Re:
655544cf-ad4b-4cf2-a03c-1ccd1eea6de3@gu8g2000vbb.googlegroups.com
spamtrap1888 wrote:
Toxins are not living organisms. What makes you think toxins are destroyed
by 212F boiling temps? Toxins are not bacteria and even if you are talking
about organisms, boiling is not sterilization. People seem to think that
anything which has been cooked is sterile. It's not. Toxins which cause
"food poisoning" are chmicals which are harmful to humans and are usually
byproducts of living bacteria and mold. Just because you kill the pathogens
does not mean you removed the toxins. Sometimes the pathogens themselves are
harmless.
Foodborne pathogens are not always the same organisms which cause
objectionable changes to taste, smell, texture, and appearance. In many
cases harmful organisms already exist, just not in amounts large enough to
be apparent. Cooking further reduces most of these organisms. However that
should not be confused with sterility, and in addition it should be noted
that near-sterile foods, steamed rice for example, become very likely
environments for microbial growth. Even if the food is sterile, the air
around it is not unless you're in a clean room.
The link to food poisoning is that where enough time has passed for these
obvious organisms associated with normal spoilage to develop, then pathogens
and toxins have also had time to develop. However much of the stuff that
causes food poisoning through various means is tasteless, odorless, and
colorless. So while food with the appearance of spoilage should be discarded
on this basis, you also should discard old food even if it does not appear
"spoiled" to you, because the bad stuff can still exists even if the
harmless stinky stuff has not developed for some reason. Spoilage refers to
normal decomposition, which may or may not include the development of
harmful organisms.
What gives you that idea? You get the usual result from assumption. It's
illogical based on what I wrote which was about food spoilage.
And no, I do not, as long as they are still bright and crisp.
Are we having the same conversation?
Yeah, I know about that. That stuff does not develop in your fridge. Again,
I thought we were talking about food spoilage, not agricultural
contamination. But since you bring up salmonella, yes, heat will kill it and
salmonella is an organism which harms humans directly by opportunistically
colonizing the human body, as opposed to organisms which harm humans with
the toxins they produce. But the fact that you can kill some organisms of
this type does not mean you have destroyed the only mechanism by which
bacteria and molds can cause harm to humans in their food.
See item 3 in this section of a Wiki article on food spoilage:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_safety#Consumer_tips:_How_to_keep_food_safe
This is germane to the discussion if you might be cooling chicken stock on
the counter before refrigerating, for example.
I encourage you to read up on safe food handling and foodborne pathogens if
you are skeptical of my comments.
http://www.foodsafety.gov/
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/Safe_Food_Handling_Fact_Sheets/index.asp
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/foodsafety/pathogens/index.cfm?parent=37
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_spoilage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_safety#Consumer_tips:_How_to_keep_food_safe
MartyB