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!

maybe some people are resistant to certain food poisoning toxins due to constant exposure?

I mean the chilled ones, rachel/mueller etc...
dc doesn't like the taste of ambrosia.

So when the food tech teacher made my daughter drain her rice before it had finished cooking saying 'don't worry it will carry on cooking in the container', she was, as I suspected, talking crap?

Duane isn't the advice that it has to be kept warm for two hours max? Or did I imagine that, I only heard about it today!

Blimey, every day is a school day! I didn't know this about rice, and have been taking leftover Fri night takeaway to work for Mon lunch for years.

I wouldn't say I have a cast iron stomach - in fact I have quite bad stomach/bowel issues, so this has scared me a bit.

Feeling rather lucky right now .

I have just emailed the following to DD's Head Teacher, FAO her year leader and the Food Tech dept:

My daughter is in year 9, and participated in yesterdays Food Tech lesson, making chilli con carne. I was shocked to hear, when she arrived home, that the dish had been left in the classroom, without any refridgeration, for the entire day. As a catering professional, I would like to point out that this is incredibly bad practice, and potentially dangerous. Rice is a common source of a very unpleasant form of food poisoning, Bacillus Cereus, and should be cooled right after cooking, and stored in the fridge ASAP. Combine this with the chance of Clostridium Perfringens and E Coli from the meat in the dish, and the soil borne pathogen Botulism which the rice could harbour, being at room temperature for several hours goes against all health and hygiene regulations, and I would hope, anybody teaching Food Tech should be aware of this! The dish my daughter cooked, went in the bin on arrival home. The ingredients cost me £7+.

This is not the first time that Food Tech has cost me considerable amounts of money, which have subsequently been wasted. One of the dishes cooked, curry, involved more than a dozen ingredients, and fresh chicken, and cost over £20. These ingredients went to school, spent a hot day in *** school bag, and returned home, due to the absence of the teacher. The chicken and other fresh ingredients went into the dustbin. This has happened on more than one occasion. As a parent on a budget, I cannot condone spending my weekly food budget on ingredients that will be wasted. Therefore, I will not be sending further ingredients to school for practical Food Tech lessons. I am more than qualified to teach my child about food and food science in my own home, producing food that will be economical, and edible.

If there is any problem with this decision, please contact me on 07*.

I would like to suggest that the school re assess its Food Tech hygiene practices, before someone becomes ill with food poisoning, and alerts environmental health.

christ, no wonder teachers like to avoid doing practical work in class.

Do let us know how you get on OP - you're absolutely right to be concerned about the rice.

I'm fairly blaze about use by dates - I've it a bottle of chili sauce in the fridge that has a Best Before date of Mar 1999. But cooked rice is a different thing altogether, and to be viewed with suspicion.

You people who are so cautious about rice, do you eat it in restaurants, take aways, etc.?
And do you eat risoles, arancini, re-fried rice etc? Or do you consider those foods an absolute no no and serious health hazard?

Good for you. I'm interested to hear what they say back.

Both Dh and I have had horrible food poisoning which I'm 99% sure came from rice that had been left out overnight.
Perhaps if we'd blasted it in microwave for a bit longer we'd have been OK. I never want to experience that again.

My mother very frequently has cold rice salad.

My mother has terrible unresolved food intolerance issues.

I am BANGING MY HEAD AGAINST A WALL.

OP, YA absolutely NBU. I'd be raging at the cost of the ingredients even if they weren't wasted. And what are the children learning if this is how they are taught to treat cooked food?

that is a marvellous email.

no last Mango because restaurants have to follow food safety guidelines

that said, my mum got very very ill from rice served at a Harvester

When I did my FH are teacher told us about one chinese restaurant where they cooked the rice at home on a Sunday night and then put into seven buckets of water to keep for the rest of the week They had to do some serious sorting out of the owners awful habits and this was one of the worst examples - so I do try to avoid rice in places unless I know the establishment and who is cooking

Edgar, what is the point of teaching children bad hygiene practices? Id rather they didnt get involved in practical lessons which encourage them!

Edgar I know what you're saying but I think this is totally justified and if the school isn't set up to do this practical work in a safe manner then it shouldn't be done, end of.

x posts!

Urgh. I'm veggie so always thought I was fairly immune to nasty bugs. But I've had food poisoning once and it was from a rice salad (cooked by my own fair hands). I thought I was going to die. I've never felt so ill. I couldn't even walk to the loo to throw up - I had to crawl on my hands and knees.

I once me a guy who was an EHO - he told me the worst food hygiene offences always concern rice. I didn't believe him at the time - until I got my food poisoning!

Yanbu. When I did HE at school years ago, everything went in the fridge. I wouldn't be happy having o pay o much or the ingredients and not even being able to eat the food because it was left out all day.

I don't eat rice from any resturant or take away apart from the few Jamaican takeaways I frequent, where I know the owners and staff. (One is my dd's uncle) I would never ever eat any cold rice from a buffet/party food/salad. We have rice at home at least 2 times a week and I don't keep left overs from rice.

It's 2 hours guideline for rice left out at a buffet, for eating later it needs to be rapidly cooled and refrigerated.

LastMango away and read the HASAW act, and see the many references to food - or not

Nothing to do with Health and Safety, but everything to do with Food Safety. Totally different things and last time I looked Mumsnet wasn't written by Daily Mail "journalists"

I could understand your worries if the rice was intended to be eaten cold, but surely chilli con carne and rice would be reheated (microwaved) before eating thus killing any bacteria. Aware food should only be reheated once and yes it probably should have gone in the fridge, but I think binning it was a bit of an over reaction.

the problem is not the bacteria, but the toxins they produce. bacteria get killed (usually) when heated, toxins remain.

LastMangoInParis

You people who are so cautious about rice, do you eat it in restaurants, take aways, etc.?

Yes I do, because these establishments need to abide by food hygiene standards.

Whilst I am fond of saving leftovers at home, I always throw unused rice away. I don't fuck around with it at home.

i think this is a case of applying the level of caution appropriate to mass catering to home cooking.

i wonder how many people keep uncooked and cooked meats and fish in separate fridges? and heat-test meals prior to serving them? and wash hands between touching each kind of item?