Sniffing these foods to see if they are still fresh will not help you. Find out which foods you need to be extra vigilant with, even if your sense of smell hasn’t detected anything abnormal.
“Is it still good?“, we asked you while making you sniff that outdated yogurt or else this milk that has been open for several days. The olfactory examination passed, the yogurt expired two days ago could thus be consumed with a clear conscience. But beware, if it is easy to know if milk or yogurt has turned to smell, the majority of foods do not reveal not so easy to analyze with a simple “sniff”. Indeed, that’s what Matthew Gilmour, a microbiologist specializing in listeria and other invasive pathogens, reminds us.
In his article published on The Conversationthe microbiologist explains: “The microbes most often associated with foodborne illnessessuch as Listeria and Salmonella, will be almost impossible to detect by smell“. If, for example, you think that your Sunday chicken is still good three days later, because it does not give off any bad smell, you are taking a risk. Indeed, if the chicken was contaminated by listeria or salmonella, you wouldn’t be able to detect anything by smell. Indeed, the pathogens would then be too few to be identifiable on the nose.
Same for the others meat or fish prepared, like this packet of smoked salmon open for several days in your fridge or even this tomato that has been lying around in your vegetable drawer for a week. If there is contamination, the pathogen is probably nested in the pulp of the tomato and therefore undetectable by smell. So, rather than straining your nose, you’d better pay attention to best-before dates, good storage practices, and proper cooking methods for avoid the risk of food poisoning. For example, cooked meats will keep for three days after cooking (d+2) if you have cooled them quickly. If you have left your roast chicken to cool to room temperature, it will not last longer than 24 hours in the fridge !