As the temperature rises, the risks of poor food preservation increase. As microbes love heat, it is enough for a food to remain for a short time at ambient temperature for them to grow and cause serious food poisoning.
It is estimated that one in five people in America and 1 in ten in Europe, on an annual basis, get food poisoning. Poisoning rates are higher in the US because people eat out more often. "The possibility of food poisoning increases when we lose control over the preparation of meals. Food poisoning is a phenomenon that affects all societies", emphasizes Mr. Dimitris Tympis, professor in Food Microbiology at TEI Athens.
A common household practice can however prove to be extremely dangerous for the safety of the food we consume: Cooked food should not be left out of the refrigerator for more than 2 hours. The same food should not be reheated several times or kept warm outside the refrigerator for many hours because in both cases the growth of microbes is favored. Germs love the "ambient temperature" of summer since the danger zone for the growth of microbes is from 5-65 degrees Celsius. The cooking process partially rids us of pathogenic organisms and lowers the microbial load of food, but it does not eliminate it. So cooked food is safe, but that doesn't mean it doesn't contain germs waiting for the right conditions to multiply exponentially. Macroscopic control, i.e. visual observation or taste test, do not protect us from food poisoning at all. As Mr. Tympis explains, "there are the spoilage microorganisms that are responsible for the obvious spoilage of food. But there are also pathogens, whose action we cannot understand by tasting the food."
Foods that have a high percentage of moisture, but also sandwiches that contain different ingredients and sauces, are more dangerous for the growth of microbes. However, as Mr. Tympis points out, research shows that home refrigerators often do not work properly, as a result of which they work like cupboards and not like cooling chambers. "In the summer we have to increase the cooling and avoid overloading the refrigerator. We also have to defrost the products in the cooling compartment of the refrigerator and not on the kitchen counter. This process may require more time, but it protects us from the growth of microbes," explains Mr. Timbis.
By Tania Georgiopoulos at http://www.kathimerini.gr
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