To be angry with MIL over food hygiene?

[Shil0846]

MIL supposed to be helping me prepare family dinner. After putting Ds down for his nap, I discovered her with the raw chicken on my kitchen table (close to place mats and 1 of DS's toys) busy stuffing lemon up it's bottom. So I moved them away and went to the cupboard to get the veg.

When I turned round, I found she'd collected a bottle of oil, a knife from my cutlery drawer, onions and a tub of butter from the fridge - all without washing her hands. To get to the onions she'd have had to move the lettuce and tomato in the salad drawer of my fridge.

Am I over-reacting to think this is really disgusting and dangerous -particularly with a 1 YO in the house? She got very defensive when I asked her to wash her hands and said she's been cooking for over 50 years without any problem. She was also fuming when I insisted on scrubbing down the table where the chicken had been. Am I being too precious about this, or do I need to wash all cutlery/fridge door/bottles etc that may have come into contact?

YADNBU. Raw chicken always goes straight onto the baking tray and prepped in there, with hands washed immediately. Even if that means washing them 4 times because I've forgotten to get the other bits out I need. Same goes for prepping of any raw meat or fish. Basic hygiene frankly.

Def a generation thing. DF eDM have a wooden chopping board that they use for everything, raw then cooked meat after its been cooked if it has to be carved. veg and even the bread in the morning. They also don't have bleach unless its to go in the loo and wipe down the surface with a dishcloth and possibly a bit of Jif. DF is now past cooking thank heavens as there was NO way you could tell him otherwise. DM is better but i doubt they alter things when I am not there. DM laughs now as she knows when I come to stay I change the cloths and use a different board when I prepare meat and then discreetly when she is not in the kitchen I wipe / scrub most handles/the main chopping board with a bleach solution and then make coffee to cover the smell. She also says her meat comes from a butcher and its better than supermarket and also free from XXXX ...
I had actually thought if giving her some colour chopping boards to use on top of wooden board rather like Ikea ...might slip some under the Christmas tree!!!

YANBatallU!

How can anyone think that that is safe?

You are just following modern guidelines - they have changed.

www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jul/23/-sp-food-poisoning-scandal-how-chicken-spreads-campylobacter

Camylobacter and other diseases are really, really nasty. Not worth risking.

Almost the same thing happened with my DM recently. I over-reacted I think in telling her off (felt really bad afterwards and still do) but in principle I think I was completely right (and still do). I would just be a bit calmer and nicer about it next time. Fwiw raw chicken straight into baking tray for prep there; individual breast pieces etc prepped on plastic not wood and board cleaned after without reusing for veg etc. I don't bleach clean, but do wash well with very hot water and fairy liquid; do however use disinfectant wipes/spray if raw chicken ended up on counters.

Agree with this:
"The hysteria about raw meat maybe being within 500 yards of other ingredients is a very new thing."

Well, it's about as new as keeping battery chickens that shit all over each other and cause salmonella and campylobacter to accumulate in the chickens, I'd say.

I wash my hands straight away after touching raw chicken, and don't let the chicken touch anything.

I would have hated being in your situation!

Moxon, wood board is actually more hygienic and safe than plastic!

Chandon- that depends on how you wash your boards.

After years of having wooden chopping boards - which I scrubbed in boiling soapy water and fully dried before using again I actually prefer plastic. They can be shoved in a dishwasher and cuts down my work load.

Yes, I think it depends on the condition of the wooden board and how it is washed.

We have dishwasher-proof wooden boards, best of both worlds, I hate plastic boards. If I am using one for raw meat (which is rare, I tend to cut up with scissors over the pan), I do any veg or other non-meat products on it first, put them to one side and then do the meat, then it goes straight in the DW.

Haven't read the whole thread, but yanbu (and I'm the first to defend a mil!)

My exclusively bf ds3 got campylobacter and whilst he was fine, it was very unpleasant. I cannot imagine how he got it as I hadn't been rubbing raw chicken on my breasts. However I am now scrupulous about raw chicken hygiene - almost obsessively. I am not anal about anything else.

I guess it's all in the way you approached it though.

Obviously in a poor kitchen there's a separate chopping board for everything and that's not really practical at home (who has space for about seven chopping noards) but I do keep red for raw meat, blue for raw fish, wooden for veggies, cooked meat etc and another wooden one for bread and stuff that doesn't necessarily get washed if there's only a crumb on it (still hets washed every day though). I am very fussy about what gets cut on which board and I've trained my husband too.

We both also use a digital thermometer to check meat temperatures. Some habits die hard but it does take all the guesswork out of cooking a roast.

My understanding is that wooden boards are more hygienic - my primary board that rests on my countertop is wooden. But, I can't be convinced that putting raw meat on wood is a good idea. I keep a plastic one tucked away for this use.

YY to the digital thermometer, it is much easier to cook chicken properly with this, eliminates all guess-work and cutting into check if it's pink etc.

In catering we would never use a wooden board for raw meat. Just totally unhygienic. Plastic is much easier to deep clean and harder to make cuts into which can hold bacteria.

Perhaps I am quite ott about it all but having had serious food poisoning myself (from a restaurant in London - not me working there! ) I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

I got nasty food poisoning from raw Oysters years ago. It was a reputable seafood restaurant too!! Never again I don't think, wasn't worth it!

Well considering my very fit, ADULT son was hospitalised with Salmonella poisoning from chicken I can tell you that you are SO NOT BU!

OMG! YANBU, definitely not. I know from experience as When I was younger I didn't have a clue about raw chicken etc & gave Salmonella to my partner. Food poisoning can be a killer especially to children/old people. There was a lady recently that died from Turkey dinner not cooked properly or I think it was Turkey left out too long something along those lines. Maybe in the "olden days" this was acceptable but we lead much more hygenic lifestyles now I think our bodies/immunity are more delicate because of it.

YANBU

I haven't read the full thread but I was quite shocked at the responses on the first page. How can YBU for upsetting mil by wanting her to clean the raw chicken juices from where you sit to eat your food and where you DC put toys... WTAF??

Its basic food hygiene FGS!

Yanbu. She has flouted the most basic food hygiene rules. Absolutely filthy and disgusting and I wouldn't allow her to help in the kitchen again.

Am astonished at the number of posters who mistakenly think this is ok.

I'd go mad, yanbu

YANBU. Some people are completely clueless about food hygiene (including some posters on here it seems). They may think that their lack of hygiene has "never done them any harm" but no doubt they have been sick quite a few times because of it without realising the cause.

Crikey - as a one-time salmonella sufferer (hospital for a week) you are so NOT being unreasonable!

Made me smile though. My MIL used to have 3 long-haired cats which were never allowed outside (!). She would shut them in the kitchen overnight and they'd be sitting on the worktops whenever you went in through the night or first thing. PILs never wiped the worktops and would prepare food directly on them. The cats' litter tray was in the kitchen as well and often stank. Caused endless rows between me and DH when our kids were little as I thought he ought to say something (being a coward myself) but he could never get the message across. Watching MIL butter toast for my pfb with the toast in direct contact with a worktop that a cat's bum had been on used to make me heave and I'd always rush to do it myself.

She also had dubious food prep standards - would start cutting slices of roast pork before it was cooked through, then leave it sitting in the oven overnight. We had the "I've been cooking for X years" tantrum when she came to stay with us as well and I queried whether a chicken she'd cooked wasn't a little bit pink still .......

Quiet bat person oh I didn't know that that's dreadful yuk