Question I prepared several gallons of chicken soup and refrigerated it immediately like I always do. I heated up the soup 24 hours later and it had a vomit smell and taste to it. I immediately threw it all away. What happened and do you know what bacteria would have caused this? Could it have been bad chicken to start with? Thanks so much
Answer It's tough to know exactly what could have caused the smell from the soup, but a few options are:
1. The soup was not allowed to cool rapidly, allowing bacteria to grow and produce an off-flavor in the soup. When you prepare large batches of food and intend to cool them use shallow, uncovered if possible, containers, and cool items quickly. Food should be cooled from 135 to 70 degrees within 2 hours and from 70 to 41 degrees or lower within the next 4 hours. This will prevent the growth of bacteria during cooling. Preparing large batches of food and then attempting to cool them in deep, lidded containers can take 2-3 days to completely cool. In which time bacteria and other spoilage organisms can ruin the food.
2. The chicken or broth used in the soup was old or had begun to spoil. If this was the case, it might cause the off-flavor on its own (chicken broth can go rancid quickly), or combined with #1 could have caused the smell.
I can't point to a specific organism that would cause that smell, however the smell is a good indication that spoilage organisms (bacteria, fungus, mold, or yeast) have found there way into your soup.
