Top 10 Foods You Shouldn't Put in the Microwave
While the microwave may be the fastest method for warming or cooking food, some foods are just not meant to be cooked nor reheated in the microwave. This applies whether it's leftover food or fresh food. You may have experienced the occasional problem with the texture of the food being different after reheating, but did I tell you that reheating certain foods can have dangerous effects? Note: not all foods in this list are always unsafe. As long as you follow proper procedures, then you may be fine.
People who had enough common sense wouldn't dare to heat up fruits, grapes are good at sparking in plasma and exploding inside. It's better if you roast them instead of microwaving them.
Well, anyone with enough common sense generally wouldn't want to heat up fruits for any reason, unless you have a peculiar taste for hot fruits. Surprisingly, grapes are some of the most dangerous fruits to heat up, as they are capable of sparking in plasma and even exploding inside the microwave. If you really want to enjoy a hot fruity meal, it's better to choose other heating methods such as roasting them.
Basically put, every fruit that has a high water content is considered hazardous to your microwave. Especially when frozen, which poses an even larger hazard, microwaving any frozen berries could end up sparking your microwave. How does this happen? Plants usually absorb heavy metals iron and copper to thrive, which means that those minerals can be transferred to berries too. Frozen berries serve as the perfect spot for electric arcs and even fires to form thus damaging your microwave.
Eggs are basically bombs to microwaves. Yes, I'm talking about hard boiled eggs. There's a chance that hard boiled eggs may explode whenever they are microwaved. It's believed that there are small pockets of superheated water that explode when touched, thus resulting in burns and injuries. It's better if you eat them the way how it's usually eaten.
Once you put eggs in a microwave, they explode and go everywhere inside. Even though you shouldn't put eggs in a microwave, I find the idea of them exploding due to heatwaves inside, quite fascinating.
A lot of us have microwaved rice without any concern, but did you know that microwaving leftover rice can lead to food poisoning? Whenever you leave rice as a leftover, it can pose a risk of containing a bacteria called bacillus cereus, which can survive in hot temperatures even when its cooked. Although it's generally safe to reheat rice, the chances of getting food poisoning from it depends on how you store the rice, especially how long you store before you eat it. Preferably rice should be served as soon as possible after cooking, or cool the rice immediately after. Never reheat leftover rice twice.
It seems like an ideal shortcut to put frozen meat in the microwave, only a chunk of it will get cooked but will still remain frozen on the other, but there's a danger that not many people may know. When you microwave frozen meat, it would make the temperature more suitable for bacteria to grow. The refrigerator is a much more safer method of defrosting your meat.
Don't even dare microwaving fish in a shared microwave like in a workspace. Nobody likes the stinky smell of seafood. Not to mention, heating the fish in the microwave ruins the texture, making it too dry to even enjoy the meal. It's not only that it's unpleasant, but when fish is left over for hours at room temperature, the seafood can be festered by bacteria. Just don't do it. Overall, not worth it.
The fish can be ruined by bacteria and decrease the taste and texture quality like you said, making it difficult to eat.
Plus, it would smell rather disgusting.
Very similar to rice. Not only it loses its nutritional value when reheated, but potatoes harbor a bacteria that can cause food poisoning when eaten. This doesn't have to do with reheating the potatoes itself, but when you leave it at room temperature for long enough, clostridium botulinum (the bacteria which causes botulism) can grow, and reheating them may cause the bacteria growth to accelerate.
Plants are said to be rich in minerals. That includes heavy metals such as copper, iron, etc. which can send your microwave sparking. But it's not only unsafe to the microwave, but also surprisingly bad for your body. Spinach is known to be a natural source rich in nitrates, but once you reheat spinach in the microwave, these chemicals turn into nitrites, then nitrosamines, both of which are known to have cancer-causing effects. This doesn't apply to spinach only, but to all vegetables that are high in nitrates - including beetroot, carrots, onions, etc.
As most vegetables are rich in water they can explode in the microwave as a whole. The same goes for tomato sauces.
Given previous items it's easy to understand why.
Processed meat is already notorious for having chemicals and additives in them, making them unhealthy. In fact, using a microwave to cook them makes them even worse. There's a chemical called cholesterol oxidation products, which are known to cause plaques that restrict the blood flow to the vital parts of your body. The problem even worsens each time processed meat gets reheated.
If you heat yogurt in the yogurt container chances are it will release chemicals. Plus, the good bacteria in the yogurt would start to be eliminated if you heat it hot enough.
Mushrooms are definitely one of the foods that should be eaten as soon as possible when cooked. When improperly stored, mushrooms can be easily deteriorated by bacteria, enzymes, and other microorganisms. Just remember that you're giving yourself a free ticket to a queasy stomach whenever you choose to eat reheated mushrooms.