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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A properly sealed container of something that can go off like mayo is sterile inside, so it can sit on a shelf for a long time, first at the warehouse where it was made, then on trucks to the grocery stores, then on the grocery store shelf to your pantry.
The minute you open the container, germs from the air get inside and the food will spoil unless you refrigerate it, which slows down but does not eliminate growth of bacteria or mold.
Your mayo would go off quickly in your pantry if it was not sealed properly.
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