If you've got garlic and onion in your fridge/cupboard, do they affect the rest of your food?

[NameChangeIBSHelp]

For background I've had IBS for around 10 years. For the past 9 months or so it's been completely out of control, which has had a big impact on my mental health. I've recently been diagnosed with OCD, with the IBS being an "obsession" so I am extremely anxious all the time. I've been put on Sertraline and I'm on the waiting list for CBT.

I follow a strict low FODMAP diet, which means no garlic or onion. DH and DC roughly follow this too to support, but have gotten bored with it recently so DH has started cooking them separate meals with garlic and onion in. The problem now is that everything smells and tastes like garlic and onion to me. The plates that come out of the dishwasher, the other food in the cupboard. But because of the OCD I don't know if this is genuine or in my head.

I just wondered if anyone else found that they permeate into everything else, and I'd be justified talking to DH about it. Or if it is just in my head and I just need to soldier on until my CBT?

I have a specific container for storing half open onions, so there is no smell in my fridge. I also use frozen garlic, so again no chance of any smell, except while cooking and in the food. But even when I use fresh garlic, I have never really experienced any smell transference, especially on washed dishes.

Halved onions - yes, I seal them in plastic bags or they make the salad drawer smell oniony. But loose garlic and whole onions - no, I wouldn’t notice a smell from them and certainly wouldn’t find any permeated smell or flavour in other nearby food. Definitely not on the washed plates. The only thing that stays on washed plates is egg smell, in my experience.

I don't notice any cross-contamination/smells from whole garlic or onions permeating other foodstuffs or cleaned dishes.

It would be different with halved onions, which should be kept in a bag or a container to contain the smell.

No. I use frozen pre-chopped onions anyway. Garlic bulbs are in the fridge and don't smell at all.
As long as the garlic and onion isn't cut then it shouldn't smell.

Wrap them in foil

Thanks everyone, it sounds like it could be in my head then. We've got plenty of tupperware he can put them in, but as I said I can smell it when I walk into the kitchen, I can smell it in the dishwasher, and I put some cucumber on my sandwich this afternoon and that tasted oniony.

It’s definitely in your head. You’re not contaminating your food by having onions on the cupboard and it certainly isn’t making your dishes smell. Your dishwasher washes at far too hot a temperature to leave your plates oniony.

If onions have been chopped on the same wooden or plastic chopping board that you use for your cucumber, then yes, that might make the cucumber pick up I onion flavour. It would unlikely to affect your diet though. If you were allergic to the point of anaphylaxis, sure, but it wouldn’t be enough to upset your stomach on a low FODMAP diet.

Thank you. What's annoying is even if I acknowledge it's all in my head the anxiety still gives me the very real physical symptoms. I may as well eat the food and get some enjoyment before I'm stuck in the loo 😅

Onions don't need to be in the fridge can you put them iin a cupboard then it isnt affecting you ?