Identifying Signs: How Do I Know If My Cooked Food Went Bad?
Consuming spoiled food can be harmful to human health. Do you know how to tell if cooked food has gone bad? Today, let's explore this question together!
Food can be judged as spoiled or not through the following aspects:
1. Visual inspection
Observe the color:
To judge whether food has gone bad, you can observe whether the color of the food has changed significantly. For example, meat changes color (such as from bright red to dark red or grayish-green), and vegetables lose their original bright green color.
When grains go bad, they may "lose their luster", that is, lose their original gloss.
Change in form:
If it is solid food, then you can observe whether the texture of the solid food becomes soft and sticky. For example, the surface of meat becomes sticky, and vegetables show softening, rotting and other phenomena.
Whether liquid foods such as soups and porridges become cloudy, have sediments or a floating film on the surface.
When fish goes bad, the fish eyes may become cloudy and sunken.
Mold spots and stringiness:
Check whether there are mold spots or stringiness on the surface of the meal. This is a direct manifestation of mold growth.
2. Olfactory inspection
Unpleasant smell:
Spoiled food usually produces an unpleasant smell, such as a rancid smell (commonly found in protein-rich foods such as meat, fish and shrimp, and eggs after spoiling), a musty smell (produced when grains and other foods are contaminated by mold), a sour or alcoholic smell (produced when carbohydrate-rich foods spoil).
Edible oil and foods high in oil content will produce a "rancid taste" after spoiling.
3. Tactile inspection
Change in texture:
Touch the food to feel if its texture has changed. For example, whether meat becomes soft and loses elasticity, and whether vegetables become mushy.
4. Other judgment criteria
Packaging and labels:
For packaged foods, check whether the packaging is intact, and whether there are phenomena such as air leakage or bulging.
Check the production date, shelf life and other information on the food label to determine whether the food has expired.
Are leftovers good after 7 days?
Leftovers are not recommended to be eaten after 7 days.
Under normal circumstances, leftovers will start to breed bacteria and microorganisms after being placed at room temperature for a few hours, which will affect the human gastrointestinal tract after consumption. Even if they are refrigerated in the refrigerator, they can only be stored for 2-3 days.
Therefore, leftovers that have been placed for 7 days may not show any visible changes in appearance, but in fact, a large number of bacteria and microorganisms may have already grown, and the phenomenon of spoilage has occurred.
After consumption, it may increase the burden on the human gastrointestinal tract, leading to discomfort such as abdominal pain and diarrhea in the human body, and pose a threat to human health. Therefore, leftovers after 7 days are not recommended to be eaten.
How long before cooked food goes bad?
How long it takes for cooked food to go bad depends on the actual situation:
How long it takes for food to go bad depends on the type of food and the storage status. If it is at room temperature and the weather is hot, the food will go bad in a few hours. For example, in summer, the temperature can reach above 30℃. Foods such as meat and eggs may have bacteria growing on them 2-3 hours after they are cooked and start to go bad.
If the food is stored in the refrigerator, the low temperature of the refrigerator can help extend the shelf life of the food. For example, some green leafy vegetables may go bad after 2-3 days. For foods with high water content such as stews and soups, it may go bad after 3-4 days. If meat is properly stored, it may go bad after 3-5 days.
Precautions
If you want to extend the shelf life of food, then the storage method is very important. If you want to keep cooked food for a longer time, you can seal it first and then put it in the refrigerator.
Can you eat a ready meal 4 days out of date?
Food that is 4 days past its expiration date cannot be eaten anymore.
In daily life, food has a shelf life. The shelf life refers to the best time for food quality. In theory, food generally cannot be consumed after its expiration date.
Because once food exceeds its expiration date, its taste and nutritional value will be lost. At the same time, there may be obvious changes in appearance and smell, and there may be mold spots, plaques and other situations. Even if it is not past the expiration date, it should be avoided to continue eating.
What happens if you eat spoiled food?
Spoiled food contains a large amount of mold. Since mold is regarded as a harmful foreign substance by the human body, the body will take extreme measures to expel it, resulting in disorders of the digestive tract flora and food poisoning. In severe cases, it may also cause acute abdominal diseases and threaten life.
Eating spoiled food will cause mold spores to enter the blood or respiratory tract, thus causing serious problems. Mold is toxic (such as aflatoxin, and its toxicity is about 68 times that of arsenic). If a large amount is ingested, it is very likely to endanger life.
Most spoiled foods contain aflatoxin, which is recognized as the number one carcinogen in the world. Long-term consumption of aflatoxin can cause cancer in multiple organs.
How long can you eat refrigerated leftovers?
The temperature of refrigerator refrigeration is generally about 5°C. Under this temperature condition, the growth and reproduction of bacteria will be inhibited, and to a certain extent, the shelf life of food will be extended.
But the refrigerator is not a safe. Some pathogenic bacteria can still grow even below 5°C. Therefore, leftovers placed in the refrigerator cannot be stored for a long time. Generally, they can still be eaten within 2 days. After more than three days, they cannot be eaten.
If there are too many leftovers at home and it is expected that they cannot be eaten up within two days, it is recommended to let them cool down, divide them into bowls and seal them with plastic wrap, and then put them in the freezer for freezing. The temperature of the freezer is usually below 0°C. Bacteria basically enter the "dormant period", but this does not mean that leftovers placed in the freezer will not spoil. It just means that the growth rate of bacteria is slower.
