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Blue LEDs Are the Future of Food Preservation
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(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2015, @07:50PM
Do the bacteria die from lack of sleep then? (You know, because the blue light keeps people awake). /BadJoke
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2015, @08:09PM
Should stop using a microwave to cook their burgers and go back to cooking them on a grill. They're greasy, soggy, taste like shit, and give me explosive diarrhea every time I eat there.
(Score: 5, Funny) by tangomargarine on Friday August 07 2015, @08:27PM
"Doctor, it hurts when I eat at McDonald's."
"So what do you think you should stop doing...?"
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2015, @10:18PM
Order the Diet soda with the 4 big macs next time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2015, @10:43PM
I am not really sure why you believe McDonald's cooks their burgers in the microwave, you can generally see the grill from the front counter. The grill is pretty fool-proof too: it has an upper platter that lowers and cooks the meat from both sides is about 90 seconds. The meat is held in a heating tray at something like 130-150 degrees for up to 10-30 minutes (depending on size), at least officially. Many places undoubtably hold the product for longer, but at no point should it be microwaved. Perhaps order your food "fresh" next time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 08 2015, @12:29AM
Maybe your McD still has a grill, but the ones I've been to in San Diego removed them years ago and nuke the patties in plastic trays in a large shelf like microwave. It doesn't look or taste the same as it used to.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 08 2015, @01:54AM
That sounds an awful lot like the UHC [manitowocfsusa.com], which is the heating/holding tray mentioned above. However it is possible that they have switched it out for some horrible multi-level microwave.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 08 2015, @12:37AM
A former McDonalds employee... "The patties are pre-cooked and heated in an industrial microwave"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 08 2015, @12:46AM
The supposed microwaving is not the reason you are getting diarrhea. The shit quality food is. Stop eating there. Though, I do like their fudge sundays and the oreo mcflurry. So for me its the occasional ice cream and a blunt.
(Score: 1) by Paradise Pete on Saturday August 08 2015, @11:10AM
I don't think there's any ice cream in those.
(Score: 3, Informative) by opinionated_science on Friday August 07 2015, @08:10PM
It may be that the light has elements of UV in it, in which case it will cleave DS-DNA.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by physicsmajor on Friday August 07 2015, @08:19PM
This was my first thought as well. The specific wavelength range or ranges should be simple enough to duplicate and try in the diy/citizen science sphere.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2015, @10:40PM
> The specific wavelength range or ranges should be simple enough to duplicate
From the title of the paper - Enhancing the antibacterial effect of 461 and 521 nm light emitting diodes...
FWIW, 521nm is solidly in the green zone.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday August 08 2015, @08:42AM
Here is an example of some 460-465 nm blue 10-Watt LED chips.... [aliexpress.com]
520-525 nm green 10-Watt LEDs here. [aliexpress.com]
Just in case you are curious as to how much these things cost on wholesale levels and what they look like.
( Disclaimer... I do not work for AliExpress, nor have I done business with this merchant. I have done business through AliExpress and know how to find stuff on their site, which I did here for the edification of fellow soylenters who may be "learning some ropes" on what is available. )
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2015, @02:20AM
These are blue LED's, so there is no UV component. You're probably thinking of germicidal lamps.
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Friday August 07 2015, @08:12PM
Sounds like it would work on the surface, but how would this inhibit bacteria INSIDE the meat? Cold chills all the matter, but I wouldn't think the light would be absorbed beyond the exterior.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2015, @09:33PM
Generally there isn't bacteria in the center of solid pieces of meat, thus why you only need to sear the outside of tuna. The center being raw isn't as much of a problem as mass media make it out to be.
Anything even slightly processed, like all grocery store ham, will have had injections at some point. That is where the worry of internal bacteria is legitimate.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday August 08 2015, @12:05AM
Not to mention the ground beef problem. !!
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by kurenai.tsubasa on Saturday August 08 2015, @04:40PM
I prefer bison myself. At any rate, would you care to elaborate? Is it due to the grinding process itself or using wooden cutting boards? (hoping I didn't just *woosh*!)
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday August 08 2015, @09:00PM
Massively more surface area in ground beef.
A chunk of steak need only have the outside illuminated by the led or UV lights. But ground meat has that outside layer distributed throughout the entire bulk of the meat. One marginal chunk of meat in the hopper can contaminate 50 pounds of ground round.
And that contamination can be so deeply embedded in the tray of hamburger that no led/UV light can get to it.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Saturday August 08 2015, @04:10AM
Thank you for the enlightenment. I didn't realize, but that makes sense as I think about it.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2015, @10:09PM
My understanding is that most bacteria that spoils food is aerobic. This means they need oxygen to survive in any real number. That is available in large quantities at the surface of meats, but not so much near the center (which makes sense as to why we need circulatory systems and cramp when we exercise). Therefore, most bacteria grow near the surface. However, there are exceptions to this rule, like ground meat and whole birds, which are more likely to get you sick because they have more surface area and small pieces.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2015, @11:58PM
You generally cramp when you exercise because you're breathing wrong.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 08 2015, @02:11AM
I.e. a lack of oxygen in your muscles.
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Friday August 07 2015, @10:10PM
opaque to visible light does not mean opaque to other frequencies. Shorter wavelengths (e.g. UV) will penetrate further - Xrays will go all the way through!
(Score: 2, Interesting) by ese002 on Friday August 07 2015, @09:03PM
Looks like a cheaper, probably less effective form of irradiation [wikipedia.org]. Irradiation, of course, has been approved for food use for over 50 years. It could be enormously reducing the amount of food waste but isn't because the same sort of Luddites that are now campaigning to force GMO's off the shelf and prevent the development of new ones.
(Score: 2) by skullz on Friday August 07 2015, @09:54PM
wait wut?
Anti-GMO folks are against irradiated food?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 08 2015, @03:17AM
Anti-GMO folks are typically against anything invented past the early 20th century.
(Score: 1) by pinchy on Friday August 07 2015, @10:13PM
Are there places you can actually buy irradiated food? I remember a story on 20/20 or 60 minutes long time ago that had people protesting outside some facility that irradiated food.
(Score: 1) by SanityCheck on Friday August 07 2015, @10:32PM
Well I know some foods imported for nonhuman consumption to/from Aussie get the irradiation treatment. There was a huge scandal about pet food that got irradiated resulting in pets dying.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday August 08 2015, @12:19AM
I call bullshit.
Pets do not die from irradiated food. Neither do you. You've eaten irradiated food without knowing it.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Saturday August 08 2015, @12:16AM
You might as well ask if there are places where you can buy NON-irradiated food.
Some food products are routinely irradiated. Especially ingredients used in the production of cooked products (like powdered eggs and such used commercial products, etc).
http://www.fda.gov/Food/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/ucm261680.htm [fda.gov]
http://www.epa.gov/radiation/sources/food_labeling.html [epa.gov]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday August 08 2015, @10:20PM
> Are there places you can actually buy irradiated food?
Fukushima is promising.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 08 2015, @03:20AM
Does McDonald's use the dreaded dihydrogen monoxide in their food still?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 10 2015, @03:02AM
Not only that, but in the more insidious solid form.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 08 2015, @03:39AM
There must be no germs anywhere around my computer gear, since the hardware manufacturers have overused blue LEDs for years.