“Does all food spoil?”asks Tara
“Not this rice,” says Ma, “Or these potatoes, at least for a while.”
“And not this pickle,” says Pa.
“And not this ghee,” says Ma.
“We can eat ghee rice and potatoes!” says Tara, happily.
Tara and Madhav thought there was an invisible monster in their house. While there was no monster to be found, they were right
about there being something invisible!
When food goes ‘bad’—meaning it cannot be eaten by human beings—it’s because something invisible begins to eat the food. These invisible beings are called microbes. Microbes aren’t totally invisible: they’re just very, very, very tiny (tinier than the tiniest insect you’ve ever seen). You need a machine called a microscope to be able to see them.
They look something like this.
Some foods spoil quicker than others and some foods spoil very slowly. Wet food, like many fruits and vegetables, spoil faster.
Dry foods, like uncooked dal and rice, spoil slower. Eggs, meat and cheese spoil fast. Preserved foods, like pickles and ghee, spoil very slowly. Packaged foods, like biscuits and sweets, spoil the slowest.
Tell us: Has this story helped make you more aware of these “fuzzy monsters”?