How to politely decline food that has been sneezed on?

[greenduckling]

If you are invited somewhere, the host hands you your plate and they, or one of the guests, accidentally sneezes on the plate. What would you do?

I'd have swapped plates with the sneezer - assuming he hadnt already started

Did MIL scrape the food off but give you the sneezed on plate OP?

Well, I guess you know where you stand with you in-laws now. 🤷‍♀️

This!

My exMIL routinely blatantly coughed all over food and i always found dog and human hairs woven into the baking 🤢 i cant tell you how glad i am to be clear of that minefield

I don't think there's anything wrong with asking for new food and plate. The host should have understood your concern and obliged without making you feel bad.

However, it is also impossible to know what has happened to food before we get it - on a basic level food has been growing in mud/dirt and getting flies, bird/fox/rabbit/rat poo etc all over it. Then when it is making its way to your plate, all kinds of shit will happen to it you don't know about. It is likely the sneeze on food would have 0 additional effect to you as you're already breathing in the person's recycled air, germs, microdroplets etc. from being in close vicinity of the sneeze.

It is gross to think that food has been dropped, sneezed on, touched but it has happened to everything we eat. Just throwing in food for thought.

No thank you

Repeat if necessary

Nope, that's a bridge too far even for a greedy slattern like myself.

@Orangeradiorabbit yes rational point, but when you actually see it, you can't unsee it.

Yeah your mil was not a good host.

I turn down childrens birthday cake because I don’t want spittle cake, I just say it’s a old covid habit now sorry 🤷🏻‍♀️

I couldn't have eaten it either even if the king of England had served it up himself
Your MIL was rude to make an issue from it and should have saved it to eat the next day if she really wasn't bothered
I don't care about things I can't see but that is vile

I think you did handle it well and were polite OP.
Your MIL behaved badly being rude and making you feel awkward.
BIL should have swapped with you if he was so insistent he didn't sneeze on it.

@OhmygodDont I put cling film over my kids cakes then hold it down with the candles! You can see the look of relief on people's faces when they realise 🤣

You did fine OP. She could have offered to swap. I would get increasingly annoyed and then ask them why they were trying to convince me I hadn't seen something I had.

What a despicable host.