We have all committed authentic gastronomic attacks in our student days. However, what we are here to discuss today goes beyond all the barriers of the impure. It was a normal afternoon of streaming for popular streamer ElXokas, and there seemed to be no sign of the food terror that was to come in the next few minutes.
After an order from Burger King with ice cream included arrived, the Galician content creator went to store the aforementioned sweet foods in the freezer. On the way back, he prepared to confess something terrifying“My freezer is full, but it’s not full of food. Well, really yes. But the food “already food”. Food that I know is going to smell bad if I put it in the trash, and freeze it and then put it together so I don’t have to take out the trash every few days. So I only go to the trash once a week.
“I freeze the meat I have left from a steak or potatoes and that way it doesn’t smell or rot or anything,” the Lugo native confessed. “It’s bad technique., but I must admit it because I am transparent with you. I thought about this a few months ago, hunger sharpens the mind. I do it because I live in a fifth without an elevator,” ElXokas concluded sadly.
This tactic proves as spiritual as it is distressing, because the cold slows down the natural processes of food degradation. However, it also has some risk for the health in which ElXokas did not notice and which could cost him food poisoning.
Cross contamination in the ElXokas freezer
Freezers are designed to store raw materials and food in good condition, not garbage. The dangers of mixing the two types of elements are quite remarkable for reasons of health and food hygiene. Food leftovers deteriorate under the action of bacteria and other micro-organisms that can become pathogenic, especially if they are leftovers that have been left at room temperature for a long time after freezing.
Thankfully, that doesn’t seem to be the case with ElXokas’ frivolous practices. The streamer really comments you don’t wait for food to spoil to freeze it — thank God — but preventively before it starts to decompose: “I don’t leave the food there for four days and when it rots I freeze it, I don’t do that. Simply, when I’m done eating and there’s a bone of meat or potatoes left, I wrap it well in aluminum foil, close it and put it in the freezer”. Seen in this light, the truth is that it doesn’t seem like such a crazy idea. However, this practice can be risky, especially since we mix in the same space foods that should go in the trash with foods that we have not yet eaten.
Cross-contamination is defined as the action of associating two raw materials or foods that present different hygienic situations.
The fact that we freeze this junk food – and we’re not talking about burgers and pizzas – also shows a clear disregard for the hygiene and good food handling practicespromoting dangerous contact between cooked and raw products.
The cross contamination It is defined as the action of joining two raw materials or foods that present different hygienic situations. It is generally used when a dirty or naturally microbiologically active food (such as chicken or raw eggs) transmits its germs to another food that did not originally contain them.
If we store trash in the freezer, we are promoting extreme dirt in an environment that was not originally designed for such a task. The matter acquires notorious gravity if, at the same time as we store garbage we save normal foods for daily consumption, like ElXokas did with his poor ice cream.
Additionally, it becomes even more worrying if the food scraps that should go in the trash include egg or chicken. These two foods are microbiologically very active, due to the usual presence of pathogens such as Salmonella Where Campylobacterrespectively, which could sovereignly ruin ElXokas streaming nights in World of Warcraft.
Why doesn’t food smell in the freezer?
Although it’s as spiky as a cathedral, the technique itself makes sense. the cold slows down all food degradation processes. Both those caused by natural biochemical degradation reactions and those involving altering microorganisms. This includes alterations such as putrefaction and fat oxidation which can generate volatile compounds responsible for undesirable aromas.
If we had a freezer dedicated solely to this stinky job, it would still be gross, but there would be no blame for food safety. However, the fact of using the freezer both to store waste and the food that we are going to consume later, leads to a health risk that should not be overlooked. And this is the key, since the cold does not destroy microorganisms even if we are talking about freezing.
Cold does not destroy microorganisms
The cold is not used to immortalize either. That is to say: food keeps spoiling just slower. If we freeze foods that previously had a very high microbial load, those microbes will remain dormant even though they are frozen. In other words, they will potentially have the ability to cause food poisoning and serious illnesses such as salmonellosis or listeriosis. You might think they are just simple stomach aches, but these illnesses can go much further in the most serious cases and should not be taken lightly.
Although microorganisms are inactive at freezing temperatures, they can continue to contaminate containers that come into contact with garbage, such as the ice cream that ElXokas puts in the freezer. Later, when removing the packaging to eat and reach room temperature, said the microorganisms will return to their old habits and they will be more than prepared to cause real food poisoning.
The freezer is often forgotten in homes, especially because the cold masks the perception of dirt and masks bad smells. It’s a double-edged sword, since leftover food and dirt can also accumulate in our home’s freezers. We must ensure a good routine cleaning likewise, especially those older freezers that generate frost on the walls and make it difficult to get scab, which can stay frozen for eons as if from the squirrel of ice Age he was treated
This is an updated version of an article previously published in Hipertextual.
