Came to think about this while eating a store bought chicken curry with rice meal. The packaging had a the expiration date on the 24th, if kept in the fridge. Meanwhile, had I stored leftovers of same food I’d have made myself, it would probably only last a few days in the fridge (especially rice, which is said to expire fast)
Hence I wonder, how do they get the food to last so long? I get it has to have something to do with better hygiene and airtight packaging, but that alone can’t make it last so much longer, right?
In: Biology
Prepared and packaged foods have preservatives in them, and they’re pasteurized — either sealed in to airtight packaging and then heated above 140 degrees or they’re packages while still above that temp. Either way, bacteria cannot survive at those temps, so the food is sealed and there are no live bacteria, no way for new bacteria to get into the food and cause it to spoil.
Once the packaging is opened, and the food is exposed to air that has bacteria floating around then the food can spoil in a few days.
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