Final answer:
Food contamination can be detected through sensory changes like visible mold, off odors, and bitter taste. The taste receptors, especially those sensitive to bitter and sour flavors, are crucial for recognizing spoiled or dangerous foods. Detection methods for bacterial contamination include turbidity measurement and total plate count, among others.
Step-by-step explanation:
You can detect if food is contaminated through multiple indicators, including visible mold, "off" odors, a bitter taste, and other sensory changes. These changes could indicate the presence of bacteria and toxins. For instance, if an individual becomes poisoned from eating excessive amounts of spoiled food, it may be because their bitter taste receptors, which can detect harmful substances, are inadequate.
Regarding soup contamination in a refrigerator, the likely contaminants are microbial, which could range from bacteria to mold. A well-known infection caused by bread molds is mucormycosis. To assess bacterial contamination, such as in processed peanut butter, various methods are used, including turbidity measurement, total plate count, dry weight measurement, and direct counting of bacteria on a calibrated slide under the microscope.
If animals lack the ability to detect sour or bitter tastes, they might not avoid eating dangerous or spoiled food. Taste submodalities, like sourness, are sensitive to the pH of saliva and can signal spoiled food. When an animal species loses the ability to produce foul-tasting compounds that deter predators, it may not suffer a long-term loss through predation if it still produces compounds that predators would learn to avoid.