How to Tell if Food is Fresh or Stale?

When you buy food from the market or market, can you tell how fresh it is? Read this guide. Now you will easily understand whether the food is fresh or stale.




Buy Food Fresh from the Shelf or Counter!
We store vegetables and fruits in the fridge, but how? What about in markets? When both sales and storage conditions are not appropriate, vegetables, fruits or animal foods lose their nutritional value and sometimes have dangerous consequences. Potatoes, onions, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, chard and more... The nutritional value of fruits and vegetables can disappear very quickly. When products such as milk, yoghurt, oil and cheese are not sold in the correct containers and conditions, they may be attacked by microorganisms. Eggs pose a salmonella risk at room temperature. The list goes on with meat, fish, mushrooms, canned goods. Nowadays, as conscious and healthy nutrition becomes increasingly important, many people pay more attention to the products they purchase being presented in healthy conditions. At this point, practical information is needed to understand whether the food is fresh or stale. In order to prevent risks that can sometimes be very dangerous, you must be able to understand whether the nutrients you consume, from vegetables and fruits to meat and dairy products, from fish to mushrooms, are fresh or stale.


How to Identify Stale Eggs?
It is very important to keep the egg below 4 degrees Celsius. Otherwise, the possibility of microorganisms breeding in the egg increases. The presence of salmonella in the shell can transfer to the egg. Make sure that it does not look dirty and has no cracks, even small ones.

Brucella in Milk and Dairy Products
Freshness can be understood more easily in milk and dairy products. Because when milk and dairy products lose their freshness, they emit a sour smell. Care should be taken to ensure that the temperature of the place where milk and dairy products are sold is below 4 degrees Celsius. Otherwise, various microorganisms such as brucella or salmonella may grow.

If It's Not Minus 18 Degrees...
Do not buy products with ice grains on them. This indicates that the product has been thawed and refrozen, which may have resulted in the growth of many microorganisms. Make sure that the products you buy from the frozen food section are kept at -18 degrees Celsius.

Is the Ice Cream Pre-Melted?
If there are ice particles on the outside of the package in packaged ready-made ice creams, this is an indication that the ice cream has already melted and has become susceptible to bacterial growth.

Stale fish can be identified by its tail
Fish is a food that tends to spoil very quickly. Press your finger on his abdomen. If it doesn't return to its old form, it is stale. His skin should be taut and shiny, and his eyes should be lively. Avoid smoky and introverted eyes. When you hold it by the head, its tail should stand upright, as if it were standing in a frying pan, not downwards. The gills should be pink and the gill covers should be closed. Otherwise, stale fish may have bad consequences.

Red Meat That Changes Color
If the meat sold cut into pieces in certain containers is too juicy and bloody, too soft, crushed, has changed color, or has color changes other than its natural color such as green or yellow; This indicates that the meat is not fresh. Do not buy such products.

Fresh Chicken is Fresh
Since chicken products produce bacteria in a very short time, they can cause infectious and fatal diseases. For this reason, when buying the product, you should make sure that its color is normal and fresh-looking, that there is no suspicious smell other than its unique smell, that it is flexible and takes its previous shape when we press it on the chest, and that it does not have a watery and loose appearance.

Cancer Danger in Canned Foods
Canned goods can also pose significant risks when sold under unhealthy conditions. Products with convex lids and bases and worn and outdated label information should be avoided. While the dome on the lid may indicate the microorganism clostridium botilinum in that product, this type of food can lead to death. In addition, hydrogen gas formed as a result of the reaction of food acids with tin can also cause such situations. Products stored in swollen containers and under inappropriate conditions may cause chemical reactions that will cause cancer. Such products should definitely not be consumed.

Bad Smell Coming from Dried Onions
When buying dry onions, it is necessary to pay attention to moist, sprouted, soft and bad-smelling onions. Even if the outside looks good, a bad smell means that rot has started inside. It is important that the shell does not turn green. Otherwise, it will be tasteless and spoil quickly at home.

You can tell by the fresh potato skin
If the potato skin turns green, the substance they contain called 'solanine' may cause poisoning. As the green color gets darker, the poisoning effect increases and can even cause death in people with weak body resistance. Sprouted potatoes may cause symptoms of poisoning such as headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

Don't Let the Greens Turn Yellow
The nutritional value of greens that are far from fresh and faded or even yellowing is lost significantly and these foods lose their freshness and spoil.

Brown Cauliflower
Brown spots on the cauliflower and the fact that the broccoli has started to turn yellow indicate that it is not fresh.