In What we can learn about food safety from our garden, Dr. David McCleery outlines the environment factors which allow bacteria to thrive. He explains that these same factors can be used to our advantage to preserve food. Storing food in the refrigerator at 5 °C or below is one of these methods. The post gives advice for safe storage of food in refrigerator such as checking the use-by dates on food products, discarding out-of-date food and good cleaning techniques.
Just like plants, bacteria can stop growing when conditions are unfavourable, but can ‘wake up’ when there’s a change in their environment. Bacteria need nutrients, moisture, adequate temperature and time to multiply. We use the same thing to our advantage to preserve foods by chilling or freezing them. The reduction of temperature slows down or stops bacteria multiplying so that foods remain safe and useable for longer. The important thing to remember is that these bacteria are not killed when chilled or frozen in foods. In fact, bacteria can start growing again quickly when storage temperatures are not controlled and the cold chain is broken.
