Don't Refreeze Melted Ice Cream! It Could Lead to Food Poisoning, Warns Expert
Refreezing melted ice cream is a big no no according to Amreen Basheer from Ashton University, unless, of course, you want a nasty food poisoning.
We all scream for ice cream and even use the delectable dessert for some Netflix and Chill sessions. But considering the rapid state at which ice creams melt in room temperature, the urge to save some and refreeze it is often known to be the ideal solution. You must know this though, that your temporary solution to enjoy the dessert could make you sick. And we're not emphasising on the passable brain freeze that usually occurs when you guzzle down dollops of ice cream but food poisoning.
"This often happens when it is taken from the freezer, left out to thaw and then returned to the freezer before being taken out again to eat later," states Amreen Bashir, a lecturer of biomedical sciences at the Aston University in Birmingham, England. The melted ice cream works as a great petra dish for bacterias such as listeria to breed. These bacterias are known to cause nausea, fever, diarrhoea, vomit and other stomach unrest.
Often the blame has been surreptitiously put on the ice cream manufacturing companies as the cause of their upset stomachs. Turns out its not the ice cream manufacturers who haven't followed the norms to produce bacteria-free food but our own actions to consume it in a non-healthy way.
On the same, Bashir adds, "Ice cream melts fairly rapidly at room temperature and the milky, sugary, liquid concoction is a perfect petri dish for bacteria like listeria, essentially the second time you dig into the tub." In fact, she has further added that even sharing from the same ice cream container could be considered as summoning all bacterias to come hither! Bashir writes, "Double dipping with a dirty spoon is also not only inconsiderate, it's an invitation to every nasty bug nearby."
Other Precautionary Methods To Prevent Food Poisoning
Bashir suggested that homemade ice creams are the most ideal in these situations as the scope of bacteria being formed is comparatively less. However, she did point out that online recipes with the inclusion of raw eggs in the ice cream base could lead to health hazards too. Salmonella poisoning, which is again a type of stomach infection causes severe diarrhoea, vomiting, nausea and other such bowel related sicknesses primarily breeds in raw eggs. Hence, avoiding eggs in the ice cream is a safer option. Amreen has also recommended pasteurised milk and cream to be used with a view to being on the safe side.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 02, 2018 12:01 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).