Category: food safety

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You Might Want to Check Your Bottled Water’s Expiration Date Before You Start Drinking

Keeping hydrated is important, but not every bottle of water is safe for drinking. It may sound weird, but just like meat, dairy and many other items you pick up at the grocery store, bottled water has an expiration date.

Let that sink in a moment.

Luckily, unlike those berries that tend to go bad quick, you have a long time to drink your bottled water. In fact, the expiration date on the bottle has nothing to do with the water itself.

Bet you never thought of that one, right?

There’s a good reason for the expiration label: it turns out that the plastics used for both retail bottles and water cooler jugs can become toxic over time.

According to Amy Leigh Mercee, a holistic health expert and author, “[These plastics] will leach into the liquid the bottle once expired or especially when exposed to heat, including sunlight, and hot cars or storage trucks.”

Hint: That probably means it’s time to get rid of the graveyard of half-filled water bottles in your backseat.

Mercee added, “The toxicity contained in the plastic material enters the water. It is disruptive to the endocrine system, causing reproductive symptoms, various cancers, [and] neurological problems, and damaging the immune system.”

She continued, saying that bottled water companies typically use a two-year expiration date, which is the industry standard. However, it is important to keep in mind that the longer a bottle has been in circulation, the more likely the chance it has been exposed to heat.

“Even a brand new plastic bottle that sat in a hot delivery truck for hours or more can already have adverse and toxic compounds present in the water even when first delivered to the grocery store,” Mercee cautioned.

At the end of the day, it’s best to store bottled water in a cool, dark place far from household chemicals or other potential contaminants. Not only will your water last longer and taste better but it will also be safer.

…and that’s the whole point of bottled water.

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Toxic Chemicals Have Been Found in the Tap Water of Dozens of U.S. Cities

Miami is a top destination for tourists, but consuming their tap water could leave you with long-lasting effects well after your vacation is over.

The home of the Heat is just one of 43 U.S. cities—including Philadelphia and New Orleans—that has toxic “forever chemicals” in their drinking water, according to a new report.

Products such as firefighting foam and Teflon contain the PFOAs and PFOS chemicals that are contaminating water across the country. Polluted water has been linked in some cases to cancer and lower fertility and even served as inspiration for the 2019 movie Dark Waters, although much more research needs to be done into long-term harms.

Sydney Evans, Environmental Working Group study co-author, told BuzzFeed News that the research group was surprised to see chemical contamination in such a variety of cities. Out of the 44 cities tested for contaminants, only Meridian, Mississippi, passed. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the citizens of Meridian get their water from the deep depths of a 600-foot well.

While earlier studies conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency and the EWG had not shown a serious water contamination issue, Evans and her team tested for 30 different PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) chemicals in order to discover more information about the breadth of the contamination.

The EPA sets a safety limit of 70 parts-per-trillion limit on the two main chemicals, though some individual states have implemented stricter standards. Unfortunately, many states were found to have water with high concentrations of chemicals, including North Carolina and Iowa.

“To date, EPA has developed methods to reliably detect 29 PFAS chemicals in drinking water,” an agency spokesperson stated in an e-mail to Buzzfeed News. “Aggressively addressing PFAS will continue to be an EPA priority in 2020 and we will provide additional information on our upcoming actions as it becomes available.”

So while staying hydrated is critical, filtered water may be a better bet depending on where you live.

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You Can Stop Putting These Foods in the Fridge

Some foods will quickly spoil if you don’t put them in the refrigerator.

And then there are other foods that you should honestly never put into the fridge at all.

Some of these foods simply don’t need to take up precious fridge space when they could easily sit out on the counter. Others can actually become lower-quality in the fridge.

In the first category are pickles and hot sauce. Both contain ingredients that naturally keep the product from going bad, even if they’re not in the fridge. Nuts are another example of foods that easily stay fresh at room temperature.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

In the second category, there are many types of produce that don’t need to be in the fridge, including onions, garlic, potatoes, tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, whole melons, and basil. In all of these cases, the cooler temperatures actually change the texture of the produce, making them less fresh.

Instead, store these in a dry place with plenty of ventilation.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

The fridge can also interrupt the ripening process for certain types of produce. Avocados can go in the fridge or on the counter, depending on whether they’re ripe (if ripe, put in fridge to keep them good for longer). Stone fruits like peaches can also be left at room temperature to ripen perfectly.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Other items that should never go into the fridge include olive oil and honey, which can actually turn solid when cold (and it’s kind of icky).

The more you know!

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