Hi! While unfreezing my ice box I put various groceries on the porch, as it is around -5°C at the moment. When I checked the packaging, I noticed that the date the food was supposed to be consumed by, varied widely, depending on the temperature. From 3 days (-5°C) to around a year (-15°C). How does it make that big of a difference? Is the water not equally frozen at both temperature points?
In: 4
Sure, water is frozen at both of those temperatures. But then water isn’t really what spoils food, is it?
Bacteria is one of the major causes of food spoiling, tiny organisms that consume the food and poop out things which are often toxic to humans. Bacteria can still grow at both -5°C and even -15°C, although of course quite slowly. The shift from -5 to -15 apparently inhibits growth enough to dramatically lengthen the time the food can be safely stored but neither is indefinite.
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