Water is like the best environment there is for microorganisms.
Freezing doesn’t make unsafe food safe, it can only keep already safe food, safe.
If something frozen, anything, was unfrozen at any point, you can’t know for how long, or in what conditions. Hence, re-frozen products should not be consumed.
Literally nothing can live in pure water. What matters is everything else in the Popsicle, which is mostly processed sugar. Processed sugar is a preservative and will prevent bacterial growth.
Sugar can refer to any sweet-tasting carbohydrate, but most commonly the word refers to glucose, sucrose or fructose. There are bacteria which can consume all of these. “Processing”, at most, might break down sucrose into the other two, but that’s not a significant change.
Nothing can survive in pure anything. Any substance is lethal if an organism is entirely immersed in it. Sugars or starches are a bacterial favourite, but yes, they too kill in high enough concentrations.
But not because they are intrinsically antibacterial. You’re not wrong to say that sugar is a preservative, but it’s still just sugar. The difference is in how much of it there is.
The water in a Popsicle isn’t pure water. There’s other shit in water. Hate to break it to you but there’s also other shit in the water in your tap or that they use to make food. It’s not all the most chemically pure water on the planet. Sugar in a high enough concentration is a preservative, doubt they’ve reached that in a Popsicle. If you make like concentrated simple syrup which is 2:1 it sort of is, but I think that’s only shelf stable for a few months. That’s basically liquid sugar at that point though and way more than is in a Popsicle. In lower amounts sugar basically acts as food for bacteria.
I got curious so I tried googling what concentration of sugar actually inhibit bacterial growth. According to this paper, it varied according to sugar type and bacteria species, but generally inhibition started at ~5% concentration for sucrose and ~10% for fructose, with maximum inhibition at ~35% sugar concentration. Popsicles can contain 15% sugar or more, so bacteria might not be able to grow effectively there, though growth still does happen.
So you’d drink weeks-old kool-ade if it hadn’t been refrigerated? Water and sugar is an ideal breeding ground and food source for a vast number of different bacteria.
True if sealed, I meant the type of kool-ade you mix yourself, which gets gross after not very long. With this wrapped in paper, I’m doubting it’s air tight.
Being wrapped in plastic has absolutely no effect on it. The bacteria likely to colonize are already in there, but keeping it frozen keeps them from multiplying, unless it melts. And many such colonies (botulism, for example) thrive in hypoxic environments, so being wrapped can actually make it worse. And corn syrup or any other substitute is just as bad as sugar.
Brother, we used to buy freeze pops in the supermarket that came in liquid form, and then were frozen by us in our freezer. They’re still sold this way. You’re making something out of nothing, and then doubling down on that nothing.
A product intended to be sold that way. Steak and slim jims are both beef (in theory), but I wouldn’t recommend storing them the same way…
I’m far from guaranteeing that the popsicle from the picture would make you sick, I’m just saying I wouldn’t trust it with no telling how long it sat around melted before refreezing, and almost definitely not something processed for that type of storage.
Ever notice that you don’t need to refrigerate candy? Processed sugar is such a bad food source for bacteria, you can actually use it as a preservative. The melted Popsicle will rot eventually, if it stays wet, but the likely first organism in will be a yeast.
No. Candy is heated to extremely high temperatures while processing and has a low water content, which are very important for its sterilization and entirely different from something like this. And candy still goes bad if you wait long enough… Candy is more equivalent to something like fruit preserves/jelly, which use heat and sugar to sterilize and preserve, yet which still have to be refrigerated to maximize shelf-life/minimize contamination. So you’re right that sugar can be used to preserve, but only by following a very different process.
Looks like it melted and re-froze?
Yep - probably not safe to eat.
It’s just water and flavour. Nothing dangerous about it, except for the wooden stick.
Water is like the best environment there is for microorganisms.
Freezing doesn’t make unsafe food safe, it can only keep already safe food, safe.
If something frozen, anything, was unfrozen at any point, you can’t know for how long, or in what conditions. Hence, re-frozen products should not be consumed.
That thing is pure sugar, water, color and aroma, unless it’s a milk based ice you are almost certainly fine even if you leave it out for years…
The existence of grog confirms it 🫵
Literally nothing can live in pure water. What matters is everything else in the Popsicle, which is mostly processed sugar. Processed sugar is a preservative and will prevent bacterial growth.
What exactly do you mean by processed sugar?
Sugar can refer to any sweet-tasting carbohydrate, but most commonly the word refers to glucose, sucrose or fructose. There are bacteria which can consume all of these. “Processing”, at most, might break down sucrose into the other two, but that’s not a significant change.
Nothing can survive in pure anything. Any substance is lethal if an organism is entirely immersed in it. Sugars or starches are a bacterial favourite, but yes, they too kill in high enough concentrations.
But not because they are intrinsically antibacterial. You’re not wrong to say that sugar is a preservative, but it’s still just sugar. The difference is in how much of it there is.
Slight correction, but sucrose breaks down into the other two
Thanks. Corrected.
The water in a Popsicle isn’t pure water. There’s other shit in water. Hate to break it to you but there’s also other shit in the water in your tap or that they use to make food. It’s not all the most chemically pure water on the planet. Sugar in a high enough concentration is a preservative, doubt they’ve reached that in a Popsicle. If you make like concentrated simple syrup which is 2:1 it sort of is, but I think that’s only shelf stable for a few months. That’s basically liquid sugar at that point though and way more than is in a Popsicle. In lower amounts sugar basically acts as food for bacteria.
I got curious so I tried googling what concentration of sugar actually inhibit bacterial growth. According to this paper, it varied according to sugar type and bacteria species, but generally inhibition started at ~5% concentration for sucrose and ~10% for fructose, with maximum inhibition at ~35% sugar concentration. Popsicles can contain 15% sugar or more, so bacteria might not be able to grow effectively there, though growth still does happen.
So you’d drink weeks-old kool-ade if it hadn’t been refrigerated? Water and sugar is an ideal breeding ground and food source for a vast number of different bacteria.
How do you think we get toilet tank wine?
Master vitners and precise quality control, of course
There is nothing about a soft drink that will get bad or harmful even after months…
True if sealed, I meant the type of kool-ade you mix yourself, which gets gross after not very long. With this wrapped in paper, I’m doubting it’s air tight.
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It’s wrapped in plastic. Besides, I’m not sure there’s actual sugar in those things. Most I’ve seen were all additives.
Being wrapped in plastic has absolutely no effect on it. The bacteria likely to colonize are already in there, but keeping it frozen keeps them from multiplying, unless it melts. And many such colonies (botulism, for example) thrive in hypoxic environments, so being wrapped can actually make it worse. And corn syrup or any other substitute is just as bad as sugar.
Brother, we used to buy freeze pops in the supermarket that came in liquid form, and then were frozen by us in our freezer. They’re still sold this way. You’re making something out of nothing, and then doubling down on that nothing.
A product intended to be sold that way. Steak and slim jims are both beef (in theory), but I wouldn’t recommend storing them the same way…
I’m far from guaranteeing that the popsicle from the picture would make you sick, I’m just saying I wouldn’t trust it with no telling how long it sat around melted before refreezing, and almost definitely not something processed for that type of storage.
High fructose corn syrup. Which, for all intents and purposes, is sugar.
relevant user name.
Ever notice that you don’t need to refrigerate candy? Processed sugar is such a bad food source for bacteria, you can actually use it as a preservative. The melted Popsicle will rot eventually, if it stays wet, but the likely first organism in will be a yeast.
No. Candy is heated to extremely high temperatures while processing and has a low water content, which are very important for its sterilization and entirely different from something like this. And candy still goes bad if you wait long enough… Candy is more equivalent to something like fruit preserves/jelly, which use heat and sugar to sterilize and preserve, yet which still have to be refrigerated to maximize shelf-life/minimize contamination. So you’re right that sugar can be used to preserve, but only by following a very different process.
Would pay to see it in its used-fruity-sharp-condom phase