Comments on: Dinner Party Fail: Causing A Foodborne Illness Outbreak

By: Tina C.

Tina C. — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 06:16:44 +0000

For me, #1 and #4 are especially resonating. I eat a TON of rice and had no idea about the naturally-occurring bacteria it harbors. That’s amazingly scary.

Re: #1, I was always told that if I cook something -let’s say a pot of stew, that I shouldn’t leave it out longer than 2 hours before putting the leftovers back in the fridge.

But then I heard something somewhat conflicting that said you shouldn’t put any pot of food into the fridge that’s still hot/warm. I wasn’t sure if that was because of some threat of introducing bacteria into the fridge, or if it just was to avoid making the fridge work harder to keep the temperature around 38-40 degrees.

By: Courtney

Courtney — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 03:28:58 +0000

Patricia and David,

Once the meat has thawed, and it’s in the range of 41-135 degrees, it has the potential to be a medium for bacteria to grow. Re-freezing does not guarantee the bacteria that are now growing on your food will be killed.

Pre-freezing and thawing is fine…just cook the meat once it is thawed.

By: Courtney

Courtney — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 03:10:40 +0000

That should be ok, since you are bringing down the temperature gradually. As for the mixtures, lots of home cooks make their own flavored oil by combining oil and garlic in a dispenser and storing it on the counter for weeks at a time. The bacteria already present in the garlic thrive in the anaerobic (no oxygen) environment that you have just created.

You should still make the mixture…just use it quick!

Bill Nye out.

By: David

David — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:10:29 +0000

I don’t understand point 2, but yeah food poisoning is scary. I used to kind of blow it off until I read about botulism. You dont just spend a day in the bathroom, you DIE.

By: Patricia

Patricia — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:59:03 +0000

Oh. Eww.

#3 is really hard. Sometimes I lay stuff out in the fridge, and it still isn’t thawed two days later. Then, I end up eating fast food…something probably just as likely to make me sick!

#5 is probably why so many faux-Asian joints are risky treats.

And, can someone explain #2 to those “once-a-month cooking” people? I know a certain local major grocery chain that seems to always pre-freeze, then thaw its meats.

Ick.

Thanks for sharing!

By: Jen

Jen — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 21:53:32 +0000

Question–what if you run cold water over a protein while you thaw it in the sink. Is that still dangerous?

Also, what do you mean by oil and garlic mixtures? Do you mean…stored vegetables in oil? Maybe I’m just kitchen-clueless and these are obvious!