MIL’s lack of food hygiene makes me feel sick

[sunflowers365]

I’ve just finished a week at my parent in laws for Christmas. My MIL’s food hygiene, and just general cleanliness, makes me feel sick. For context, I have a 15 month old daughter, which makes this more serious for me. She defrosted chicken on the kitchen counter all night. She left my daughter’s turkey bolognaise out on the hob for 5 hours yesterday before it went into the fridge and she reheated it today. She washed raw chicken in the sink today too. They have no hot water in their kitchen. Their kitchen floor is the dirtiest kitchen floor I’ve ever seen in my life- flecked with dried on food all over. The tiles at the back of the hob are greased over with fat. The fridge is full to bursting. The counter tops are strewn with food such as pickles, jams, dried fruits etc. I can’t even use the downstairs shower because I’m terrified of their shower curtain touching me and can’t bear to step on the bath mat. I bring my own flip
flops to wear in their upstairs bathroom. We are sleeping in their bedroom and it smells so musty. The level of dust and clutter is just foul. I love my parents in law but their house and lack of food hygiene disgusts me. Can’t wait to go home!!

The part at the end about "thorough cooking wi kill any bacteria" is massively incorrect! Heat resistant bacteria is very much a thing and is what causes people to get food poisoning from COOKED FOOD!

Always defrosted meat out on worktop, its always still in the packet it came in. Never had food poisoning in 35 odd years of doing it.

Plenty of people have died from Dysentry etc etc. Don't talk nonsense and do your research

My granny left a whole frozen chicken on the side to defrost, overnight. In the morning, it was obviously defrosted, but she was going to leave it out for the entire day (middle of summer!) and cook it for evening dinner!! I put it in the fridge.

Bench.

Curious to know if people wash mince?

I do love a good meat washing debate.

You sound a bit hysterical- frightened of a shower curtain?

That said you've been there and we've not.

I have a manky relatives whose house I won't stay in so you have my sympathy

I always book into an Airbnb, it’s a really easy excuse particularly if you have kids, just use the excuse of not wanting to impose.

I don't wash any meat.

Perhaps their house really is that bad. Thick fat on the tiles? Food al over the floor? This sounds like a house that is never cleaned. That bathroom must be revolting

Huh? It's called a counter in my house and many of my friends. We are all British

Me neither, but I'm fascinated to know how/if one washes mince.

We had some friends who had 'food poisoning' on a regular basis, pretty much every time they ate out at a restaurant. DH and I would order the same meal and be fine. I wondered if it was because they lived on frozen and ultra processed foods?

Mil house is similar, our kids have never even been there. She comes to us regularly and dp has gently (and not so gently 😬) explained why. I have actually had a pretty bad stomach upset while staying there once before the kids were born and it landed me in hospital so there's no way I'll be letting them round there any time soon.

Read it again @LonelynSad I said from eating a school packed lunch!

I have heard more of people being ill, because the meat was not defrosted properly, meaning that it was not thoroughly cooked properly.
Now we have meat thermometers this is less likely to happen, (depends on size) but you can end up with the outside overdone compared to the middle.
I always defrost overnight on the worktop/counter/side/not in fridge, etc
Obviously because of Christmas, fridge space is limited anyway.

Sounds like good motivation to cut out meat from your diet.

DM has similar food hygiene issues.

I only do day visits now and I bring food for everyone... and also picnic tableware to eat off ("Don't want to saddle you with lots of washing up!").

Not taking any more chances since we went there when DD was little and she got food poisoning.

Apparently DM goes round telling people that I do this because I have OCD. (I don't have OCD.) I reckon people look at her house and form their own opinions...

Sometime in 2024 there are going to be changes to the requirements for entry to the EU. Which the Borders Agency will not be prepared for and there will be long queues at airports and places such as Eurostar.

So you could not visit your inlaws abroad next Christmas, far too difficult, no way would you subject your DD to such delays if they happen.

Not sure how you'll get out of visiting in 2025 though.

No it's not "American"

I lived in a student flat once where I used to wash the shower curtain every 2 weeks or
so or it got mingjng (5 of us, 3 girls 2 boys).

Somewhere towards the end of the academic year so after 8 months or so of living together, one of the (male) flat mates walked through as I was loading the machine with said curtain and some dish towels etc.

He was utterly flabbergasted that (a) it was washable and (b) needed to be done fairly frequently.

Of course now I'd be giving him a lecture about wifework and equal weight in household chores but 35 years ago I wasn't so good at standing up for myself or aware of how hopeless some men are.

I call it a bench - I'm a New Zealander with Irish parents.

No, we don't wash chicken - the latest advice is not to because you are more likely to spread bacteria and, even washed, it is still a bit of a dead hen. We do have one non-chlorinated brand.

October 2024 is when it comes into force apparently!

I have called it a counter all my life, and so have my sisters, my mother, and all my aunts - we're all Irish (though I live in the US). I have never heard anyone call it a 'work surface'.

With that quibble out of the way, I always defrost meat in a big plastic basin, wrapped in its shop wrapping. It stands over the sink, which is close to the draughty back door. Nobody has ever suffered any gastric problems from food I've defrosted this way (and I've been serving up meals since 1988).

It does not smell of anything apart from 'chicken' - I live in the US where chlorinated chicken is the norm.

I do not wash or rinse any meats. I pat it all dry apart from minced (or 'ground', as it is termed in the US) before seasoning /cooking.

I certainly don't.

But I recall a thread here where someone of Caribbean heritage took umbrage about the criticism of the practice.