Water is like the best environment there is for microorganisms.
Freezing doesn’t make unsafe food safe, it can only keep already safe food, safe.
If something frozen, anything, was unfrozen at any point, you can’t know for how long, or in what conditions. Hence, re-frozen products should not be consumed.
Literally nothing can live in pure water. What matters is everything else in the Popsicle, which is mostly processed sugar. Processed sugar is a preservative and will prevent bacterial growth.
Sugar can refer to any sweet-tasting carbohydrate, but most commonly the word refers to glucose, sucrose or fructose. There are bacteria which can consume all of these. “Processing”, at most, might break down glucose into the other two, but that’s not a significant change.
Nothing can survive in pure anything. Any substance is lethal if an organism is entirely immersed in it. Sugars or starches are a bacterial favourite, but yes, they too kill in high enough concentrations.
But not because they are intrinsically antibacterial. You’re not wrong to say that sugar is a preservative, but it’s still just sugar. The difference is in how much of it there is.
The water in a Popsicle isn’t pure water. There’s other shit in water. Hate to break it to you but there’s also other shit in the water in your tap or that they use to make food. It’s not all the most chemically pure water on the planet. Sugar in a high enough concentration is a preservative, doubt they’ve reached that in a Popsicle. If you make like concentrated simple syrup which is 2:1 it sort of is, but I think that’s only shelf stable for a few months. That’s basically liquid sugar at that point though and way more than is in a Popsicle. In lower amounts sugar basically acts as food for bacteria.
So you’d drink weeks-old kool-ade if it hadn’t been refrigerated? Water and sugar is an ideal breeding ground and food source for a vast number of different bacteria.
Being wrapped in plastic has absolutely no effect on it. The bacteria likely to colonize are already in there, but keeping it frozen keeps them from multiplying, unless it melts. And many such colonies (botulism, for example) thrive in hypoxic environments, so being wrapped can actually make it worse. And corn syrup or any other substitute is just as bad as sugar.
Ever notice that you don’t need to refrigerate candy? Processed sugar is such a bad food source for bacteria, you can actually use it as a preservative. The melted Popsicle will rot eventually, if it stays wet, but the likely first organism in will be a yeast.
No. Candy is heated to extremely high temperatures while processing and has a low water content, which are very important for its sterilization and entirely different from something like this. And candy still goes bad if you wait long enough… Candy is more equivalent to something like fruit preserves/jelly, which use heat and sugar to sterilize and preserve, yet which still have to be refrigerated to maximize shelf-life/minimize contamination. So you’re right that sugar can be used to preserve, but only by following a very different process.
bstix@feddit.dk 2 years ago
It’s just water and flavour. Nothing dangerous about it, except for the wooden stick.
MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 2 years ago
Water is like the best environment there is for microorganisms.
Freezing doesn’t make unsafe food safe, it can only keep already safe food, safe.
If something frozen, anything, was unfrozen at any point, you can’t know for how long, or in what conditions. Hence, re-frozen products should not be consumed.
tate@lemmy.sdf.org 2 years ago
Literally nothing can live in pure water. What matters is everything else in the Popsicle, which is mostly processed sugar. Processed sugar is a preservative and will prevent bacterial growth.
MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 2 years ago
What exactly do you mean by processed sugar?
Sugar can refer to any sweet-tasting carbohydrate, but most commonly the word refers to glucose, sucrose or fructose. There are bacteria which can consume all of these. “Processing”, at most, might break down glucose into the other two, but that’s not a significant change.
Nothing can survive in pure anything. Any substance is lethal if an organism is entirely immersed in it. Sugars or starches are a bacterial favourite, but yes, they too kill in high enough concentrations.
But not because they are intrinsically antibacterial. You’re not wrong to say that sugar is a preservative, but it’s still just sugar. The difference is in how much of it there is.
Astroturfed@lemmy.world 2 years ago
The water in a Popsicle isn’t pure water. There’s other shit in water. Hate to break it to you but there’s also other shit in the water in your tap or that they use to make food. It’s not all the most chemically pure water on the planet. Sugar in a high enough concentration is a preservative, doubt they’ve reached that in a Popsicle. If you make like concentrated simple syrup which is 2:1 it sort of is, but I think that’s only shelf stable for a few months. That’s basically liquid sugar at that point though and way more than is in a Popsicle. In lower amounts sugar basically acts as food for bacteria.
GrievingWidow420@feddit.it 2 years ago
The existence of grog confirms it 🫵
gamey@feddit.rocks 2 years ago
That thing is pure sugar, water, color and aroma, unless it’s a milk based ice you are almost certainly fine even if you leave it out for years…
idkwhatimdoing@sh.itjust.works 2 years ago
So you’d drink weeks-old kool-ade if it hadn’t been refrigerated? Water and sugar is an ideal breeding ground and food source for a vast number of different bacteria.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 years ago
How do you think we get toilet tank wine?
idkwhatimdoing@sh.itjust.works 2 years ago
Master vitners and precise quality control, of course
bstix@feddit.dk 2 years ago
It’s wrapped in plastic. Besides, I’m not sure there’s actual sugar in those things. Most I’ve seen were all additives.
idkwhatimdoing@sh.itjust.works 2 years ago
Being wrapped in plastic has absolutely no effect on it. The bacteria likely to colonize are already in there, but keeping it frozen keeps them from multiplying, unless it melts. And many such colonies (botulism, for example) thrive in hypoxic environments, so being wrapped can actually make it worse. And corn syrup or any other substitute is just as bad as sugar.
SaltySalamander@kbin.social 2 years ago
High fructose corn syrup. Which, for all intents and purposes, is sugar.
tate@lemmy.sdf.org 2 years ago
relevant user name.
Ever notice that you don’t need to refrigerate candy? Processed sugar is such a bad food source for bacteria, you can actually use it as a preservative. The melted Popsicle will rot eventually, if it stays wet, but the likely first organism in will be a yeast.
idkwhatimdoing@sh.itjust.works 2 years ago
No. Candy is heated to extremely high temperatures while processing and has a low water content, which are very important for its sterilization and entirely different from something like this. And candy still goes bad if you wait long enough… Candy is more equivalent to something like fruit preserves/jelly, which use heat and sugar to sterilize and preserve, yet which still have to be refrigerated to maximize shelf-life/minimize contamination. So you’re right that sugar can be used to preserve, but only by following a very different process.
gamey@feddit.rocks 2 years ago
There is nothing about a soft drink that will get bad or harmful even after months…
idkwhatimdoing@sh.itjust.works 2 years ago
True if sealed, I meant the type of kool-ade you mix yourself, which gets gross after not very long.