Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2022: Tips to refrigerate leftover food safely

Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2022: Is refrigerated food healthy for us? How long can we store the leftovers in fridge? On the occasion of World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (November 18-24), here are tips by an expert on how to store leftover food safely in your refrigerator.

Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2022: We all rely on refrigerator to preserve our leftover food, milk and dairy products and prevent them from decaying. With this useful home appliance, we are also able to avoid food wastage and also diseases that could impact us due to bacteria growth in stale food. There is a lot of debate around whether refrigerated food is healthy for us or not. Ayurveda recommends eating food within few hours of preparing it for optimum health. But due to our fast-moving lifestyle, we cannot help but trust this electronic friend to help meet our food requirements. But there are some rules one must not ignore while storing food items in refrigerator. Food must be refrigerated as early as possible after cooking so that there is minimum bacterial growth in it and it is able to retain its nutritional value. On the occasion of World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (November 18-24), here are tips by an expert on how to store leftover food safely in your refrigerator. (Also read: Diabetes: Can eating cold leftover rice improve your blood sugar levels?)

Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2022: Food must be refrigerated as early as possible after cooking so that there is minimum bacterial growth in it and it is able to retain its nutritional value.

What to refrigerate and what to not

In general, refrigeration has no effect on a food's taste or texture. Freezing has no effect on the taste or texture of most meats, has minimal effects on vegetables, but often completely changes fruits (which become mushy).

Why freezing food increases its shelf value

"In refrigeration, the bacterial action is slowed down so that it takes food much longer (at least 3 to 4, rather than half a day) to spoil. In the case of freezing, the idea is to stop bacterial growth completely as bacteria becomes inactive at freezing temperatures. Thus, frozen food can be kept for months together," says Dr Abhinav Kumar, Associate Consultant, Gastroenterology & Hepatobilairy Sciences, Fortis Escorts, Okhla, New Delhi.

What to do before storing your food in refrigerator

Refrigeration retards spoilage but it cannot improve the initial quality of the product.

Dr Kumar says it is important to ensure that the starting material is free of microbial contamination before refrigeration.

Here are some tips to consider:

- Make sure to wash vegetables before storing it. Microbial contamination caused by unwashed raw foods, hands, leaking packages, utensil surface, etc are introduced to domestic refrigerator and can directly contaminate other stored foods.

- Maintain safe food practices while handling food like washing hands before touching food and using clean utensils to store food.

How safe is food stored in refrigerator

Although refrigeration controls bacterial growth, enzymatic spoilage of food continues to occur. However, it is retarded by refrigeration and freezing.

"Refrigeration can contribute to some degree of loss of vitamin content of food and thus it is vital to remember that every food stored in refrigerator has its shelf life and the same should be kept in mind," says Dr Agrahari.

It is important to note that food is best consumed when fresh but refrigeration of food is an important and safe mode of food preservation that we cannot do without.

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