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Food Bars/Buffets in Supermarkets--Is the food safe? How can you tell?

Mar 05, 2015

food barPerhaps you've noticed this: some sections of supermarkets are morphing into restaurants. Cold food bars offer everything customers need to make a glorious salad. Hot food bars have soups, entrées, pastas, potatoes, cooked vegetables, casseroles, and more.  Everything is there, just awaiting your tongs or spoon, to enable you to take home an entire tasty dinner.  But, you may wonder, is all this exposed food safe?  Is it held at the proper temperature so bacteria can't multiply rapidly? Is it properly protected from consumers with a cough or unclean hands?  Is it maintained by employees in a sanitary way? We asked our Shelf Life Advice Board members (all scientists) to give concerned consumers tips on safe food bar usage.

Should Sour Cream and Cottage Cheese Be Stored Upside Down?

Feb 12, 2015

cottage cheese and sour cream"Is this true?" my daughter emailed me, attaching the following from myfridgefood.com: "Bacteria is what causes cottage cheese and sour cream to go bad. If you store them UPSIDE DOWN it creates a vacuum in the container which stifles the growth of bacteria and they last much longer... science lesson over." 

 

I wondered whether a science lesson had, in fact, ever begun. I promptly turned the question over to this site's Advisory Board members, all scientists. While waiting for their responses, I checked Google and discovered that this "fact" quoted above had been widely discussed online.  I found it on cbsnews.com, facebook.com, lifehacker.com, messsage.snopes.com, pinterest.com, and answers.yahoo.com.  Most of the sites (including CBS) recommend upside down storage.  But before you do that, read the following comments from the Shelf Life Advice Board scientists:

After The Storm: What You Can Save and What You Must Throw Out

Jan 27, 2015

refrigerator

 

After a power outage, the big food-related question is this: "What perishable foods must be discarded because of possible contamination, and what's safe to keep?"  Here are some guidelines:

 

Our Board Scientists Talk about 2015 Food Trends

Jan 21, 2015

Smoky flavor sandwichesIn January, articles about food trends are--well--trendy.  We're hearing about continuing trends from 2014, variations of past trends, and totally new trends.  What we'll be eating in restaurants and at home will adopt some interesting new twists.  There's so much to say about this topic that Shelf Life Advice will do 2 articles on the subject.  This first one contains prognostications from 3 of our Advisory Board scientists.  The second article (scheduled to be on our home page in a few weeks) has info gleaned from the news media. Most of their predictions originate with celebrity chefs, food manufacturers, and processors.

>> see past homepage articles
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