Food safety are you picky or do you gamble

W

Wilberforce

Jeannine
Location
BC Canada
I have a thing about food safety, I am told I am too picky but the family members that tell me that seem to be playing Russian Roulette with their health.eg.. you cook a roast or make a potato salad how many days would you eat it for without thinking it was unsafe. presuming you had a lot of course.
 

I use the three day rule for most foods.

I use my freezer for short term storage of cooked foods.

I also try to buy and cook smaller amounts of food to prevent waste.

I hate to waste food so I break my own rules from time to time and play a little Russian Roulette, lol.
 
First, we MUST stop using the term "Russian roulette". By late January, there will be a Presidential executive order requiring mandatory jail time for using those words!! :>)

My wife has always been extremely critical of food safety... cleanliness. However, the one daughter gets upset when she sees things in the fridge that are past their "sell by" date. We've always been pretty critical of "leftovers" and how long they are kept. With chicken/turkey we will freeze leftovers and they quickly thaw in the microwave. Potato salad, etc. is tossed pretty quickly.

I remember back to the childhood days when almost every Sunday there were church "pot luck dinners". People would bring home made dishes of food in, set it out, and not worry about it for hours. Many of those days were hot summer days and there was no air conditioning. And, I don't remember people getting ill. Today, one doesn't dare let something set out for any time. We've been told if we do, we risk becoming violently ill. We hear stories on the news of food poisoning in chain restaurants. We've loaded our foods with preservatives, yet they seem to turn bad sooner than before we had such additives.
 

I'm going to preface this reply with the statement that I am, what some might say, an excessively clean, tidy, organized person. Not at OCD levels, but probably close! Anyway, I am not paranoid about food. If it's not slimy, smelly or obviously looks non-edible, I eat it. I plan well, and don't like the idea of tossing food out. I was just talking to my older sister about this a few days ago. She has the same approach. Maybe it's the way we were brought up, parents from the Great Depression era. We've joked that maybe we have "cast iron stomachs". Thing is, we NEVER get sick. Waste not, want not!!
 
If kept refrigerated, a roast should be O.K. for a week. I think most food is safe to eat for at least a week, but the quality of flavor degrades over time.
 
I am extremely careful at home especially with poultry. After preparing raw chicken the entire area gets a good washing with bleach. Expiration dates I'm a bit more lenient with. I'm careful with dented cans also. I am also aware that the nutritional value goes down the longer an item is kept and reheating several times doesn't help the situation. I was also brought up with the waste not,mind set. Any small amount of vegetables go in the deep freeze for soups or stews. The Russian Roulette begins when we go out to eat. I can't leave the raw sushi alone as well as raw clams and oysters even though they now post a warning sign above the items or on the menu.
 
I just take what I see as 'sensible precautions' and I've never had any problems yet. I certainly never go to the length of washing an entire area with bleach unless we've been butchering a whole carcass (pig, deer etc..), and we do this in the utility area away from the kitchen. A single chicken - I just wipe round the prep area and put any soiled chopping boards into the dishwasher.

I pay little attention to sell by dates, and anyway, they only apply to packaged goods, not loose ones.
 
Yeah, I believe in refrigerating leftovers as quickly as possible. If it's a hot day, worry most about things containing mayonnaise--keep it out of direct sun. Uncooked meat--no longer than a day or so in the fridge--freeze it or cook it. However, leftovers, refrigerated, should be fine for several days. I keep almost a week before tossing.

I think we have to worry more about cross-contamination rather than left-overs in the refrigerator. I am more cautious about stuff like that, especially when handling chicken. If you use a utensil to turn half-cooked meat, remember it has not reached a high enough temp to kill any possible bacteria. I wash the utensil before I remove cooked meat. I wash my sink with hot sudsy water after rinsing any meat. Maybe it sounds a bit like overkill but getting sick is no fun!
 
Poultry or foods with mayo, like potato salad, I would keep in the fridge for 3 or 4 days. Most other things 5 or 6 days. I go a lot by smell. I'm much more concerned about uncooked or half cooked meat and cross contamination. When there's an outbreak of food poisoning it's usually related to that. Like Carla and Ruth, I clean kitchen surfaces with at least hot sudsy water and sometimes bleach after handling raw meat or poultry. I put that in a whole different category than leftovers.

I'm much less concerned about vegetables and fruits and usually go by smell and color. I do a fair amount of fermenting, things like cabbage (sauerkraut), cauliflower, carrots, etc., and Kefir and Kombucha. It's amazing how quickly cultures form and in many cases add nutritional value and helpful probiotics to the original food.
 
Thank you I did in the end get an answer about potato salad a roast For me personally I absolutely hate leftovers and reheated food with a passion although I do attempt to use them but for me it is the next day only with most things. My daughter laughs at me because I will not buy bagged salad, she does but she never washes it, I even wash apples. I have different cutting boards for different things that are color coded and yes I do wash down with bleach after having raw meat around. I am very picky about the internal temps of cooked meat, I am very cautious about anything other folks cook for this reason. The last turkey I was offered was bloody.

I am picky for 2 reasons,with veggies it is what is on them so if I didn't grow it I expect it to be covered in pesticides etc and with meats I expect them to be externally contaminated so I am very careful when prepping. I will not buy ground beef.it is the main reason for problems with burgers but I do grind my own. I will eat a rare steak as the problems are not on the inside.


I think in my case because I hate leftovers maybe I am more picky but then I don't like restaurant food either, I cannot guarantee it is fresh and much of it is frozen and microwaved.

Some years ago after eating out I got a really bad case of food poisoning, I was admitted to the hospital for 12 days and I really thought I had had it. I cannot begin to explain how awful I was and I never want to go through that again.

I do believe that th main reason though is that I simply only like squeaky fresh food.
 
I'm with you on the cutting boards. I have two smaller ones I use only for chopping veggies or cheeses. I had food poisoning only once, a few years ago after coming home from a party. Another person that ate the same thing got very ill too so I know it was from food. Nothing like 12 days in the hospital, but one very long night in the bathroom!
 
Like the Capt I just take sensible precautions, not overly picky at all. I just make a judgement call on when to toss something by the looks and smell of it, many packaged items or canned goods I keep beyond expiration dates. I'll also sprinkle a little bit of lean ground beef with salt and eat it raw when I'm making hamburgers or tacos, never got sick doing such things, pretty good digestive and immune system I think. Even if I'm preparing chicken, I just wipe the counter with windex and a paper towel, don't stress too much about it. I can't even recall the last time I even suspected I had food poisoning from any source.
 
I would eat cooked beef up to a week, but generally feeze any I haven't eaten in 2 or 3 days.
I don't make potato salad with mayo (I prefer German or southwest style), so I would eat that for a week if it lasted that long.

I use dedicated cutting boards for uncooked meats, fish, and poultry.
 
I don't worry about what I prepare at home much. I have control over that.

I do wonder sometimes when I buy packaged lettuce, spinach etc, if there will soon be a recall of what I just bought! I guess that can happen with anything.

I'd be more concerned about eating out which I rarely do. I know what is in what I make at home. For the most part.

Something I avoid also is anything in bulk I won't cook. I buy dry refined beans, nutritional yeast, organic flour, oatmeal etc in bulk but it's all cooked by me at home. Nothing adverse survives. Once on another forum I got a know it all type response when I mentioned this by someone stating "you buy produce don't you?" Yes, but I can wash a strawberry. A cornflake, not so much. I've seen people run their hands through stuff in bulk bins. The ones that release on a spout are a little better.
 
I don't go by the number of days something sits around. I just look at it and smell it. If it looks, smells, and tastes ok I eat it. I only look at expiration dates on some items, at the store, like bread. Once I get the groceries home, I never look at expiration dates. Ate some canned corn last week that had an April 2015 expiration date. It was fine.

That expiration date requirement was apparently a bonanza for food producers, the way people go by them religiously. A real headache I'd imagine, for the grocery stores. Doesn't mean I think they're a bad thing. I just don't pay a whole lot of attention to them, especially for canned goods.
 
I am not concerned about sell by dates in cans etc, it is open cooked food that worries me, like meat from a deli, I wouldn't take it if it was free. How can a waxed box of soup sitting in an unfridged shelf in the supermarket be safe, it must be so full of preservatives it must make your toes light up.

Anyway it is good to see I am not the only one.

My daughter worked in a deli briefly when she was younger and they had to put the unsold hotdogs in cold water each morning to plump them then they were put back out for sale.

I use 4 cutting boards white for breads, green for veggies, red for raw meats and brown for cooked meats
 
Ok, here's a question for you all: How long does smoked ham keep once cooked and in the frig? It seems like it should be good for a long time because it's smoked, but not sure about that. What do you think.
 
Frozen cooked shrimp from overseas. From what I read it is farm raised in filthy water but I still eat it regularly.
 
I could not eat it, seafood has to be kicking shortly before I eat it but I wouldn't even eat it if in clean water if it was frozen. I would eat regular frozen fish if I froze it myself as I only buy fresh fish and if I froze it I would only have it maybe 2 weeks in the freezer . Would not freeze shrimp, lobster, clams or crab. I don't like it once it has been frozen, nothing to do with safety though.

Smoked ham I think would depend on how it was smoked .
 
If I am cooking a pot of meat and something or roasting something I'll keep the rest in the frig. for up to about 3 or 4 days. I do pay attention to the exp. date on things and will toss them if they are expired, just to be safe. I threw out several bottles of salad dressing last month that were expired. As for potato salad I eat it so fast it won't last more than 2 or 3 days so that's as long as I'd have it around. I don't know what kind of containers to use for freezing so not to get that freezer burn that makes food look so terrible so I haven't been freezing anything I cook.

I had some Chinese food delivered awhile back and I wanted to get enough to last me for 5 days. What a mistake I made! For 4 days I ate 3 of the entrees I had bought. On the fifth day I ate some of the Bourbon Chicken and my stomach was doing flip flops and what nots all night long and I had enough gas to float the Titanic! Never again will I do something like that. I thought their food was freshly made but I'll never think that again.
 
Just dealt with this. Had bought a ham for Christmas and my husband was at Costco and eyed a prime rib, brought it home and we had that instead, figuring the ham would be for New Years. Checked on the ham and there was a suspicious grayish area. Thought about it, threw it out and bought another ham. I had cut out the suspicious looking area but figured I wanted to be safe than sorry. Expensive ham experience.
 
I am particular about tinned food and won't use any can that is damaged or bloated. Botulism is to be avoided at all costs.
I'm also careful about storage and handling of chicken meat to avoid salmonella.

I've been known to turn slightly off meat into a very hot curry. It clears the pipes but doesn't kill you.
Generally though, if it smells off, or has turned a funny colour or feels slimy, I bin it.
 

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