I ate moudly grapes from Pret and fell ill... now what?

pinkshoes

Some mould on grapes would not give you food poisoning!!

Just like stilton and mould on cheese does not give you food poisoning. It must have been something else.

Pret have been very generous and were quite right to ask for a medical report proving it was the grapes that made you ill!

tom15387202

zak123 wrote: »

I went back to work and was munching away and with only a few grapes left I noticed something in the corner of my eye and lo and bohold it was mould growing on the grapes!!!

Do you not look at what you are cramming in your mouth?

zak123 wrote: »

please share with me what you think I should do next?

!!!! all, move on.

rellarips

PenguinOfDeath wrote: »

I'd have thought the average ready meal had so many preservatives etc in it to make them ok to eat for a good few days after the so called 'safe' date, as long as they're cooked correctly.

You would be surprised. My colleagues son works in the microbiology safety labs for a major food production company in Cambridgeshire. They test all the ready meals (and other things) for microbial growth up to and after the expiry date. No, they most certainly are not 'good for a few days if cooked correctly'.

Expiry dates are there for a very good reason and you do take your chances eating them past that date, a kind of Russian roulette. It depends what's wafted off the people, equipment and general air particles when making the food and then how good the conditions for growth are, and how long they've been sat allowing microbial colonies to grow. The best clean conditions in the world won't eradicate all microbes. Irradiation is used to prolong shelf life on only selected produce eg fruit.

You keep on eating them out date for 'a few days' PenguinOfDeath, eventually you'll come a cropper! We're not talking about cutting a bit of mould off cheese here, we're talking pathogens.

~Chameleon~

rellarips wrote: »

You would be surprised. My colleagues son works in the microbiology safety labs for a major food production company in Cambridgeshire. They test all the ready meals (and other things) for microbial growth up to and after the expiry date. No, they most certainly are not 'good for a few days if cooked correctly'.

Expiry dates are there for a very good reason and you do take your chances eating them past that date, a kind of Russian roulette. It depends what's wafted off the people, equipment and general air particles when making the food and then how good the conditions for growth are, and how long they've been sat allowing microbial colonies to grow. The best clean conditions in the world won't eradicate all microbes. Irradiation is used to prolong shelf life on only selected produce eg fruit.

You keep on eating them out date for 'a few days' PenguinOfDeath, eventually you'll come a cropper! We're not talking about cutting a bit of mould off cheese here, we're talking pathogens.

Very true indeed. And storage at optimum temperature is vitally important. How many times have you wandered around a supermarket or shop to see cages of chilled/frozen items sitting in the aisles waiting to be unloaded. And we don't get to see how long they've sat outside of chilled areas in the warehouse.

I had two fork-fulls of a spicy chicken couscous meal I picked up reduced the other day as it was on it's use-by date and a few hours later I had a bit of a dodgy tum. I dread to think how I might have reacted had I eaten the entire tub :eek: I'd eaten nothing else all day so can't attribute the blame elsewhere.

fluffnutter

rellarips wrote: »

You would be surprised. My colleagues son works in the microbiology safety labs for a major food production company in Cambridgeshire. They test all the ready meals (and other things) for microbial growth up to and after the expiry date. No, they most certainly are not 'good for a few days if cooked correctly'.

Expiry dates are there for a very good reason and you do take your chances eating them past that date, a kind of Russian roulette. It depends what's wafted off the people, equipment and general air particles when making the food and then how good the conditions for growth are, and how long they've been sat allowing microbial colonies to grow. The best clean conditions in the world won't eradicate all microbes. Irradiation is used to prolong shelf life on only selected produce eg fruit.

You keep on eating them out date for 'a few days' PenguinOfDeath, eventually you'll come a cropper! We're not talking about cutting a bit of mould off cheese here, we're talking pathogens.

Bacteria are amongst us. Always have been, always will be. We exist in symbiosis. Sometimes they overwhelm us and we get ill, mostly they don't. Getting paranoid about ready meals is pointless; you face a greater threat from the person you stand next to when buying them.

~Chameleon~

fluffnutter wrote: »

Bacteria are amongst us. Always have been, always will be. We exist in symbiosis. Sometimes they overwhelm us and we get ill, mostly they don't. Getting paranoid about ready meals is pointless; you face a greater threat from the person you stand next to when buying them.

Nobody is getting paranoid about meals. It was merely an explanation of why there are use-by dates. I frequently eat out of date food and rarely suffer. But I also have a good sense of smell/taste to detect something isn't right. Hence, why I only had two fork-fulls of the meal I mentioned above before thinking it didn't taste quite right, and yes, it did make me slightly ill.

kezzygirl

Don't tell me...you had a granry sandwich too??!! Didn't mumma ever tell you-NEVER mix the grape with the grain

Valli

zak123 wrote: »

I also stated to Pret that I would seek expert advice on my next course of action. With you my fellow MSE forum members being the 'experts', please share with me what you think I should do next?

Then perhaps you ought to contact Pret again and tell them you are now backpedalling and are no longer seeking expert (ie paid for) advice but are, instead, going to rely on the advice of a combination of amateur (but knowledgable) experts and idiots on the interwebs;)

In summary

Don't make threats you aren't prepared to follow through with. It makes you look silly.

Money-Saving-King

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

How many times have you wandered around a supermarket or shop to see cages of chilled/frozen items sitting in the aisles waiting to be unloaded.

With me it's never and this is over a variety of Supermarkets. Everywhere I've been I've always seen the boxes unpacked placed into the freezer compartments obviously to keep them cold. In other words almost every freezer compartment has a large cardboard box in containing frozen goods. Never seen them just left in a cage.

Money-Saving-King

zak123 wrote: »

I have since politely refused Pret's offer and suggested that I will look into posting an article in my companies newsletter regarding Pret's treatment, to disuade others from shopping there.

What is your company? I'd personally like to avoid it!