Everyone has had that battle with themselves while looking around in the refrigerator for something to eat: it has mold on it… do you eat it? Well, depending on just what kind of food “it” is, it might be salvageable and it might not be.
No matter what we put in the refrigerator, if it gets left in there long enough, mold will eventually start to grow on it. Jams, jellies, preserves, leftovers, it does not typically matter what it is. Most of us like good food and unfortunately, mold usually has the same tastes that we do and invades our refrigerators on a daily basis, ruining the meal of leftovers we thought we were going to have after work.
Improperly home canned foods are at risk for mold growth. Fruits and vegetables must always be washed carefully and inspected for quality before canning and not only that, but the jars and other equipment that is used must also be sterilized, usually by boiling them in water.
So, what do you do what that item in the fridge that has mold on it? There are not a whole lot of things that can be saved once it is contaminated with mold. But, dense items like hard salami or dry-cured country hams can be saved because these items have a pretty stable shelf life and it is common for them to have surface mold. Simply scrub it off.
Anything with a high moisture content or a soft texture, however, needs to be thrown away once mold starts to grow on it. This can include leftover casseroles, lunch meat, hot dogs, and bacon in the meat category and soft cheeses, yogurt, sour cream, and even cheeses made with mold should be thrown away. It may sound odd to throw away a block of cheese contaminated with mold if the cheese was made with mold to begin with, but it is likely that the new mold growing on your cheese was not part of the manufacturing process and this can be dangerous.
Baked goods like bread should also be thrown away because they are porous and may be contaminated below the surface.
Jams, jellies, preserves, and marmalades found to be contaminated with mold needs to be thrown away because they have a high moisture content and are soft enough for the mold to infect the entire jar.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Connecticut Mold Remediation services and other states such as
north carolina mold remediation companies across the united states.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
Salvaging a Watery Electronic Device
Whether you own a cell phone, CD player, laptop, or any other small electronic device, you probably know that letting such a device come into contact with a liquid surely means the sudden death of it. This is somewhat of a misunderstanding, simply because of the fact that it is not the water alone that makes water and electrical devices coming into contact with each other a dangerous thing for your item.
What makes water a bad thing to let get onto or into your electronic devices is whether or not electricity is running through it at the time of contact. It is the electricity that does the real damage and not the liquid itself. If you were to put a CD player or a cell phone that had no electrical current running through it into a puddle of normal water (not containing any dirt particles or sand or chemicals), then there would probably be next to no damage done to it, since most circuit boards are made of plastic and do not absorb water very well. Unfortunately, putting something like that into chemically treated or dirty water could cause more problems than just the water contact.
If you do happen to drop your cell phone or CD player into a bath tub or sink full of water, get it out of the water in less than 20 seconds in order to minimize the damage. Getting it out in under 20 seconds is important because it takes about that long for the water to get inside the item and to the item’s circuit board, especially if it as airtight as most cell phones are these days. Cell phones are not completely water tight, which is the reason for the time limit. Even if the phone is on, it can be saved if you get it out in time. Remove the battery as quickly as possible and lay it on the side with openings for the water to drain out, such as on the keypad if it was a cell phone.
Put the device into a bowl of uncooked rice at least overnight and this should absorb the majority of the water from both the inside and outside of it. Do not replace the battery or try to power on the device until you are certain that it is completely dry inside. Trying to turn it on could be exactly what does the damage that you are trying to avoid.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
water damage restoration contractors and
Mold Remediation companies across the united states.
What makes water a bad thing to let get onto or into your electronic devices is whether or not electricity is running through it at the time of contact. It is the electricity that does the real damage and not the liquid itself. If you were to put a CD player or a cell phone that had no electrical current running through it into a puddle of normal water (not containing any dirt particles or sand or chemicals), then there would probably be next to no damage done to it, since most circuit boards are made of plastic and do not absorb water very well. Unfortunately, putting something like that into chemically treated or dirty water could cause more problems than just the water contact.
If you do happen to drop your cell phone or CD player into a bath tub or sink full of water, get it out of the water in less than 20 seconds in order to minimize the damage. Getting it out in under 20 seconds is important because it takes about that long for the water to get inside the item and to the item’s circuit board, especially if it as airtight as most cell phones are these days. Cell phones are not completely water tight, which is the reason for the time limit. Even if the phone is on, it can be saved if you get it out in time. Remove the battery as quickly as possible and lay it on the side with openings for the water to drain out, such as on the keypad if it was a cell phone.
Put the device into a bowl of uncooked rice at least overnight and this should absorb the majority of the water from both the inside and outside of it. Do not replace the battery or try to power on the device until you are certain that it is completely dry inside. Trying to turn it on could be exactly what does the damage that you are trying to avoid.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
water damage restoration contractors and
Mold Remediation companies across the united states.
Mold in My Rice, Please
A favorite food in Asia for the past thousand years is called red yeast rice and it considered a traditional part of the dish most of us are familiar with, at least by name, called Peking duck. The system of Traditional Chinese Medicine has put the dish to use by claiming that it assists the body in keeping a healthy circulatory system and promotes a healthy heart. Its use has been documented back as long ago as the Tang imperial dynasty in China in the approximate year of 800 A.D. There could possibly be a fair reason for the claim that it helps keep a good circulatory system, since current research has proven that it is pretty good at lowering your cholesterol. But, what is this “red yeast rice”, exactly?
Well, red yeast rice is produced by fermenting a mold called “monascus purpureus” that has been put on top of rice. The natural ingredient mevinolin is supposedly what gives the dish its cholesterol lowering characteristic, since this ingredient is similar to that which doctors typically give a person to help lower high cholesterol, such as the drugs Zocor and Lipitor. Even though we all need a certain amount of cholesterol in order to survive and be healthy, most of the time our own bodies produce enough of it to maintain survival. We only actually need to obtain about twenty percent of our cholesterol from the food that we take in every day. Red yeast rice (or mevinolin, whichever you want to say) blocks the enzyme in the liver that causes it to produce cholesterol.
Even though this medicine food has been used in China for at least a millennia in the treatment of high cholesterol and maintaining a healthy circulatory system, it has only begun to see some use in the United States and other western countries. Mevinolin is actually sold as a dietary supplement in some places and is available over the counter without a prescription.
If you do happen to eat red yeast rice, it is not a good idea to eat it or take the mevinolin supplements if your doctor has already put you on Zocor or Lipitor.
Monascus purpureus is a red-purplish mold that is used primarily in Asian foods to provide color and was used for this long before food dyes were invented. In addition to providing a healthy amount of color to a dish, it can also give the food a good flavor, too.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
water damage restoration companies and
Dallas Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors.
Well, red yeast rice is produced by fermenting a mold called “monascus purpureus” that has been put on top of rice. The natural ingredient mevinolin is supposedly what gives the dish its cholesterol lowering characteristic, since this ingredient is similar to that which doctors typically give a person to help lower high cholesterol, such as the drugs Zocor and Lipitor. Even though we all need a certain amount of cholesterol in order to survive and be healthy, most of the time our own bodies produce enough of it to maintain survival. We only actually need to obtain about twenty percent of our cholesterol from the food that we take in every day. Red yeast rice (or mevinolin, whichever you want to say) blocks the enzyme in the liver that causes it to produce cholesterol.
Even though this medicine food has been used in China for at least a millennia in the treatment of high cholesterol and maintaining a healthy circulatory system, it has only begun to see some use in the United States and other western countries. Mevinolin is actually sold as a dietary supplement in some places and is available over the counter without a prescription.
If you do happen to eat red yeast rice, it is not a good idea to eat it or take the mevinolin supplements if your doctor has already put you on Zocor or Lipitor.
Monascus purpureus is a red-purplish mold that is used primarily in Asian foods to provide color and was used for this long before food dyes were invented. In addition to providing a healthy amount of color to a dish, it can also give the food a good flavor, too.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
water damage restoration companies and
Dallas Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors.
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