WTAF???? DH has just done this...

[ArsenalsPlayingAtHome]

I know I am NBU but I just need to see if everyone else would be as fuming as I am.

DH has just picked DCs up from school. Last night DH cooked delicious roast chicken dinner. He was in charge of clearing up afterwards. There were two chicken pieces which he left on the hob in the roasting tin. I thought he was going to give them to the dog.

DD aged 7yrs has just come upto me and told me that she's just eaten two pieces of chicken and it was delicious!

I've checked...DH didn't heat up the chicken, which has been on the top of the hob in our warm kitchen, *(ie not in the fridge) for approximately 10 hours.

I thought she'd just swiped them, but no, DH gave them her to eat. FFS!

StUmbrageinSkelt for your DS and you. I know it was 19 years ago, but how awful to still have all those problems.

I had no idea that it could cause serious long term harm...there's me worrying that she might be sick. Someone upthread also mentioned lasting damage.

The tide has turned on this thread. Initially it seemed the majority thought I was over reacting, but now maybe less so. I'll tell DH and everyone else about the possible long term problems.

I have personal experience of growing bacteria.

Just a quick google:

Campylobacter jejuni is a fastidious organism, growing in microaerophilic conditions with a temperature range between 37° and 42°C. Multiple types of media can be used to cultivate it; however, Mueller Hinton broth and agar support the best C. jejuni growth.Nov 30, 2016
Growth and Laboratory Maintenance of Campylobacter jejuni - NCBI
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5130347/

Availability of water
The availability of water is another key determinant
of E. coli survival and growth.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3105702/

I think this is one of those things where lots of people get away with it lots of times so it can start to feel like it's not that risky. You might get away with it a hundred times, or even a thousand, until you finally eat that one thing, and then the risk suddenly stops seeming worthwhile.

(I have a relative who uses this exact same logic about driving without his seatbelt on. "I've never had a crash in fifteen years, so what's the point? Besides, I'm only driving to the shops." No amount of reasoning about it with him has the least impact, so I'm waiting till the day he gets scraped up off the road before we resume this particular conversation. If indeed we can at that point.)

No, bacteria multiply very quickly at room temperature.

They really don't, at least not the type that can grow inside humans. Have you tried to grow bacteria at room temperature?
Room temperature is 24 ºC.

I'd worry more about infection from public transport, tbh, than recently well cooked dry chicken left for a 10 hours at about 20 ºC that hasn't been spat on.

After an hour it should be in the fridge

There are flies about

And what happens out in public you can't control - but good at home you can

OP's words: "in our warm kitchen for approximately 10 hours."

Unless OP can determine even roughly what temperature that is, I think we're pretty much shooting in the dark. My kitchen, as an entirely pointless aside, will easily hit 35-40 degrees for hours at a time during sunny periods, since we have lots of big windows all along two sides. From spring onwards the only way to make it bearable is to have all the windows and back door wide open. If OP's kitchen is remotely like that and the chicken was sat in those conditions, then nope. Wouldn't be touching it with a bargepole.

I see many arrivals about safe food handling - now I know why they keep circulating!

Your unhygienic ways must cost the NHS thousands - along with missed days off work and school

She didn't say hot kitchen, but warm. :)

After one hour (NHS says 2) it should be placed in the fridge for long time storage.

We often take food, particularly that it's dry on the outside and inside, for hours and eat it safely. That is why cooked pies are generally safe to carry around without being refrigerated. They have a dry outside and have been sterilised by cooking in the moist inside.
Bread for example is not considered to need refrigeration for long. Nor does fruit, although it can easily host and grow the most dangerous E. coli (see my link).

You do need to get some perspective.

Unless you are living somewhere in tropes, I see no reason for the panic whatsoever. People are getting their knickers in twist for the most hilarious reasons nowadays,
Your DD will be absolutely fine. People survived for thousands of years without fridges and managed to store leftovers just fine. I suggest you find yourself another First World problem.

"People survived for thousands of years without fridges."

I don't quite get this argument. People also survived thousands of years without clean water and vaccinations. Well, some of them did. Some of them didn't, of course.

I don't quite get this argument. People also survived thousands of years without clean water and vaccinations. Well, some of them did. Some of them didn't, of course.

The thing is that we got totally paranoid with storing the food. EVERYTHING has to be in a fridge, otherwise it will simply become a dangerous substance. People are so obsessed with hygiene they are creating stressful situations for themselves by going totally overboard when something has been left out for longer. I would sometimes leave the food I cooked on the stove overnight and only put it away next afternoon. We are still alive and kicking and not a sign of health problems. OP's DD will be just as fine - as long as she doesn't see her mother running around her with an anxious face watching for any sign of indigestion.

So can we get an update? Has she been violently sick all over the place, or are we going to have to wait 5-6 weeks to know for sure...?

How did DH react to your overreaction anyway? The suspense is all getting a bit much for me.

My dh did something similar - ate left over pizza with ham on that had been left out in its box overnight.
He was horrendously ill for a week.

She was fine - no adverse effects at all.

user149.....447 Well I actually kept calm on the face of it. My reaction in RL wasn't an overreaction, I vented on here rather than at DH.

And we had a right laugh at some of the responses...the one about DD only having eaten chicken not heroin was brilliant!

He's not going to do it again, and DD knows not to eat chicken that hasn't been in the fidge - all good. Thanks!

Dogs shouldn't eat any cooked bones, raw only

As for the long term effects of my salmonella poisoning, had I taken heroin I would have been far far better off. I sloughed off all my gut lining which mean I couldn't digest my food properly for well over a year. I was anaemic for longer than that too as a direct result. How much effort is it to shove stuff in the fridge. Mine was party food left out all day I suspect. Fuck me I thought I was going to die!

Tabard I don't think your terrible experience will have much impact on the 'I do it all the time and I'm fine' brigade. I am actually surprised at the extent of the pig-headedness. It reminds me of ex MIL who said there was absolutely no need to put babies or children in car seats - she never did and nothing bad happened. The majority of people who eat chicken in these circumstances will not become unwell. It is, however, dangerous and can be catastrophic. It seems a lot of people are comfortable with that level of risk.

kittybiscuits: "The majority of people who eat chicken in these circumstances will not become unwell. It is, however, dangerous and can be catastrophic."

I think that's probably right. It's interesting to compare the responses on this thread with a thread a few days ago about the OP's newborn baby being exposed to unvaccinated children. The risk there really is tiny (the unvaccinated kids benefit from herd immunity) but people were getting quite wound up about it.

Now, I don't eat meat. I know there's a risk from eating cooked chicken that hasn't been refrigerated, but I genuinely have no idea how big that risk is, and the internet is no help. It could be a one in 10 risk of falling ill, one in 100, one in 1000 - I have no idea. Judging from the comments on this thread, no else does either! But it doesn't stop people having a strong opinion on it...

Put the chicken in the fridge. Safe.

Fantasise that your kitchen is under 4 degrees and acts as a fridge? You're fucking deluded. Unless your house is actually that cold.

Cheers lweji for finding my son's lifelong and lifelimiting condition funny. The point is that it was preventable. Salmonella is a consequence of unsafe food handling and it's not necessarily a benign self limiting condition.

OP I hope your daughter remains well.

Cheers lweji for finding my son's lifelong and lifelimiting condition funny.
I didn't.

Salmonella is a consequence of unsafe food handling
Yes. The point is realising what is unsafe and what isn't.

You can't say you did something different from the OP and got food poisoning to justify that this child was at risk.

Not washing fruit is probably unsafer than not refrigerating well cooked chicken meat, but most threads on washing fruit are about 50-50.

I got food poisoning once and it was probably due to either raw eggs in a mousse or contaminated clams.

Anyone out there who got food poisoning from well cooked roasted meat left out for half a day?

Of course there is. Stop being ridiculous!

Excuse me?

I wouldn't be that bothered to be honest, but that's coz that is how I was brought up - leftover roast dinner left out overnight, soup made one day and left on the hob for the next 1-2, meat defrosted on the kitchen counter rather than in the fridge, mound cut off of cheese rather than the whole block being thrown away. Needless to say we are all as tough as old boots and have NEVER had food poisoning. I'd probably caution my husband against doing it again, but I don't think I'd have been angry.

She will be fine