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?
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Bacteria cause spoiling, and they work faster at room temperature than they do in cold temperatures. They are present in ambient air. So, the sealed jar keeps them out almost entirely; the mayo can stay in a sealed jar for a long time. Once the jar is opened, game on, but the refrigeration helps slow down the bacteria’s game so that spoiling takes longer.
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