I imagine that through history, people discovered that if the food smells bad, it probably is spoiled, will make you sick, and it shouldn’t be eaten. I believe this to be wise guidance today, as well. Maybe it won’t make you sick, but it may not taste as good, etc. Bad smell = shouldn’t eat. But is the opposite true? As long as food smells ok, it is still good to eat? Specifics: just discovered a bit of leftover Thanksgiving mashed potatoes, sealed in a baggie in the back of a cold refrigerator. I smelled them. Hmmm…not bad. No real smell at all - except cold mashed potatoes. But then I chickened out. Would I have been taking a health chance by eating food that was prepared two weeks ago?
I do not think the human sense of smell is sensitive enough to say we could make a clear determination of the suitability of food for consumption by smell alone.
Bad smelling food is certainly a piece of the puzzle as is (perhaps) the lab experiment growing on the food. Common sense should get you past most bad food…e.g. generally best to avoid old food, make sure food is properly cooked and stored, etc…
Additionally, I do not know that all the bad things for humans that can get into food necessarily smell bad. Salmonella and botulism (botulism is a super bad thing to come across) come to mind as certainly people eat food infected by those and if they smelled nasty one would think they wouldn’t (leading me to believe those two nasty things at least do not smell). I could be wrong on that but I am still willing to wager your nose alone may not give warning of bad food.
I don’t even think you can say that a bad smell always signifies something you can’t or shouldn’t eat.
To me all blue cheeses smell absolutely vile and the smell of a durian makes me physically heave, but other people eat them with gay abandon and there is nothing wrong or off with those foods.
No; food that is unsafe to eat does not always smell bad (also food that smells bad is not necessarily unsafe to eat); pathogenic bacteria can build up to dangerous levels and the food can still look, smell and taste completely OK - not all of them make the food smelly (at least not until some point after they have reached dangerous population), conversely, the organisms and enzymatic processes that can make food smelly are not all dangerous.
This is especially true when the food is refrigerated, because some processes are more cold-tolerant than others, whereas unrefrigerated high-risk food is likely to become both stinky and unsafe in pretty much the same short space of time.
Ok, so Mangetout (ironic name for this thread), just how long does it take for pathogenic bacteria to build up to dangerous levels in a refrigerator? Is two weeks enough time?
Don’t eat the mashed potatoes. It’s not worth the risk. It’s not like you’re starving to death with no hope of any other sustenance.
Animal products tend to cause problems more rapidly than vegetable products (in my own humble experience). I don’t think eating two-week-old mashed potatoes that had been properly refrigerated is courting death.
I think problems are more prevelant with improper handling rather than simply prolonged storage at proper temperature. For example, if the mashed potatoes had been left at room temp in an open bowl overnight then put in the fridge for two weeks, throw 'em out. Especially true of meat.
That notwithstanding, agree with above posts that bad bacteria can be present without a bad smell. But you can take this logic to extremes.
Food smells bad: Might be spoiled, don’t eat it
Food smells good: Might be spoiled don’t eat it