DailyDirt: Preserving Food, Preventing Food Waste

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Refrigeration is a relatively recent process to keep foods edible longer. Before electricity, people would store blocks of ice and go to all sorts of efforts to keep foods from spoiling. Here are just a few more interesting links about foods that stay safe to ingest for almost unbelievable amounts of time.

• A specialized microwave could zap bread and sterilize it, so the bread could last at least 60 days without growing mold. However, it might take consumers a bit longer to get used to the idea that bread lasts that long.... [url]
• A 2,000-year-old Roman shipwreck was discovered along with food and wine still stored and preserved in jars. Most of the jars are still sealed, so these items are still recognizable as food -- although no one will likely eat these leftovers. [url]
• There's a pretty good reason why alcohol is a critical component of eggnog... it kills bacteria. NB: The alcohol takes a few weeks to kill off the bacteria, so be patient when making a fresh batch before drinking it. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Filed Under: bread, eggnog, food, leftovers, microwave, preservation, spoiling