastics, which in turn contain BPA. Research supports that BPA can get into foods stored in such containers and that BPA might negatively impact the brain and the prostate, as well as such health issues as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and increased blood pressure.