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Natural decomposition

Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2025 8:52 am
by ayeshshiddika11
This mechanism involves enzymes that are found naturally in living plants and animals. These enzymes accelerate the degradation processes at the cellular level, causing the loss of various nutrients in the food (mainly loss of vitamins and water) and also changes in the external properties of the food, such as appearance, texture, taste, smell and colour.

To prevent food from spoiling, certain storage and handling guidelines must be followed, such as checking the temperature of the freezer (-18ºC) and the refrigerator (4ºC) to ensure that the temperature is adequate. In addition, food must be placed in specific areas, as some vegetables spoil more if stored at temperatures that are too low. Meat, on the other hand, should be in the coldest part because it needs lower temperatures. Foods such as rice, cereals or pasta should be stored in jars with airtight seals to prevent air from entering.

Contamination by microorganisms
These alterations are the most dangerous because of their consequences and because alterations are not usually visible to the naked eye. The bacteria that can contaminate food are very numerous and constitute a real danger to health, especially for children, the elderly and people with a weak immune system.

To avoid contamination by microorganisms, we must slovenia phone data take extreme care with the hygiene of the person handling the food (wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly) and keep raw food separate from cooked food. In addition, we must bear in mind that temperature is the most important factor. Above 70ºC, most harmful microorganisms die, and below 5ºC they are inactivated and remain dormant.

Wrong culinary practice
Any culinary practice that involves abrupt heat treatment of food leads to changes in the characteristics of said food and sometimes causes food toxicity.

To avoid incorrect culinary practices, we must handle food correctly and not subject it to inappropriate processes, respecting the temperatures and times for each process. For example: The pasteurization temperature is always below 100ºC, since higher temperatures irreversibly affect the physicochemical characteristics of the product (in the case of liquid foods, they are subjected to temperatures between 72ºC - 85ºC for 20 seconds).