Cottage cheese is one of the healthiest foods that nutritionists recommend to include in the diet several times a week. It contains a large amount of casein protein, many minerals and vitamins. However, all the useful properties of cottage cheese can be crossed out by its expired shelf life.
Signs of spoiled cottage cheese
Fresh, fat-free cottage cheese has a uniform white color, and a product with a high fat content can have a faint yellowish-cream shade. A richer yellow color is a sign that the curd has begun to deteriorate. Well, a product with dark spots or mold must be immediately thrown into the trash can.
You can also recognize sour cottage cheese by its heterogeneous consistency. Some of its lumps may be slightly dry, others with some mucus. This may arise as a result of prolonged or improper storage, however, in any case, it is not worth eating such a product, especially fresh.
You need to be especially careful when buying homemade cottage cheese, since the expiration date is not indicated on it.
And, of course, the most obvious signs by which you can determine the missing cottage cheese are smell and taste. Fresh cottage cheese will smell like milk and have a slight sourness in the taste. A spoiled product will give out a pronounced sour and bitter taste, as well as an unpleasant moldy smell.
It is not recommended to store cottage cheese for more than three days. At the same time, it is advisable to keep it in a refrigerator in a closed glass jar - in a cool environment and without oxygen, lactic acid bacteria do not multiply so actively.
Why is spoiled cottage cheese dangerous?
It is not recommended to eat cottage cheese with an expired shelf life or sour as a result of improper storage. In the missing fermented milk product, a lot of harmful bacteria always accumulate, which, getting into the intestines, can cause harm to health.
At best, eating spoiled cottage cheese can lead to gastrointestinal disruption and mild diarrhea. At worst - poisoning the body. In the latter case, hospitalization may be required and it will take a long time to restore the normal intestinal microflora. It is especially dangerous to give sour cottage cheese to young children, whose body is more sensitive to spoiled food.
How you can use stale cottage cheese
Cottage cheese, which is not yet sour, but not quite fresh, is not recommended to be consumed raw. But it is still too early to throw it away. From such a product, for example, you can make delicious casseroles, tender cheese cakes, pies, sweet cottage cheese muffins or lazy dumplings. Heat treated, stale cottage cheese will not harm the body, and many dishes from it will turn out to be even more delicious, since the cottage cheese will give them a slight sourness.
