Food Spoilage projects?

General
1

Does anyone know of any existing Food Waste or Food Spoilage projects?
Eg. for observations showing molds, fungi, infestations, etc in foodstuffs?

2 Likes
2

Or maybe any general “decay” projects (eg. not a wood-decaying fungi project, that’s specific), that aren’t limited by location?

1 Like
3

I’m not a big project person, and don’t know too much about molds and fungi, but stored products pests are a big thing. Most of these are insects (Beetles), but it might be worthwhile checking out. There is at least one - https://inaturalist.ca/projects/pests-and-related-insects-in-stored-products

2 Likes
4

Thanks, I’ll check it out!

When I’ve been bulk IDing unknowns, I’ve seen a decent amount of observations of spoiled fruit/bread/etc growing something, or something in decayed leaf litter/compost/etc.

I personally can’t usually go past Life on those, so I was wondering if there was an existing project.

Sort of like a WeirdWildWonders-ish thing, but just for decay, so people interested in mycology, slime molds or detritivores might get eyes on those types of observations.

2 Likes
5

Like fungus on old Twinkie?

3 Likes
6

Yes, exactly!
Or like this bacterium on bread: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/115177820
Or whatever is on this tomato:https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/19692393

7

Seems like a good idea for a traditional project, if there’s not one out there already. Might want to just keep it to spoiled food, though, to make it manageable. General decay would be kind overwhelming.

3 Likes
8

And maybe a separate one for things growing in compost/mulch/dead leaves?

[Addemdum: never mind compost, I found https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/home-compost-exploration for observations like this, that the observer found in their compost]

“Life of a Stump” is the only existing project I can think of for things like that.
I could make a semi-general project for just vegetative rot? But that might exclude a Twinkie’s fungus in @colinpurrington’s example.

1 Like
9

This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.