This is weird. I just reached into the freezer for a bag of chocolate chips and the unopened bag was inflated like a balloon about to burst.
Does this strike anyone as strange?
Isn’t this just scientifically wrong for a healthy bag of chocolate chips? Even if the bag was sealed with slightly more air inside than usual, it sure didn’t look like this when I brought it home. And the air inside would have contracted when it was cooled in the freezer, so if anything it would be flatter in my freezer than it was at the store.
So who has a theory?
I’m thinking botulism – the same organism that causes old canned foods to swell and perfectly healthy people to keel over dead. Now I have to weigh out just how badly I need that chocolate vs. how likely I am to die of botulism. Last I heard, the survival rate was 50% but that might have been without medical attention. I’m on guard, so surely I would fare better. And of course I should factor in the fact that I would die happy.
Or it could just be some kind of yeast, putting out carbon dioxide. The label says they contain chocolate liquor, so perhaps the yeast from the alcohol was still active when I brought it home?
For the record, these are Great Value brand. Yes, I’m slumming. I’m desperate.
Should I try them?
This happens to me all the time. I haven’t thought anything about it, but it has happened to my Lindt and Godiva, as well as Nestle and Publix brand. I’ve never experienced sickness, so it probably isn’t botulism. Well, unless I’ve just built up an immunity to botulated chocolate….
No, don’t eat them! Call the number on the package! I love Great Value brand, btw! I don’t shop at Wal-Mart often, but when I do, it’s pretty much always Great Value and Equate in my cart.
Maybe the factory sealed it for freshness with a gas that expands on freezing?
I wouldn’t think the botulinum toxin could grow in the freezer though…
I think that you would be safe. Botulism needs a warm enviroment to reproduce. I also find for cookies that the cheaper chocolae chips work just fine. For personal consumption that’s a different matter, I am somewhat of a dark chocolate snob. For my money Godiva is just about the best. Although, Hersey’s does have some excellent dark chocolate truffles.
Hmmm…
Life without chocolate vs. Death by chocolate…
I can think of worse ways to go.
Check this out… “Can frozen chocolate chips go bad” –> http://www.cheftalk.com/forums/professional-pastry-chefs-forum/20429-can-frozen-chocolate-chips-go-bad.html
I would just eat a few and see if they taste funny. I’m sure a couple wouldn’t kill you.
How about an altitude change?
Water expands when it freezes, so maybe the air in the bag is really, really moist?
I agree with Mandy- I know that bagged salads are packed in non-oxygen gases to pevent decay; more than likely this is also the case for other perishable items. Odd!
I have no idea what caused it, but your post sure made me laugh! At last, I’ve encountered someone who loves chocolate chips as much as I do.
Too funny! the fact that I would die happy Can completely understand! Did you use them??
De sent me over to you!
I thought about calling the number on the package but alas – there was no number and without chocolate coursing through my veins, I didn’t have the strength of character to hunt down a number.
So I did what had to be done. I made the sacrifice and ate the chocolate. My children *needed* me to eat chocolate.
Kim,
I spoke to my dh who works with chemists and they said it was something within the chocolate going through gasification, or gasifying. It is harmless and is quite normal. The bag puffed up because it was airtight and the gas didn’t have anywhere else to go. And those who said botulism couldn’t grow in the freezer were right… so go ahead and finish off the bag;-)