8 remarkable food facts that are useful to know for your own safety

No one eats raw chicken breast (or do you eat chicken sashimi?!), and if blue spots start growing on the bread, you throw it away too. But other than that? Do you know what to do when the chocolate turns white, the milk smells strange and the toast falls on the floor?

You can safely eat chocolate with a gray coating

Didn’t you have something somewhere at the back of the cupboard? Why yes, a bag of chocolate Easter eggs from last year! Delicious! But when you peel off the aluminum foil, you see that the eggs have turned white. Have they gone bad? It may not look very appetizing, but you can still eat the chocolate perfectly well. This is called ‘bloom’, and it occurs when the cocoa butter separates from the chocolate, for example when the chocolate has been stored somewhere too warm. If your chocolate no longer tastes as good, you can still use those old Easter eggs or chocolate letter to make chocolate mousse or bake a chocolate cake.

Double-dipping is seriously dangerous

Take a bite of your bitterbal, then dip it back into that mustard for a second dip: never do it again. Double-dipping can spread bacteria and viruses, even if you have no symptoms yourself. From now on, give everyone their own bowl to dip into, so they can keep those germs to themselves.

The ‘5-second rule’ is nonsense

If your food falls on the floor, you can still eat it if you pick it up within five seconds. Or… No, that is complete nonsense. Fortunately, this was scientifically researched by Dr. Ronald Carter of the University of London. He dropped pizza, an apple and toast onto various surfaces and picked them up again. Whether he did so within five seconds or left the spilled food lying there longer, under the microscope they all turned out to be covered in germs. Those germs simply get onto your food the moment it hits the floor.

You can keep leftovers for a maximum of three days

Is your leftover nasi still good, can you still eat that meatball and what should you do with that leftover broccoli? Well, throw it away after three days, because by then it will already be packed with bacteria. And no, you cannot immediately smell or taste that, so throw the leftovers away on day four.

Has the milk gone bad?

The best way to determine whether the milk is still good is to smell it. So the date on the carton actually says very little, because if your milk still smells fine after that date, you can simply drink it. Also, do not store the milk in the refrigerator door, but on one of the shelves—it is colder there. Incidentally, milk in an unopened package stays good longer than milk in a carton that has been opened.

The vegetable drawer is a festival of germs

In the refrigerator, the drawer where you store vegetables is the dirtiest place in the kitchen. Scientific research has shown this once again. Not surprising: this is where vegetables lie with their skins and all, sometimes even with some soil in the leaves; the packaging is not exactly fresh either, so there you go. What can you do about it? Regularly scrub it clean with hot water, preferably using a baking-soda solution.

The cutting board is dirtier than the toilet seat

The average cutting board contains more bacteria and other germs than the toilet seat. And even washing it does not help! The recommendation from the American food safety authority: use different cutting boards for different ingredients. In other words, do not cut vegetables on the cutting board you use for meat, and vice versa. Also replace cutting boards regularly, because germs can accumulate in the scratches and damage on a cutting board.

Raw cookie dough is not good for you

Flour is not a major risk, but there is still a chance that it has been contaminated with E. coli bacteria. Yes, that is the poop bacteria, and it can make you very sick. Cookie dough also contains raw egg, which is risky too. So eating too much raw cookie dough is not a good idea.

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