Spoilage begins at which point?

• A. During cooking
• B. During packaging
• C. As soon as it is harvested, taken from the sea or slaughtered
• D. After sale

Answer: (C)

Spoilage starts the moment the food is harvested, taken from the sea, or slaughtered. At that point, tissues are damaged and microbes and natural enzymes begin breaking down the product. If the material isn’t kept at proper temperatures and handled carefully, these processes accelerate, leading to visible spoilage like off-odors, slime, and discoloration.

Cooking can reduce spoilage by killing many microorganisms, but it doesn’t initiate spoilage itself; it occurs after harvest and processing. Packaging and storage conditions influence how quickly spoilage progresses, but the initial spoilage processes already begin at the source. After sale, spoilage may continue or become more obvious, but the onset happened at harvest/slaughter.