Diligence and thrift are the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation, especially as the inheritor of the longest-lasting agricultural civilization, and have always done a good job in the thrift of food, but sometimes there are happy events at home, or on the occasion of the New Year's holiday, it is inevitable to make a large table of dishes and then leave a lot, so, these leftovers in the processing, is there anything that needs to be paid attention to?
In fact, from the perspective of food safety, leftovers may produce a certain amount of nitrite and phenylene aromatic hydrocarbons during storage, which will then harm people's gastrointestinal and esophageal health.
1. Reasonable storage
The cause of disease in leftovers is mostly related to mold growth, microbial accumulation and toxic substance formation, so if a reasonable storage method can be selected, the risk of these three types of etiology can be reduced. When stockpiling food, it is important to ensure that the utensils used are thoroughly sterilized to reduce the source of germs.
Moreover, if the storage item itself is not tightly sealed, then it should also be covered with plastic wrap when storing, and at the same time, the bottle mouth of the storage container should be appropriately small, so as to reduce the contact area between food and air, so as to reduce the breeding of bacteria.
2. Let cool before putting it in the refrigerator
Many people will put the extra dishes directly in the refrigerator after cooking, but there may be potential hazards in doing so. Because food is cold under hot steam, more water vapor will be generated, and the closed storage conditions will cause the water vapor to fall back on the surface of the food, which will not only affect the taste of the food itself, but also may provide a favorable environment for the growth of a variety of germs.
Therefore, when storing dishes, they should wait for them to cool naturally before sealing them, which may be more conducive to prolonging their shelf life.
3. Try to store for a short period of time
The rate at which microorganisms multiply often increases exponentially, so the storage of cooked food should be as limited as possible if it is not strictly sterile. According to experiments, the number of colonies of dishes stored for more than 24 hours is several orders of magnitude higher than that of dishes about 12 hours, which is why it is not recommended for everyone to eat overnight dishes.
And even if the preservation capacity of ingredients has improved under modern reserve conditions, it should still be limited to less than 24 hours as much as possible to avoid the breeding of germs.
4. Carry out high-temperature processing
When cooking leftovers, some friends will feel that they are already cooked anyway and only need to heat it up before they can be eaten again. But in fact, after a period of storage, the microbial content of leftovers is much higher than that of fresh dishes, so it is not possible to be sloppy in heating.
Taking the most commonly used pasteurization method as an example, food should be treated at 100°C for more than 3min or 80°C for more than 10min to ensure the removal of most pathogens and maintain intestinal health.
In short, although eating leftovers is a good habit of diligence and thrift, it is still recommended that everyone try to achieve a reasonable combination and a "disc" every time they cook, which may be more conducive to physical health.
[This graphic and text is exclusively and originally produced by "Panda Medicine" new media. Author cotton, unauthorized, please do not reprint, copy]