Is food sterile?

Question

I was wondering that today, if it's not how does our body fight the germs and use the vitamins and minerals? What would it be like if it was sterile?

Answer 1

In general, no, food is not sterile. Some processing techniques, such as freeze-drying, does sterilize. But all the techniques that result in sterilization drastically alter the foodstuffs, so that it is really impossible to tell what unprocessed sterile food would taste like. I would guess bland, but that's a guess.

The bulk of possible infectors in food get destroyed by stomach acid, most of what gets through is destroyed by the immune system. Anything that survives past that makes you sick.

As for how nutrients are extracted, that is a ridiculously complex bio-chemical process. I would suggest you pick up an advanced biology textbook.

Answer 2

Some food is sterile, take canned goods. they are processed at 212+ degrees which is the temp that hospitals use to sterilize instruments.

But foods like salads are barely even clean. Many people got sick last year from eating pre mixed salads.
Most of the time your somach acids will kill most of the "normal bacteria"
but every now and then something a bad bacteria comes along and people get sick. Remember it has to go in your mouth
and through your throat before it gets to your stomach.

Answer 3

generally food is not sterile, that's why you have to cook it, usually at 160'F for at least 5 minutes. that, however, isn't really what one could consider as being sterile. in order to sterilize something you need either an autoclave or a pressure cooker set to 250'F at 15-18 atmospheres for at least 15 minutes. that would kill all organisms and destroy most viruses and infectious prions.

for more infromation on why cooking really isn't sterilizing check out Avery et al., 1944 Transformation Principal.

Answer 4

No food is not sterile. A person's immune system, if healthy, fight the germs and keeps you from getting sick.

Answer 5

Food is not sterile. The acid in your stomach and kill of almost any bacteria you ingest.