To think that this is dangerous, and a home economics teacher should know better?

[SaggyOldClothCatPuss]

DD had food tech first lesson this morning. She made chilli con carne, with rice. It has spent the whole day, in a tupperware container, on the worktop in the classroom, and she wasnt allowed to collect it until the end of the day.
Now, having been to catering college, and studied food science, it seems to me that having cooked rice sitting out the whole day is really stupid, not to mention dangerous, and is not a good thing to be teaching anybody?
And owing to the fact that DD was unable to acess the chilli at lunchtime, when it would have probably have been safe to eat, it has now gone in the bin, therefore wasting the £7+ that the ingredients cost me!
Factoring in the other lessons, where I have paid for ingredients, and then on the day the teacher has been absent, causing the meat and dairy ingredients that she needed to end up in the bin, I have half a mind to contact the school, and tell them that DD wont be participating in future!

YANBU - surely it should go in a fridge or something?

YABU to spend £23 on one lot of food for a food tech lesson though

What are 'PT' please foodtech?

I knew rice was bad for food poisoning, but didn't know the rules to be safe, so thanks for that.

Love 'anecdata' Duane. I'm going to steal that!!

Yes it is rare.

But I don;t fancy beign that one unlucky one....

What a terrible message to send to children.

I trained to run a cooking club where I teach (was then made redundant so it didnl;t happen.....) but food hygeine was DRUMMED into us. Temperatures and listeria etc being the main session of the first day. What a message to send to the kids!!!

Def complain, make them aaware of the waste and the ppoor health message.

Sushi rice should have rice vinegar added to bring the pH below 4.4. This is the critical control point.

I've had to correct ds1 several times when he's come home telling me stuff that the HE teacher has told them (usually hygiene related)

We've had to throw food in the bin as well due to hygiene issues. It's ridiculous.

Mango - you are really annoying me with your insistence that rice is ok unless you can smell that it has gone off. Are you saying that everyone else on the thread is wrong?

Rice is notorious for causing terrible food poisoning. You have been lucky so far.

Here is quite a technical document (a HACCP document) that demonstrates how sushi rice is made safe to serve.

Principal teacher (basically head of department). She will either do an online order or go out shopping and is given time to do this. As a department we plan what we are cooking and if it is a free choice for pupils (like for an exam) the teacher will compile a list of food required. It has been the same in every school I've worked in. Obviously some schools get more classroom assistant time but it is always offered.

Quite Mintyy, rice in this case isn't 'spoiled', it's contaminated. With spores.

McHappyPants, Bacillus Cereus is also known as chinese takeaway poisoning! Due to the amount of people doing exactly what you do getting sick!

Where is the listeria coming from?

The thing that bothers me is, you could go through your life thinking 'oh, I never get ill!' and so getting into the habit of bad hygeine. But then when you're 80, and doing it this way because 'it's always been fine' ... you might not be so lucky. I worry about this with my parents.

The sushi rice in that report is also being pasteurised during cooking.

I don't know why listeria was mentioned up thread, you're unlikely to get it in this manner. Perhaps from ready to eat sushi though....

DDs school have fridges, drop stuff off in the morning, cook and either eat it for lunch or put it in the fridge until home time.

I was most impressed.

Off topic I sympathise with the poster who spent £23 on curry ingredients!
I recently did a thread about Dds Thai chicken curry that cost £12 and people thought I was making it up...

I've told dd that for food tech she is now vegetarian - less cost and less chance ( rice a side) of food poisoning. We eat veggie quite a bit anyway.

So next week I'm buying onions peppers salad leaves and wraps for fajitas that she can eat for lunch. I think that's a result! ( oh and she has been told they must share the spice mix in groups - yay!)

Theas, thats a good idea, except that DD isnt allowed near her food until home time!

This is slightly off topic, but is an interesting look at attitudes to food hygiene.

ah right, that explains how sushi itself is safe, thanks - but my japanese friend was talking about plain ie un-sushified sushi rice in the rice cooker, which according to her is universally left for quite long periods at room temperature.

Though I guess generally speaking, food poisoning is fairly rare. My in-laws are what I would consider hair-raisingly cavalier about food safety (eg the xmas turkey is left in the larder for days) and yet never seem to fall ill with food poisoning. I suppose it's partly down to risk perception - no doubt that the risk is there, but on the whole, you are likely to get away with it, or barring that, fall unpleasantly but not dangerously ill.

There are probably many many people who have food poisoning, who dont visit the doctor. Any figures that you find will only refer to reported cases.

As a microbiologist this is horrifying me! Bacillus cereus occurs naturally in soil & can easily contaminate rice, as other posters have said it forms heat resistant spores which can germinate at room temperature. Clostridium perfringens which could be present in the mince also forms spores which could germinate at room temperature. If the mince wasn't cooked properly E.coli could be present. On top of this any bacteria the children coughed or sneezed over the food would be happily multiplying. If they are doing this with chicken as well there is the risk of Salmonella, Shigella or Campylobacter poisoning. This is seriously dangerous especially if the food was eaten by someone with a compromised immune system. I would contact the headteacher and ask them to provide a fridge for food storage and if they aren't interested I would contact your local Environmental Health Office.

Add me to the list of people with robust intestines.

I last had diarrhoea in my teens - 30 years ago. The only vomit attacks have been MS.

I break all the food hygiene rules and am forever being told off by my children.

As for Home Ec, everything goes into the fridge for the rest of the day. I don't recall anyone having made anything with rice though. If so, I would have been slightly surprised but happy to eat the offending dish regardless.

What doesn't kill you...

Quite LeapingLiz! See here OP - ask your HT some questions and if you're not satisfied then contact your local EHOs.