How to Tell When Leftovers Go Bad

re: How to Tell When Leftovers Go Bad

rawf32 — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 22:32:43 GMT

Are Limburger and Lieterkrantz(sp?) 'ripened' cheeses spoiled at the completion of their aging? Pheeewww!!!!!!!!!! Ditto sourkraut and Kimchee?

Public TV carried a program about Sicilians who gobble up with great gusto a certain kind of locally-produced cheese that has passed through the digestive tracts of worms. In fact this cheese may have worms present in the final product.

Does anyone know what primal diet guru Dr. Aajonus Vonderplanitz calls 'high meat'? He's been consuming it at intervals for forty years. His adherents periodically eat 'high meat' 'to cleanse the body of dead cells.' Is Vonderplanitz right about bacteria and virus being Mother Nature's housekeepers/custodians/janitors/recyclers? Is the role of microbes in the environment identical to that of vultures and common maggots in the natural balance of things? In the final analysis, could it be that Prof. Antoinne Bechamps was right, and Louis Pasteur wrong? Is the 'germ theory' of disease fatally flawed?

re: How to Tell When Leftovers Go Bad

TM108 — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:18:07 GMT

According to Ayurveda, the world's oldest system of health, leftovers are not worth eating. Cooked food is OK to eat within five hours of being cooked. After that they are no longer vital (Sattvic) and on a subtle level decay begins. Of course there are exceptions. You can stretch it a bit for grains and beans, reheating them for the evening meal, but not for the next day. Desserts and baked goods can be saved for a day or two.

Curds, including yogurt and cheese should always be made fresh each day. Aged and fermented foods are not advised at all. Hard cheeses, blue cheese, etc. are really rancid milk.

Fresh food certainly tastes better. You get to the point where you cook enough and hardly throw anything out. Your dog can take care of miscalculations.

re: How to Tell When Leftovers Go Bad

DougB_203 — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:35:41 GMT

The most dangerous "spoiled" food, as far as the nation is concerned is GROUND meats, especially beef. Whenever you hear about a 20 million pound recall of beef, its usually ground beef. That because 1 unsanitary process will completely mix the bacteria with the beef, and the weeks that pass before its purchased allow the bacteria to grow nicely. Grinding of meat increases its "surface area" 1000's of times, allowing vastly more area for the bacteria to grow. Bacterial contamination of beef does not usually occur within a solid chunk of beef, its only on its surface. After the beef is ground, it has surface all through the beef, multiplying many times the danger of contamination and bacterial growth. For this reason, I never eat ground beef, unless I grind it myself, and use it immediately.

re: How to Tell When Leftovers Go Bad

george tolhurst — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:27:17 GMT

CHEESE GOSH WHEN THEY STARTED PASTUIZATION AND HOMGINZATION I BELIEVE THEY CHANGED THE WHOLE COMPOSITION OF ALL GDAIRY PRODUCTS. WE HUMANS SEEM TO BE THE ONLY THING ON TYHE PLANET THAT CONTINUES TO DRINK MILK AFTER WERE WEANED

GOD BLESS YOU ALL.

P.S. SENSE YOU KNOW AND ARE INVOLVED BECAUSE YOUR BEING LIED TO ABOUT YOUR FOOD.

WHY DON'T YOU ALL START TAKING ACTION AGAINST ALL THE OTHER WRONGS BEING DONE TO YOU BY THE POLITICIANS AND COURTS. GOD BLESS AMERICA AND PRAY THAT WE CAN KEEP IT.

re: How to Tell When Leftovers Go Bad

pinkskittles — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:37:16 GMT

I pretty much go by the sense of smell... if it's slimy or fuzzy, I don't eat it. I think nature gave us our sensory functions of taste, smell and sight so that we can make sure if something will make us sick. If we have a "gut" feeling (no pun intended) that we shouldn't eat it because of its taste, smell or look, chances are we're right.

re: How to Tell When Leftovers Go Bad

Valentius — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:48:28 GMT

I have found that storing mixed foods in the same container causes the food to spoil -- meaning, in this case, to become unpleasant to eat -- within a couple days. Storing salad components in separate glass containers, for instance, I have discovered that the vegetables are fine for at least a week!

An important key is the material from which your containers are made. You want glass. My vegetables, meats, rice, pasta -- all my leftovers! -- seem to remain fresh and tasty for days.

A guide:

+ Do not store foods that have touched other foods longer than two or three days.

+ Use GLASS containers!

+ Do not store different types of food together; they create chemical reactions which can cause the food to become slimy, discoloured, or stinky.

+ Do not pack food too tightly into those glass containers with plastic lids. Food that touches the plastic tends to go bad more quickly, contaminating the remaining food. If you must pack tightly, you can find all-glass containers at Martha Stuart or Ikea!

re: How to Tell When Leftovers Go Bad

webwitch6 — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:05:25 GMT

If it is at the point that spots or mold are on it, it is slimy, or it smells disgusting, or all three, the scientists can pick it out of my garbage. I cant get past those things, sorry.

It is fortunate that I am extremely cheap, er, thrifty, and I hardly ever have to throw anything out as I make enough for the meal and that is usually it.

re: How to Tell When Leftovers Go Bad

sally t — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 23:32:05 GMT

If you have a micro wave oven put a dollop of "iffy"? food on a plate and heat it a few seconds. If it smells any way other than the way it should, "ditch it". 100%!

re: How to Tell When Leftovers Go Bad

Newportian — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 22:37:55 GMT

Sometimes the worst threats of contamination are not realized until too late.....like the time i bought and ate a discounted package of smoked salmon from a local meat market. My rule of thumb is to avoid anything that is overhandled, overprocessed or short dated (unless you are going to eat it right away and then only with a thorough cooking/reheating). I only will eat lunchmeats after a thorough rinsing with hot water, to remove the potential germs, and the added chemicals/preservatives. That plus careful at home handling and keeping it cold or hot, in the refer or on the stove and eat it before it eats you. Wash/rinse the cutting board, hands, tools, utensils during preparation not just at the end.... avoid cross contamination. Mindfulness goes a long ways towards healthfulness. If your milk or cream is getting near it's end date, put it in a steam bath and cook it for awhile to repasturize.

re: How to Tell When Leftovers Go Bad

JamesMacPherson — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 21:46:09 GMT

From Susjust: "the Primal Diet (raw meat) uses something I think they call "hot meat," which is mean allowed to ferment for days"

That's "High" meat, and it's nasty looking stuff for sure.

BTW, I've always heard that it's not the bacteria, mold etc that makes you sick when you eat spoiled food. It is the toxins that these micro-organisms excrete into the food. In other words, germs etc consume some of your food, digest it, and excrete their waste products into the food. These waste products are what make us sick. Some germs excrete toxins that are harmless, while pathogenic strains have extremely toxic excretions.

The bottom line is, you can kill off all the germs during cooking, but if the germs were able to multiply to a high number because of poor food handling, then the amount of toxin in the food may be very high. No amount of cooking will make it safe. Conversely, you can eat raw meat with a certain number of pathogenic germs such as e. coli, lysteria, salmonella without getting sick, as long as they did not multiply to a high enough number to excrete high levels of toxins into the food. Of course, people with compromised immune systems and/or bad digestive health may get ill from the germs themselves, but most healthy people will not.

An example of toxins left behind in food that are very harmful are shiga-toxins.

Buying meat from your local sources is really the way to go. It should have fewer germs to begin with, and it is usually frozen immediately and delivered to you frozen, so as to prevent germs from multiplying in numbers.

-JM

re: How to Tell When Leftovers Go Bad

magicmistsams — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 21:25:22 GMT

Raisins should not be harder than your teeth.

POTATOES

If it looks like it is ready for planting, toss it.

CHIP DIP

If you can take it out of its container and bounce it on the floor, it has gone bad.

EMPTY CONTAINERS

Putting empty containers back into the refrigerator is an old trick, but it only works if you live with someone or have a maid.

UNMARKED ITEMS

You know it is well beyond prime when you're tempted to discard the Tupperware along with the food. Generally speaking, Tupperware containers should not burp when you open them.

GENERAL RULE OF THUMB

Most food cannot be kept longer than the average life span of a hamster. Keep a hamster in or nearby your refrigerator to gauge this.

re: How to Tell When Leftovers Go Bad

magicmistsams — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 21:25:08 GMT

THE GAG TEST

Anything that makes you gag is spoiled (except for leftovers from what you cooked for yourself last night).

EGGS

When something starts pecking its way out of the shell, the egg is probably past its prime.

DAIRY PRODUCTS

Milk is spoiled when it starts to look like yogurt. Yogurt is spoiled when it starts to look like cottage cheese. Cottage cheese is spoiled when it starts to look like regular cheese. Regular cheese is nothing but spoiled milk anyway and can't get any more spoiled than it is already. Cheddar cheese is spoiled when you think it is blue cheese but you realize you've never purchased that kind.

MAYONNAISE

If it makes you violently ill after you eat it, the mayonnaise is spoiled.

FROZEN FOODS

Frozen foods that have become an integral part of the defrosting problem in your freezer compartment will probably be spoiled (or wrecked anyway) by the time you pry them out with a kitchen knife.

EXPIRATION DATES

This is NOT a marketing ploy to encourage you to throw away perfectly good food so that you'll spend more on groceries. Perhaps you'd benefit by having a calendar in your kitchen.

MEAT

If opening the refrigerator door causes stray animals from a three-block radius to congregate outside your house, the meat is spoiled.

BREAD

Sesame seeds and Poppy seeds are the only officially acceptable "spots" that should be seen on the surface of any loaf of bread. Fuzzy and hairy looking white or green growth areas are a good indication that your bread has turned into a pharmaceutical laboratory experiment.

FLOUR

Flour is spoiled when it wiggles.

LETTUCE

Bibb lettuce is spoiled when you can't get it off the bottom of the vegetable crisper without Comet. Romaine lettuce is spoiled when it turns liquid. (We didn't think you needed guidance with this one)

CANNED GOODS

Any canned goods that have become the size or shape of a softball should be disposed of.

Carefully.

CARROTS

A carrot that you can tie a clove hitch in is not fresh.

re: How to Tell When Leftovers Go Bad

ChickenFarmer — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 20:46:17 GMT

I am glad I don't have to rely on stores for my food. I know where my food comes from, my pastures, woods, garden, and orchard. Many people tell me how lucky I am to be able to do that, but no, it is not luck, it is from the choices I have made, including leaving the city 30 years ago for a life in the country, and when I did buy my house here, I bought enough land to have all the above for less than for what I sold my townhouse in the city. I don't agree with some of what this article says. I let my chickens age in the refrig for ten to twenty days, and have never had a problem. My hams, sausages and other pork hang for months to a couple of years at room temperature. Cheese is aged for several months before eaten. Some veggies will stay in the refrig for months before eaten, and some are stored at room temperature for months. Eggs are rarely put into the refrig. My doctor tested me last week and said I didn't even need probiotics except for what I was getting from the "dirty" food from my garden and the fermented food from my pantry.

re: How to Tell When Leftovers Go Bad

VoicePrints_203 — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:11:30 GMT

I'm amazed no one brought up the fact that though the food MAY be okay to eat.... IS IT STILL NUTRITIOUS???? It is common knowledge that the older the food the lower the nutrient level. Why would you put old low level food in your system when fresh and more nutritious was available? I don't believe that in God's universe it is possible to waste anything... ashes to ashes dust to dust! Everything that doesn't get consumed by the body is reconsumed by the earth as far as food goes. The body is a Temple. Offer it the best...

re: How to Tell When Leftovers Go Bad

LoriSmi — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:46:46 GMT

I have known since I was very young (8-10 years old) that food should not be left in the fridge more than 3-5 days. I learned the hard way about not allowing hamburger to sit unused in the fridge more than two days (it went bad and I had to throw it out). I always use meat up within a day or two or freeze it.

When we have leftovers from dinner we try to use them up within 1-2 days so they do not become "science projects"!

Like another poster, I just have never been able to allow myself to eat moldy cheese (visibly moldy!) like Blue Cheese! UGH!