Tikachu's Kitchen

Cooking in a proper and healthy manner is only one half of the work; selection of fresh and good-quality ingredients is also important! Most people tend to ignore the fact that food kept for long periods in the fridge has lost the healthy nutrients necessary for the body, because they still appear fresh!

Food spoilage can be caused by two factors, namely natural decay and contamination by micro-organisms.

Here are some tips to knowing when your food is no longer fit for cooking:

Moisture loss mostly occurs in fruit and vegetables, especially one with large amounts of water, but it also occurs in other foods like meat, fish, and cheese due to evaporation of water from the surface. This is easily spotted by appearance and texture. Colorful food will appear discolored and has dry skin.

Enzymes inside the fruits and vegetables may cause browning or discoloration when exposed to air. Freezing these fruit/vegetable pieces helps slow down the cell-degradation process, but it’s better to not keep the halves.

Moulds are tiny vegetations just visible to the naked eyes. They grow from spore cells, settle and multiply on certain foods such as meat, cheese, fruit and bread stored in damp conditions. Moulds remain active at low temperature but will be destroyed at a temperature of more than 70 degrees C. It appears as fluffly mass, mostly white in colour.

Food may look fresh after a few days of storage, but do not only rely on one sense! Smell it, is it acidic? Rotten-smelling? The bad smell mainly comes from microorganism contamination such as bacteria, and at this state the food may cause digestive problems.

Arrange your fridge as such so that you know which fruit/vegetable/meat was stored first. I, for example, always arrange meat/vegetables from the left to the right by the order of storage.

When it comes to food, it’s never a good idea to buy in bulk unless you’re planning a feast. Besides, food is not a fashion item and it is rarely labeled ‘buy 1 get 1 free’ or such. Buy ingredients according to your needs, while taking the frequency of shopping into consideration. Experts suggest you store fresh ingredients for a maximum of 3 days.

Store your fresh ingredients in a vacuum plastic bag or tupperware for maximum length of storage and minimum risk of contamination.

Always look at the expiry date of factory-made ingredients or bakery products. Pick one with a later expiry date

Well, there you go, some tips to know when not to use expired/bad/spoiled food. Hope this helps! Enjoy your food and stay healthy!