My parents unhygienic food practices

[sahknowme]

This is on behalf of my DH, as I'm used to it my parents eccentricities.

My parents seem to live in another world when it comes to food safety. They seem to be against refrigerating cooked meat. For example, they boiled a piece of preserved beef (a traditional dish), and left it on the counter overnight, warmed it up to a simmer then served it. They regularly leave joints of meat out on the counter for 2 to 3 days. Worst of all is the gravy which gets cooled to room temp, left overnight (on the counter), added to, reboiled, then cooled to room temp several times over the course of a week. They even do it to fish soup. We all have strong constitutions, so this doesn't affect us.

My DH is worried, because they serve food to their elderly parents, and to our 1 year old DS. He thinks I should have a word with them, but they are stuck in their ways and won't listen.

AIBU to let them do their own thing? Is this as bad as my DH suggests?

It's not great and if I was aware of those practices I would choose not to eat the food. An adult may be able to handle that sort of exposure, but it's a different matter with young children. I think your DH is right and you should speak to your parents, highlight the risk it poses to your DS, and ask them to refrigerate food when cooking for your family.

I wouldn’t let my child eat their food, so I totally understand where your DH is coming from. Mind you, I am pretty anal about food safety.

It’s not killed you or your siblings, so what’s the probs 😶

If they and people they have fed have not been ill because of it, I wouldn’t worry.

I’m with your DH. I wouldn’t eat it and I wouldn’t let my child eat it either.

Whether or not to say something is a tough one. I have never known these type of conversations to happen without some tension, even if just a little bit.

The BBQ thread the other week for example.

We all have strong constitutions, so this doesn't affect us.

Wrong. You have just been very lucky. I wouldnt touch it and wouldnt allow my kids to eat it, I would also wonder what your food hygiene is like if you have to ask if this is ok. As a result, I wouldnt eat anything you gave me either.

Sorry, but you did ask!

My son got salmonella from my MIL's unhygienic food practices.

What do you think people did before fridges 🙄

If they're boiling the gravy every time, it's probably ok. You wouldn't be giving that to a baby anyway. What can you do? Speak to them?

well i'm still alive. I leave meat on the side for a couple of days. and soup.

You can probably thank them for your strong constitution.

It doesnt sound great, but then I'm in Australia where it's always warm. If i lived somewhere colder?

I've made stews and left them on the stovetop overnight to cool. I agree that cooked meat is much less of an issue than raw meat and that actually as long as it's heated properly, it's probably fine...would be interesting to talk to someone's great granny who grew up without much refrigeration, they could probably give modern day people a good steer on what you can keep out and what goes off quickly...

Actually gravy is one of the worst culprits for food poisoning! It’s what scientists used to use to grow bacteria on! I wouldn’t eat that or let dc eat it.

I wouldn't let my child eat it.

What do you think people did before fridges

Died young of avoidable food poisoning

Before people had fridges, they used cool larders with stone or slate shelves to store food, and water-soaked containers for milk bottles etc. They didn't just leave everything out in a warm kitchen.

Depends how cold their house is, I guess.

I wouldn't eat anything at their house personally.

yuck! just why...
is it possible for them to learn about food hygiene or are they really stuck in their ways? maybe under the guise of yes it might be ok for them but not for a 1 year old.

Sounds nasty. I wouldn’t eat there or let my child eat there. Have a word or don’t let your child eat at their house. I wouldn’t question food safety around such a young child. You can choose the risk, they can’t.

I have similar in-laws, and it's a battle I'm gearing up for later in my kid's life on our next visit. Out of curiousity, are there any cultural differences at play here?

Leaving food (esp rice and meat) out overnight is nasty. Adults can eat what they like, but they should at least recognise that it's highly risky and not impose those risks on children, particularly as they're more vulnerable to illness. Your parents are completely unreasonable, and as would you be if you expose your kids to these practices too.

Yuk. This is why I never eat from potlucks anymore. Had a bad case of food poisoning and I'm now anal about food safety. Either they've been lucky or they just haven't mentioned being sick.

I'd never eat their food nor would I let my dc eat their food.

As for the olden days, there also weren't the same treatment resistant bacteria that exists now.

I would speak to them about. Which is worse their feelings hurt for a bit or your child becoming deathly ill.

Well you survived. Were you often sick as a child?

HomeisbytheBay, spectacularly unhelpful argument there. Everyone you'll met today survived the eras of no seatbelts, no pool fencing, no smoke detectors and so on - nobody remains to speak for the people that didn't.

And in this case, surely we can do better than just survival? Regardless of whether or not the OP had the misfortune of being sick or not, these are unquestionably bad practices, so why would you want to risk it for children?

Cultural differences? My family are from Eire, he's British Indian.

Oh dear. No. I wouldn’t be eating from there or my dc either.

My y mum is a lot like this and since I've had kids I've done the following

1. Go after lunch and say we have eaten.
2. Meet for lunch somewhere
3. Take lunch with me like some nice bread and ham etc and say I will make it to give her and rest
4. Invite her to mine

I love her dearly but food hygiene is not her strong point. In all other ways she is fab.