Can you become immune to food poisoning?

[Ostryga]

I’m just musing, but I am terrible with ‘food safety’ (just for me, am much more careful with Dd!)

I will eat fried chicken that’s been left out overnight in my warm house for example and never get sick. I’ve eaten chicken that I thought smelt a bit off, but washed it and it was fine.

Honestly I’ve eaten dried up salami off a plate without even thinking, and just sliced off mould cheese. Oh and just scraped off the mould on yogurt and finished the pot.

Am I so disgusting I’ve discovered my super power 😂

Never ill abroad either, even drinking the tap water.

No you can't become immune to food poisoning. However most people are overly caucuses when it comes to things like out of date food.

I will cut mould off cheese eat anything past it's best before date, have occasionally had.meat after it use by date, but only if I'm going to throughly cook it first. Eat something that been left our of the fridge overnight in the winter.

I won't eat food that smells bad, eat cooked food that has been left out in warm weather or for longer periods of time.

Chilling food is all about reducing bacteria growth not stopping it, when it's warm it grows more rapidly. So food that's either left warm or in a fridge for a few weeks could have similar amounts of bacteria.

What you can be immune to a certain extent to stomach bugs, which often spread really easily in buffays which you find on holiday. We seem to be fairly immune to stomach bugs, we rarely get them and no one is ever really ill with them.

I have a relative who's decided that home hygiene is overrated. As a result they seem to have a very robust constitution. Last time I ate there (and not with relish), it resulted in an Olympic dash to the loo. I am fairly robust, but my immune system hastily voted better out than in.

Much as a well stimulated immune system isn't a bad thing... I prefer clean and not playing salmonella or E. coli roulette.

Tap water abroad is usually fine IMO. It's not the 1950s.

Promise I’m excellent with guests (hospitality background so I’m hygiene certificated up to the eyeballs) but I’m laissez-faire with my own habits.

I think some of us may have a higher bar than others on food poisoning. I quite often have issues that my body deals with by, er, fast clearout, but I don't get actual food poisoning much any more.

However, I HAVE had three truly apocalyptic bouts in the past, from eating out, and since the first adult one of those I have got more cautious. Eg I don't muck about with rice or shellfish, and I freeze most meat quickly, and I wash my hands a lot. I think when it catches you, it is bad, and nobody is completely immune.

I suppose it's like saying: I drive on the motorway at 90 mph, I know others get injured or die, but I've been doing for ages and haven't been hurt yet.

I wouldn't say your immune as such but I think your right to an extent. My husbands family are from a different country when they visit they have to be really careful now with the water/street food. The locals can eat and drink it fine so they must have developed some tolerance/immunity

No you didn’t just make that connection 😂

First of all, calm down. Second it’s what I eat myself. I don’t force feed people rotten pork.

Also I can’t drive due to my epilepsy so I promise I’ll never do 90mph anywhere 🫶

I think you can develop a sort of hardy stomach.
I grew up in a house with very low levels of food hygiene and I almost never get sick from food. (I can honestly think of one occasion in my life and I’m not even convinced that was food poisoning.) DH has got sick from eating the same thing as me several times and I’ve been fine.

No. Obviously.

Calm down 🤨 I wasn't irate. I was saying just because someone takes risks doesn't mean they're immune from said risk.

You compared me eating mouldy food to me killing people on the motorway??? Please explain how that was calm on your behalf.

I think some people are definitely less prone to problems. My DH and all the in laws eat leftovers including meat and fish for days and weeks after preparing them. And milk products weeks after the date, staples years later etc. Some of it smells decidedly dodgy but none of them notice. I try to avoid the worst but I have a dodgy stomach every single time we visit. None of the others struggle and they think I’m just really fussy.

Mouldy food, I assume you mean spoilage bacteria, is very different from pathetic bacteria. Under the right conditions, pathetic bacteria multiplies to unsafe levels which make you sick. So you take the risk, doesn't make you immune.

Yes I eat MYSELF. I do not force anyone to eat mouldy food (as I’ve explained to you twice now)

Look you’ve made your point, it was silly, you can go to bed now. Sleep well

I agree you can develop a hardiness.

I think it's similar to when children are exposed to a wide variety of potentially allergenic foods when they are young they are generally better protected from adverse response as they grow older.

I am less scrupulous than most with foods I am happy to eat myself (would not serve to others however) and am quite happy to eat foods a bit past their use by dates and on occasions I have eaten out with others and everyone else seems to be have a bad reaction I have been fine.

Also may be to do with travelling I have done in the past where I definitely drank water and ate food that would not meet UK hygiene standards 🤷‍♂️

I think you've just been lucky so far!

I hope you don't but, you might get a bout of food poisoning in the future that will make you put this laid back approach behind you.

I was a bit like you a few years ago and then I got spectacularly humbled I don't think I've ever fully recovered either!

Why is it when people go abroad, they get the shits from drinking the water but the locals don't?

There's a difference between "mouldy food" as you put it and pathogenic bacteria aka food poisoning bacteria which is what makes people sick. You said you've eaten lots of potentially dangerous food but never gotten sick. Well that was the point I made, some people speed to excess but haven't had an accident, doesn't mean it won't happen or that they are immune.

I might be wrong, but I thought @Martinii was saying other people get injured or die when they drive at 90mph, not that you are killing them by driving at 90mph.

No, you said it was like my driving 90mph and not caring if people were injured or died.

Look, let it go. Your explanations are making it worse. Go to bed!

A doctor I work with is terrible for this, she insists she has a cast iron stomach. Once proudly told me the chili she was eating had been in her fridge for 3 weeks!
To be fair, she's not had a day off sick in the 4 years I've worked with her.

No that's not what it meant at all 🤦‍♀️ It's saying just because you take a potential risk and haven't had a consequence, doesn't mean it won't happen or that you're immune.

You can’t become immune to food poisoning. You have probably been very lucky. You may not even recognise the symptoms of low grade food poisoning and think it’s normal.

I do think you should be careful when it comes to food hygiene as you are last of the line of your food production . The food by the time you take the food out of your fridge to eat it has already been through so many hands and processes . You are last line of defence when it comes to your guts .

Well, if you can become immune then it would explain why my DM is still alive...