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 unclean. It was a normal streaming afternoon for the popular streamer ElXokas, and nothing seemed to presage the food terror that would come in the next few minutes.
After the arrival of an order from Burger King with ice cream included, the Galician content creator went to store the aforementioned sugary food in the freezer. On the way back, he got ready to confess something terrifying: “My freezer is full, but it is not full of food. Well, really yes. But food ‘already food’. Food that I know is going to smell bad if I put it in the trash, and that I freeze and then put it together so I don’t have to take the trash out every two or three days. So I only go down the trash once a week.”
“I freeze the meat that I have left over from a steak or potatoes and that way it doesn’t smell, rot or anything,” confessed the native of Lugo. “It’s a lousy technique., but I have to admit it because I am transparent with you. I thought about it a few months ago, hunger sharpens the wit. I do it because I live in a fifth without an elevator”, ElXokas concluded sadly.
This tactic turns out to be witty as well as distressing, since cold slows down the natural degradation processes of food. However, it also has certain health risks in which ElXokas has not noticed and that could cost him food poisoning.
Cross contamination in the ElXokas freezer
Freezers are made to store raw materials and food in good condition, and not garbage. The dangers of mixing both types of elements are quite remarkable for reasons of health and food hygiene. Food remains deteriorate due to the action of bacteria and other microorganisms that can become pathogenic, much more so if we are talking about leftovers that have been able to remain at room temperature for a long time after freezing.
Fortunately, this does not seem to be the case with ElXokas’ frivolous practices. The streamer comments that really you don’t wait for food to spoil to freeze it — thank goodness — but it does so preventively before it begins 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 finish eating and there is a bone of meat or some potatoes left over, I pack everything well in aluminum foil, close it, and put it in the freezer”. Seen in this way, the truth is that doesn’t seem like such a crazy idea. Even so, this practice can be risky, especially since we are mixing in the same space food that should go in the trash with food that we have not yet eaten.
The fact that we freeze this junk food – and we’re not talking about hamburgers and pizzas – also shows an obvious disregard for the hygiene and good food handling practicesfavoring a dangerous contact between cooked and uncooked 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 raw chicken or eggs) transmits its germs to another food that did not originally contain them.
If we store garbage in the freezer, we are promoting extreme dirt in an environment that was not originally designed for such a task. The matter acquires a notorious seriousness if, at the same time as we store garbage we are saving normal foods for daily consumption, as ElXokas did with his poor ice cream.
Furthermore, this becomes even more worrying if the food leftovers that should go in the trash include egg or chicken. Both foods are microbiologically very active, due to the usual presence of pathogens such as Salmonella or Campylobacterrespectively, that could sovereignly ruin ElXokas streaming nights in world of warcraft.
Why does food not smell in the freezer?
Despite being as bristly as a cathedral, the technique itself makes sense. the cold slows all processes of food degradation. Both those caused by natural biochemical degradation reactions and those involving altering microorganisms. This includes alterations such as putrefaction and oxidation of fats that can generate volatile compounds responsible for undesirable aromas.
If we had a freezer dedicated solely to this stinky job, it would still be disgusting, but there would be no food safety blame. However, the fact of using the freezer both to store garbage and food that we are going to consume later, entails a health risk that we should not neglect. And this is key, since the cold does not destroy microorganisms even if we talk about freezing.
Cold does not destroy microorganisms
The cold does not serve to immortalize either. Namely: food keeps spoiling just slower. If we freeze foods that previously had a very high microbial load, these microbes will remain dormant even if they are frozen. That is, they will potentially have the capacity to cause food poisoning and serious diseases such as salmonellosis or listeriosis. We might think that they are simple stomach aches, but these diseases 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 the containers that come into contact with the garbage, as is the case with the ice cream that ElXokas put in the freezer. Later, when removing the package to eat and reach room temperature, said microorganisms will return to their old ways and they will be more than prepared to cause full-blown food poisoning.
The freezer is often a great forgotten in homes, especially because the cold hides the perception of dirt and masks bad odours. This is a double-edged sword, since the remains of food and filth can also accumulate in the freezers of our home. We must ensure a correct routine cleaning of the same, especially those older freezers that generate frost on the walls and that make it difficult for the scab to access, which can remain frozen for eons as if from the squirrel of ice-age it was treated
This is an updated version of an article previously published in Hipertextual.