Beware of Refrigerator Diarrhea: Psychrophilic Bacteria are the Culprit Pathogens
In the hot summer, it's inevitable to eat food from the refrigerator, but the diarrhea that follows this summer eating habit also arrives. What causes it? Bacteria are the culprits behind diarrhea. This raises a question: the refrigerator's refrigerated and frozen compartments are low-temperature environments, how can there be bacteria? In fact, bacteria discovered so far by humans can be roughly divided into three categories based on their optimal growth temperatures:
Mesophiles: They grow in environments of 10°C to 45°C, with an optimal temperature of 37°C to 38°C;
Thermophiles: They can grow at 40°C to 70°C, with an optimal temperature of 50°C to 55°C;
Psychrophiles: They can grow at 0°C to 20°C, with an optimal temperature of 10°C to 15°C.
The temperature of the refrigerator's fresh food compartment, where people generally store leftover food, is typically 2°C to 12°C. This falls within the optimal growth temperature range for psychrophiles, meaning they can grow and multiply in the refrigerator's fresh food compartment. Moreover, at this temperature, the other two types of bacteria do not stop growing entirely; their growth is just slower than at their optimal temperatures. Thus, if food is taken out of the refrigerator and not heated thoroughly, it is possible to introduce pathogenic bacteria into the body, which then release toxins or cause diarrhea in other ways.