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Original poster

In laws playing it fast and loose with refrigeration - who is right?

170 replies

spatchcock · 08/05/2011 21:46

Went to stay with the in laws this weekend. Got up on Saturday morning and went to have some toast with jam. MIL points me towards the cupboard. In the cupboard there are four pots of jam - three are mouldy and one has just been opened. I cleared out the green jams and after using the unmouldy one went to put it back in the fridge but MIL says 'Oh no - it goes in the cupboard.' Right, ok... not going to argue, not my house or my jam.

At midday, FIL comes back with the shopping. Everything gets tidied away except for a joint of pork, which gets left on the side. A few hours later MIL and I are pottering about in the kitchen and I see the pork is still out and ask if I should put it away. "Oh I've got it, don't worry," MIL says. She puts it in the (unlit) oven in preparation for the Sunday roast.

I go to bed thinking about the pork, imagining the bacteria multiplying endlessly and wondering if any of it could possibly harm my incubating (31-week) PFB. My own mother is absolutely fastidious about refrigeration to the point of obsessive. A ten minute trip to the supermarket necessitates several chilly bins and a game plan. Bacteria is Satan and Mum is a missionary of hygiene. I thought I was nothing like her (I eat things off the floor), but something has obviously rubbed off on me because it takes me a while to get to sleep.

The next day the oven is turned on at midday - 24 unrefrigerated hours after the pork first made its appearance in the kitchen.

I ate it - MIL cooked the shit out of it so any bacteria (along with any nutrients) were probably killed off. MIL has also raised three strapping sons. One of them, my DP, says he can't remember any incidents of food poisoning, and that meat has always been treated this way in his house.

I find this bizarre. It seems completely abnormal to me to leave meat lying around for a whole day in warm spring temperatures but DP thinks I'm overreacting.

So who is being unreasonable? Me with my bacterial awareness or MIL with her germy breeding grounds?

OP posts:
EllenJaneisnotmyname · 09/05/2011 00:07

I'll have you know my mum still has some jars of jam from the 1970's! And they are packed with artificial preservatives.

cece · 09/05/2011 00:08

I can't stand cold jam (or pickle, ketchup and so on)

Mind you a jar of jam only lasts a few days in our house so doesn't really have a chance to go mouldy.

foreverondiet · 09/05/2011 00:09

Jam is fine is cupboard.

Meat is odd although as you say it was very properly cooked so unlikely to be a risk either.

What happened to leftovers?

My MIL does worrying things eg defrosted raw chicken in washing up bowl, I had to say something massive risk of salmonella/listeria on plates.

Kallista · 09/05/2011 00:10

Erk - am remembering the night i cared for one flatmate who threw up and retched over 20 times - due to food poisoning from chicken. It was scary..

cece · 09/05/2011 00:10

ellenjane

My mum moved house in 2001. I cleared her cupboards/fridge of all the out of date food prior to the move.

In 2003 I went through her cupboards again. There was stuff dated 1999! Work that one out!?

EllenJaneisnotmyname · 09/05/2011 00:16

Sounds a lot like my mum. And she keeps frozen stuff in the fridge, too. Every now and again we go through her cupboards and chuck stuff out, not just past it's sell-by stuff, years old stuff. She's going strong at 80!

shubiedoo · 09/05/2011 00:19

Don't refrigerate Nutella, it says not to on the label and it makes it go hard!

Saggyoldclothcatpuss · 09/05/2011 00:20

Food poisoning is just as likely to be caused by cross contamination. People cook chicken straight from the packaging. It was killed, processed and packaged without being washed. Food is stored incorrectly in the fridge, raw with cooked, uncovered. People also often assume that they have been Ill because of something they just ate. The majority of poisonings take at least 12 hours to develop. Some take quite a bit longer.
Rice is one very common, very dangerous source of food poisoning. Many people wouldn't think to refrigerate it once cooked.

Joolyjoolyjoo · 09/05/2011 00:21

I am really quite anal (possibly too anal, I'll admit) about food hygeine. I am a bit of an emetophobe and really can't spare the time to be ill, and I really hate it when the kids are ill- couldn't bear the thought that it could be my fault. Why take the chance? My dad has always laughed at me, as he proudly eats his out-of-date sausages and such like. Then he got food poisoning, and thought he was dying. he doesn't say so much now.

I keep jam in the fridge, so shoot me Grin I go mad at DH if he sticks a buttery knife in it.

Saggyoldclothcatpuss · 09/05/2011 00:22

Food poisoning is just as likely to be caused by cross contamination. People cook chicken straight from the packaging. It was killed, processed and packaged without being washed. Food is stored incorrectly in the fridge, raw with cooked, uncovered. People also often assume that they have been Ill because of something they just ate. The majority of poisonings take at least 12 hours to develop. Some take quite a bit longer.
Rice is one very common, very dangerous source of food poisoning. Many people wouldn't think to refrigerate it once cooked.

Saggyoldclothcatpuss · 09/05/2011 00:24

Oops! Blush

CointreauVersial · 09/05/2011 00:26

You are right, Saggy, rice is a special case; there is a particular strain of nasty bacteria which grows on cooked rice. Pre-cooked rice should be reheated very thoroughly, and the recommendation is that this is done in a pan/oven not microwave, to avoid the possibility of cold spots.

Cutiecat · 09/05/2011 00:43

Saggy - i am sure i read recently that you should not wash meat prior to cooking as the washing of the meat actually can spread the bacteria around your sink etc.

Sooty7 · 09/05/2011 05:52

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ben5 · 09/05/2011 05:59

would of put the pork in the fridge . Think it would look really good by the jam!

FellatioNelson · 09/05/2011 06:00

To be fair, when people did these things they probably didn't have centrally heated houses. I will keep my turkey out overnight in my cool north facing pantry but only for about 24 hours, maybe 2 days at a push.

Renniehorta · 09/05/2011 06:09

My ds has an American gf, soon to be dil I suspect. Every time she visits the contents of my food cupboard migrates into the fridge. I don't think its deliberate just that she has different ways. So when she and my ds are doing cooking/grazing and they tidy up she puts things, sauces, pickles etc, where she is used to putting them.

If that is the only difference we have though it won't be so bad if she joins the faamily.

lljkk · 09/05/2011 06:21

I'd be uncomfortable with it, too, OP. Also, meat tastes nicer if not overcooked, proper long slow cooking at "lower" temps aside. So I'd prefer to have it in fridge or somewhere very cool overnight, and then not need to have the [blank] cooked out of it the next day.

LoveBeingAbleToNamechange · 09/05/2011 06:28

Jam should not have mould scrapped off it, the type of mould that grows sprouts downwards so you would never know if you'd got it all.

Can't even think about the pork.

mitochondria · 09/05/2011 07:13

I roast chickens and keep the leftovers - but I thought you were supposed to strip the meat off the bones and then keep it in a sealed container - not just put the whole chicken in the fridge, on a plate, not covered with anything.

TheVeryAngryMumapillar · 09/05/2011 07:37

Rennie My Dh is Aussie and he does it too! We've been together 8 years and still I put the jam and sauce in the cupboard and he puts them in the fridge.

He is conditioned to it on account of coming from a hot country.

Drives me mad!

microserf · 09/05/2011 07:40

My ILs are also like this and never get sick. At first I was a bit Shock, but it seems to work out. I did take special care when I was pregnant with my DCs. Ended up eating a lot of toast with my own vegemite from home.

I also do put my foot down every now and then though. Potato salad left uncovered in the sun for 6 hours = bin and not, as they suggested, to be served to my 2 yo dd. Even DH put his foot down for this one, and he was raised this way.

aldiwhore · 09/05/2011 07:43

If you use a clean knife when digging out the jam and the top is replaced pronto, the jam shouldn't go mouldy in the cupboard... depends how long its been opened.

My homemade jam seems to actively kill any bacteria, but its wicked stuff and I suspect it could also be mildly alcoholic!

microfight · 09/05/2011 07:56

I think others are right in saying it would depend on how warm the house is, effectively it doesn't matter whether it's shrink wrapped or not the bacteria is in the actual meat and will always multiply whether in the fridge or not, however it will multiply at a much slower rate the colder it is kept. Until of course the temperature rises to around 58 degrees centigrade when it will then start cooking and kill the bacteria.

borderslass · 09/05/2011 07:57

I always put meat etc in fridge, my sister is obsessed about all open jars being in a fridge jam and ketchup doesn't last long enough in this house to go mouldy Grin