Is it possible to get poisoned with expired chocolate

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Do not confuse white, whitened and expired chocolate - then everything will be fine.

Sometimes we open a bar of chocolate and see that it is covered with a nasty white coating. We look at the date of manufacture - everything is in order. And sometimes normal-looking chocolate signals with a date on the wrapper that it has expired. Is it possible to get poisoned with chocolate at all? We sorted it out together with a specialist.

Can expired chocolate be eaten? As a doctor, I am a little surprised that such a question arises at all.

Any food, no matter how fresh it is, contains bacteria. Harmless and not so good. The longer this product is stored, even in the refrigerator, the more bacteria it contains. Our immunity successfully copes with their small number. But when the concentration of microbes becomes critical, the toxins they release poison our body in the truest sense of the word.

This is the mechanism of occurrence of any food toxicoinfection (in a simple way - poisoning). In this case, the main reason for our poor health (nausea, diarrhea, vomiting) will not be the bacteria themselves, but the toxins they release. If we talk about intestinal infections, we usually get them from other people, and not from expired food. Thus, a particular shelf life is a time period during which a critical number of bacteria are not formed.

Eating any expired food is like a tape measure: once or twice it can be lucky, but the third time it is not.

If chocolate is filled with filling (and this is a very breeding ground for microbes), this roulette is certainly not worth playing!

Well, one more thing. When the oil is heated (during frying), harmful substances are released and the so-called oxidation of fats occurs. By the way, at room temperature, something similar also happens, only much more slowly.

Fat is always a part of chocolate. It is good if it is saturated fat (it hardens at room temperature, for example, cocoa butter, butter). It is more resistant to oxidation (and to heat, by the way, too). If, in the production, flowing vegetable oils were used, then the probability of oxidation of these fats during long-term storage is higher and, as a result, the use of harmful substances is much more likely.

The conclusion, it seems to me, is very simple: you should not risk your health!

By the way, a white coating on chocolate is not a sign of spoilage. It was simply stored under different conditions, for example, moved from refrigerator to refrigerator. Therefore, those very fats were on the surface. If, with a white coating, you see that the expiration date has not yet expired, then you can eat chocolate.