at Sat, 03 Jan 2004 16:12:06 GMT in <32b17c7c.0401030812.79207a72
@posting.google.com>, (kathy) wrote :

>Someone sent me some brownies on November 19, and I've just received the
>box. They were sealed in Ziploc plastic bags inside the box. They look
>and smell okay. How long a shelf life do brownies have when shipped by
>mail? They haven't been refrigerated, but they probably have not been
>exposed to high temperatures, either. They still feel relatively soft.

Depends on the proportions of ingredients. Very chocolatey brownies made
with chocolate rather than cocoa will last a long time - mine last at least
3 weeks if not more, and that's only until the flavour starts to diminish.
They're safe to eat for weeks more. Very cakey brownies, with a high egg
ratio, have a much briefer shelf life - 3 or 4 days for best flavour.
Brownies made with cocoa don't have nearly the shelf life of those made
with chocolate - typically no more that 1 1/2 weeks. Brownies that have a
large amount of flour don't last long either - 1 week if the flour
dominates over other stuff. Brownies made with butter last less time than
those made with vegetable shortening, while if they were made with oil,
they'll last even less time. So it's all very relative.

>What sort of spoilage occurs in baked goods, anyway? I know that things
>like bread and cookies get stale and stiff, but do they ever get
>hazardous to eat?

Flour stales, then molds. Butter and shortening rancidify. Sugar succumbs
to bacteria, yeasts, and insects. Cocoa stales, chocolate rancidifies -
although chocolate takes a long time to go rancid. Eggs rot, but in baked
items it's a slow process.

As to getting hazardous, yes, eventually they will. If baked items go
mouldy, that's an obvious sign to toss them. A fermented or sour smell is a
very dangerous sign - usually this means yeast has gotten into the sugar.
Large numbers of flies swarming around are definitely bad news.

Moisture is critical. If a baked good is very moist, it will often spoil by
molding, fermenting, or other ways that mean they become dangerous. Dry
baked goods, OTOH, will get stale quickly but take a LONG time to be truly
dangerous.

Is what you have safe? Probably. But by this time they'll be pretty
tasteless. Unfortunately, it would seem the trouble the person went to to
make them got wasted through indifferent shipping. I would throw them away.

--
Alex Rast

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