Storing Foodstuffs Wisely

New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 820, 15 April 1955, Page 15

Storing Foodstuffs Wisely

o~a _-~- « --- | The second of three talks on Health from the Kitchen, broadcast recently from ZB.

YA and YZ stations of the NZBS

by DR

H. B.

TURBOTT

Deputy-Director-General

of Health

HE first step in good nutrition is the ‘" housewife’s choice in buying from each of the groups of foods protective, body-building and energy-giving. ‘The next step is the wise handling of these foodstuffs in the home. Do you have one place for everything? Your preserves, eanned goods, and dry goods such as cereals require dryness, coolness and ventilation. Youf vegetables and fruit need darkness, as well as coolness and free circulation of air. Your body builders, meat, fish, dairy products and leftovers, need the coolest place you have. If you haven’t a household refrigerator (and it saves money in the long run if you can afford the large first cost) use substitutes in the hot weather, a gauzecovered safe hanging in a shaded windy spot, earthenware containers cooled by water evaporation, a jug or vessel in a bowl of water covered with a wet cloth. Meat and fish in the home must be kept covered and cool, and under these conditions they lose no nutritive value. Sausages and other prepared meats or cooked meats should be used the same day as bought. There is too much risk of food poisoning with these, unless you have a refrigerator to keep down the growth of germs. Don’t put hot meats straight into the refrigerator. Not only does this raise the temperature of the whole refrigerator, but (in my imagination, possibly) loses more flavour than if the meat is cooled off first, Milk is best kept in the bottles as delivered, the cooler the better. It should be brought into the house as soon as possible from its sunlight protected container at the gate, Milk has very little vitamin C, but the tiny bit it has is completely lost if sunlight plays on the bottle for half an hour. Much more important is the loss of one of. the vitaman B group, riboflavin. This is up to 80 per cent gone for good with one and a half hours’ sunshine on the bottle. Two hours’ sunshine playing on the milk, and you have that thing developing that puts children off drinking milk, a peculiar flavour. You blame the milk vendor for having stale milk. Look out that this staleness doesn’t develop through sunshine at your front door or gate. Keep any eggs you have cool to stop growth of germs. Unfortunately, they’re often implicated in food poisonings. The mm ~~ in in aie

germs actually get into the egg as it is being formed in the hen’s or duck’s egg sack. Possibly five in a hundred eggs may be affected this way, and it is more likely in duck eggs. So keep your hen eggs cool to reduce germ multiplication, don’t use duck eggs for any lightly-cooked dishes of the Spanish cream type, and don’t store duck eggs but use them fresh and cooked for at least 10 minutes. Cheese doesn’t keep well in any damp place, and this includes the refrigerator. However, even if kept unsuitably or dried up and hard it will still be good nutritionally. Cheese keeps best cool and dry in a well-ventilated place. Butter does best in the refrigerator or makeshift coolbox or container. Your cooking fats need reasonably cool storage. The New Zealand idea about keeping bread is to put it in a pretty airtight tin or bread box. This is wrong! Bread stales less if it is in a cool place freely ventilated. The practice of putting cereals in covered jats or tins is all right. If you store these jars or tims in a warm place, especially if any dampness, theyll probably become weevily. Ventilation and coolness are required for cereal storage. Also for your preserved fruits, bottled tomatoes or beans, or jams. Green vegetables and peas lose vitamin C every day they are kept. Wrap up greens, stalk uppermost, so that the sap drains to the leaf, if you have to keep them, Store in racks off the floor in a cool, dark, and airy place. Store your root vegetables where there is a free circulation of air, preferably dark and cool, racks or wire baskets being very suitable, and they will hold their vitamin content fairly well over longish periods. Give some thought to the storage of foodstuffs in your home, that is, if you want the best nutritive value for your money, the best taste, and safety from food . poisoning. _ a = ~-