Why are people frightened of food ?

Pandora123_2

mirakl wrote:

I have a Canadian friend who couldn't believe it when she was eating with us and were all tearing off chunks of baguette without holding it with napkins so we didn't spread our hand germs onto it. She was telling me that North Americans are completely terrified of food, she left butter out of the fridge for an hour and that meant she had to throw it in the bin! I don't think I could cope with that level of terror, I'm careful, I don't mess around with raw chicken and don't take any unnecessary risks, however I'll still eat out of date food if I'm sure it's fine.

Hmmm, I'm Canadian and I don't know anyone with the kind of food phobias that your friend describes. Eating bread with a napkin is a new one for me. Perhaps it's a regional thing

Soyamilk that's been left out all day goes back in the fridge. Ketchup and mustard is kept in the cupboard. But maple syrup goes in the fridge (it really does go mouldy and taste nasty if left out... and it's too dear to let that happen!)

I won't eat bread that's got even a tiny bit of mould on it, as bread mould is carcinogenic. I will, however, cut a mouldy bit off a piece of fruit and eat the rest, as long as it still tastes good.

I rinse any fruit and veg that I'm not peeling, unless it's from my garden or picked wild. To be honest I thought everyone did that, but perhaps it's just a Canadian thing!

I only ever wipe or rinse cutting boards (but we're veggie so meat never touches them).

I do think that modern farming practices have made food-bourne bacteria more dangerous. Here's an article with some food for thought:

Food-borne bacteria evolving, becoming more dangerous

Interesting thread!

Anastacia

I am not sure that education in cookery hasn't completely gone to the dogs (My son made meatballs in tomato sauce today in his GCSE Food Tech class) so hopefully the generation of non cooks & fearful cooks was just a lost generation.

If people learn about food hygeine then surely there is nothing to be frightened off? We dont seem to have much problem even though food is always eaten & never thrown out (until it unrecignisable anyway)because I keep everything that is open inthe fridge & because i cook from scratch. I dont think you can re-heat ready meals like you can home made chilli.

Having said that my sister, whose habits are much like mine, contracted capylobactor virus last year & it nearly finished her off. It was contracted at a hotel or restaurant on holiday, so all the food hygeine knowledge in the world wouldnt have helped.

nearlyrich

I am quite laid back about food, I tend to cook from scratch, I know my butcher very well so I am sure it's fine when I buy it, I am careful with chicken and clear the fridge and veg rack of anything suspect weekly.

I ate a pack of Seabrookes crisps BB April 2006 just last night they tasted fine, I have been known to notice specs of mold on the next slice of bread just after eating a sandwich!

I don't worry too much about dates on tinned stuff, it's a method of preservation for heaven's sake if it smells OK I will eat it.

I didn't do any food related stuff at school, my mum shopped and cooked daily and we didn't even have a fridge when I was young. I agree with Lynz if young people don't learn from their parents about sensible food handling where do they learn it from.

Some of the kitchens on How Clean is your house are really gross, I am sure they are made worse for the cameras, I don't know anyone who lives in such squalour fortunately. I really don't like to see people handling animals and then food without washing their hands or handling money and food which is equally dodgy in my opinion. I am quite squeamish about eating from some food outlets (kebab shops etc) and I have been known to walk out of a restaurant if the standard of cleanliness is not up to mine.

RHYSDAD

This is a subject i have some authority on. I have been poisoned by food on countless occasions.
I have had Salmonella from defrosted ice-cream. Not nice.
Gastroenteritis twice from undercooked chicken from take away Chinese. Again, not nice.
My friend got the Dereks from tuna sandwiches left in a hot Landrover all day. He stayed over at a girls he was trying to pull but filled her sleeping bag up with runny poop. Amazingly, he's married to her now so i guess it's something they look back on and laugh about!! I wouldn't.
I think if you are sensible with food and don't eat anything that's been unrefrigerated for any length of time you should be ok. Plus fresh food from the suprmarket is so full of preservatives, it should be ok to eat anywhere up to about a week after sell-by date. I'm not advising you do that though.

sundin13

Chipping in on the crazy Canadians, I was most amused over there when I saw my first advert for fruit and vegetable detergent - specially developed for washing your fruit and veg!!!!!

ti1980

Fruit and veg detergent, wow. Amazing the things I read on this board!
I don't have anything to contribute, just wanted to say this is a great thread, nice one for starting it Thriftlady.

Pandora123_2

sundin13 wrote:

Chipping in on the crazy Canadians, I was most amused over there when I saw my first advert for fruit and vegetable detergent - specially developed for washing your fruit and veg!!!!!

In defense of the "crazy Canadians"... the fruit and vegetable wash is designed to remove pesticides, not to make it really REALLY clean!!

nearlyrich

sundin13 wrote:

Chipping in on the crazy Canadians, I was most amused over there when I saw my first advert for fruit and vegetable detergent - specially developed for washing your fruit and veg!!!!!

Unbelievable :rotfl:

broomstick27

I hated cooking at school. The teacher was obsessed with dettol! we had to clean everything with it before we started!
I am the worst person in the world hygiene wise. If i drop something on the floor it goes back in the pan - if i'm lucky i might wash it first :rotfl: I do try and wash my hands often when playing with raw chicken but apart from that!
Mind you i bet if i ever got food poisoning i would soon change my terrible ways!
(p.s. i do clean my kitchen)

Reya

tawnyowls wrote:

Yes, there are, but the vast, vast majority are not harmful to humans. Pathogenic bacteria (the ones that cause disease) are in the main adapted to grow well at body temp (37 deg), and generally have a fairly narrow temperature range in which they're comfortable. The main exceptions are spore-forming bacteria, such as Bacillus subtilis, which people are often being warned about on here, especially regarding cooked rice.

Generally, mechanical cleaning is sufficient, with a spray of disinfectant once a day. Obviously, if you clean your kitchen and then leave the wet cloth festering happily on the draining board and wipe down again, you'll be giving a nice fresh inoculation of bacteria to your worktop. Bacteria, like humans, need water and food (that's why the toilet seat is usually cleaner than below the rim), thus if you keep surfaces clean and dry, avoid transporting bacteria from one surface to another (from a dripping chicken, for instance) and wash your hands regularly, you'll go a long way to keeping them at a safe level.

Do I spy a fellow microbiologist?

I work in the micro lab of a company that manufactures pharmaceutical products (intravenous fluids, among other things) so sterility assurance is incredibly important to us, as one spore-former in our product could easily kill, which is why we sterilise everything to 121°C.

That kind of temperature is a little, er, excessive for food hygiene though.

The real fun in my job comes when we give talks at the local schools and take a few piles of agar plates along for the kids to press their fingers into. We then tell the kids to give their hands a good wash, then press their fingers into another plate. The plates are incubated and returned three days later, to a chorus of "ewwwww!" They do see the difference between the before and after plates, though, and it hopefully reminds them that they do need to wash their hands after going to the loo etc.

Even the guys who work our massive sterilisation units are fascinated when we occasionally offer them the chance to learn about bugs. We give them swabs to rub anywhere (you really don't want to know when you see a plate labelled 'John - armpit' or 'Pete - nose'...) and then we plate them out.

Basically, washing your hands properly (and I mean a good 10-20 second rub all over with soap, between your fingers and under your fingernails) after going to the loo, petting the dog/cat/budgie, changing nappies, handling raw meat, taking out the rubbish, etc etc is one of the simplest ways to prevent food contamination.