I should know better, but I admit that I do it too.
I’ve just pulled some sliced chicken out of the fridge, as I set out to make up some sandwiches. I notice the chicken is within its use-by date, but I’m still suspicious.
Another member of the family has unlovingly ripped open the packaging and the slices have been sitting exposed in the fridge for several days. Wondering if the chicken is still usable, I give it a good sniff, hoping for some evidence that it is still good or has gone off.
I should know better because I’m a microbiologist, and I know that the microbes that I might be worried about making me sick have no smell. Yet, there I am, trying and failing to give myself confidence with the old sniff test.
It’s certainly true that some microbes create odors when they are growing. Favorites include the lovely smell of yeast in freshly risen or baked bread, which is in stark contrast to – and please excuse the toilet humor – the aversion we all have to the gaseous concoctions created by our microbes that come in the form of flatulence or bad breath.
These gases arise when microbial populations are growing and becoming abundant – when the metabolism of each microbial resident converts carbon and other elements into sources of energy or building blocks for their own cellular structure.
However, the microbes that are most commonly associated with foodborne illness, such as Listeria and Salmonella, are going to be near impossible to pick up with the sniff test.
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