Had a conversation with my wife today about the unopened mayo we had sitting in the pantry and it made me think – how does it make sense for a food (for instance mayo) to sit in a 65-70 degree pantry for months and be perfectly fine, but as soon as it’s opened it needs to be refrigerated. In my mind, if something needs to be refrigerated at any point, wouldn’t it always need to be refrigerated? The seal on the unopened product keeps the item safe, and the refrigerator does that when the seal is off? How do those two things relate?
In: 1789
As someone who used to work for Hellmann’s, I assure you that mayonnaise is not pasteurized. If it got heat treated after packaging, it would be thoroughly cooked and the emulsion would break.
Mayonnaise is formulated to stop bacteria and molds/yeasts from growing in the product. I did a ton of experimentation on this subject. Strangely, the original post that said this got down voted to oblivion.
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