Food goes bad

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Anonymous

#395286 Sun, 22 Jul 07 07:23 PM

Hi,

What is the difference among 'goes stale', 'go bad', and 'spoil'? e.g.

"This cake has been spoiled for a few days."

"This cake has been stale for a few days."

"This cake has gone bad for a few days."

Thank you very much.

Anonymous

Feebs11

#395318 Sun, 22 Jul 07 09:29 PM

Although they all have much the same meaning, in usage they are more specific. Food made with flour will go stale (breads, cakes, cookies/biscuits). Organic matter (primarily meat and fish) will go bad . Fruits become over-ripe and go bad.

Food becoming spoiled (mouldy and sour) is unfit for human consumption.

Feebs11

Joined on Thu, Nov 23 2006

Senior Member (4,922)

Vorpar

#395336 Sun, 22 Jul 07 10:01 PM

Stale mostly means dried out. Loss of flavor.

Spoiled and gone bad are the same thing.

When constructing the sentence, it sounds a bit odd to me to state how long something has been spoiling.

Try:

"The cake went bad/spoiled a few days ago."

Vorpar

Joined on Tue, Sep 20 2005

Santa Barbara, CA

Regular Member (813)

Anonymous

#395818 Mon, 23 Jul 07 09:06 PM

Hi,

Thank you both feebs11 and Vorpar for your explanation. But I am afraid I am a little confused and have more questions to ask.

According to what you said, 'stale' is used with food made from flour, such as cake, and bread etc. Therefore, can't it be used with any other kinds of foods like fruit, vegetables, meat, etc.?

If bread is stale, does it mean that it is unfit for human consumption?

"The cake has been spoiled for a few days."
Is the above sentence correct?
Could we use 'spoil' and 'go bad' with all kinds of foods that are not safe to eat?

Thank you very much.

Anonymous

Grammar Geek

#395821 Mon, 23 Jul 07 09:13 PM

Stale doesn't taste good, and often the consistency isn't righ. It may crumble when it should snap, or be hard and crumbly when it should be soft, and the taste is off. Rarely will stale be "unfit" if you are truly starving, but you may not want to eat it if you are looking for a snack.

Spoiled is not fit for eating. It could make you ill if you eat it.

Bread that is left out of its wrapper on the counter over a couple days will probably go stale. Bread that is left in its airtight wrapper for several day swill get mold on it - it has gone bad.

I can't imagine how a cake would "spoil" unless mold grew in the icing or it has been left for a very long time. But cake can go stale pretty quickly if you leave it uncovered.

An apple left in the fruit bowl too long, so that it has a soft, slimy side and fluid is starting to leak out has gone bad. Milk that is days past its date has gone bad or spoiled.

Grammar Geek

Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006

Pennsylvania, USA

Veteran Member (15,583)

Barbara, who answers in American English.

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Anonymous

#396711 Wed, 25 Jul 07 10:05 PM

Hi Grammar Geek,

Thank you very much for explaining the difference between 'go stale' and 'go bad'.
But I am sorry I can't understand the following statement you said:

"I can't imagine how a cake would "spoil" unless mold grew in the icing or it has been left for a very long time."

Do you mean we don't say "a cake has spoiled"?

Becasue 'spoil' and 'go bad' have the same meaning, I wonder if they are interchangeable and able to be used with all kinds of foods. e.g.

The bread/meat/fish/banana/vegetable has spoiled (or gone bad).

Is the following sentence correct?
"This milk has been spoiled for a week."

Thank you very much.

Anonymous

Difference between, Grammar

Grammar Geek

#396810 Thu, 26 Jul 07 02:40 AM

I mean that cake goes stale, but it rarely goes moldy.

I don't know how you would know how long the milk has been spoiled. Once it's bad, it's bad. Unless you are a scientist and examine it in a lab, I suppose. You could say something like "Wow, this smells so terrible that I bet it's been spoiled for a week."

(Unless of course, you noticed the milk was spoiled and kept it around anyway so a week later you'd know it had been a week. Not likely though.)

Grammar Geek

Glacierlily

#396854 Thu, 26 Jul 07 07:16 AM

Stale simply means - the opposite of fresh.
Example:
Bread hardens when stale.
Air smells musty when stale.
Water tastes like metal when stale.

Spoil means the quality of the item is damaged. The item is tainted, putrid, and nasty - if the item is food, it will probably make you sick. After a food spoils it goes rotten.

"go bad" refers to the time it will spoil.
Example:
The milk will go bad if it is not refrigerated.

The meanings are not exclusive to any type of food, they refer to different stages of the decomposition process.