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?

I think this thread calls for @weedsneeds01

Was just thinking that too!

The episode of salmonella I had would have killed a baby or toddler no question. I'm built like a brick shit house but I lost so much weight. I spent ten days with my butt in the bog and my face in a washing up bowl. I was hallucinating and trying to keep down the stuff the Doc gave me. Don't mess with food bacteria FFS.

Thanks Mathanxiety but I disagree being an Irish person who lived in UK for 2 decades and now live back in Ireland. Me and my many Irish friends have always used Eire and none of us have ever been insulted by it or consider it insulting if others can't pronounce it. In the early days of Irish independence was nearly a hundred years ago so maybe the radio commentators comments are removed form collective memory. I have heard many insulting terms re Ireland but in my experience never found a RL situation of it as an insult.

I have literally just had a conversation over the phone with my dad in Ireland about this - and he 100% believes that growing up on a farm and drinking milk that would only have been in a pantry and not a fridge has given him some sort of superhuman immunity to food poisoning.
Oh and he also thinks that no Irish person would ever say Eire.

People who didn't have fridges used cool larders on slabs of slate or similar! ( for the smart person)... no I would not eat their food. Sounds unpleasant.
My MILused to keep cheese and bacon in the same box... and she used to slather a raw chicken with marge, going from marge to chicken and back again. Mind you, she was nuts.

Having had food poisoning one Christmas I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy!

Food should be taken from one end of the danger zone as quickly as possible to the other end and beyond. Not sure of the temperatures anymore but I'd imagine food stuffs like you've mentioned will be bacteria breeding zones. I personally wouldn't be eating it.

I cook bolognese and leave it on the stove to cool overnight. I'm not sure about not refridgerating joints of meat though or uncooked meat.

People do did of food poisoning you are putting a one year old at risk

My elderly father lives with me and does his own cooking. It makes my hair curl how he leaves food out sometimes for days and then heats it and eats it. I would NEVER let my grandchildren eat anything he has made, pretty sure he doesn’t wash his hands much if ever either. shudders

sorry meant die

Definitely not a normal cultural thing in Ireland.

My parents are extreme "dog people" and they allow their dogs to eat off people's plates at the table, and to lick the plates clean when they are finished (and sometimes while they are still eating). My whole childhood I had fleas and ticks in my bed as the dogs and cats slept in all the beds. We survived, but there is no way I would allow any of this in my house!

My DH, who does the cooking in our house, regularly leaves meat out but covered overnight and eats it the next day. Not fish or chicken though (unless it is a very cold night). He seems OK.

Went to a BBQ few years ago hosted by a rather 'unaware' couple. The sausages ran out and my daughter age 7 or 8 hadn't had one, I heard 'darling what about those sausages left out on the counter from last night?' I should've spoken up but didn't want to be rude or awkward, needless to say I was clearing up copious bbq vomit at 2am and really angry they gave my daughter their unfit leftovers instead of the fresh sausages everyone else got. Am super fussy now, could've been even worse, like their old chicken left out all night :-(

I cathegorically wouldnt let them feed my child. They can be stuck in their ways and eat whatever they like - that should make them understand other people's points of view too (with some scientific display of germs in rotting meat...) if they have elderly oarents they are not that old....

I thought 'Eire' was just for the post tbh...

(used to get a lot of lovely letters from Baile Atha Cliathe' (?)when I was young - never forget an English housemate looking at my letter's post mark and bursting out laughing and saying 'where is THAT?' ) so yes.

I definitely wouldn’t eat there. I think your DH is right. Your parents may have avoided illness so far but it really is an accident waiting to happen. In the past people got sick and died from eating rotten food. Before fridges people bought their food daily from local shops. They had cold cellars and cold marble blocks to help keep food fresh. Fresh food was pickled or salted. It wasn’t just left lying around on kitchen work tops to rot. You need to speak to them and try and educate them. I have seen the damage that salmonella can do. It isn’t pretty.

I would tend to agree with your husband tbh.
ofc people from hot countries are fussier about food hygiene, but what you describe sounds bogging, hot or cold country.

My grandparents are like this and gave me food poisoning repeatedly as a child, and blamed this on my 'poor immune system'.

Ultimately my parents took over cooking for us, though this caused lots of tension. They should really have put their foot down and nipped it in the bud as now I am unable to go and stay with her as my husband won't put up with the food situation, and now I am pregnant it is not really advisable.

She is quite upset by this, but there is little we can do.

I'm from Ireland and this is not the norm anyone I know is very strict on food preparation, no way would any friend or family member leave food out like that and expect others to eat it

My in laws were like this when young enough to need carers.
Whenever we visited the dog knew to sit under the table by us as it got given all the meat. Easy way not to have a confrontation, but not to get food poisoning either.

I grew up in a time before fridges were commonplace in the home. We had a cool larder and cold boxes where food was kept.

My mother shopped frequently so meat wasn't stored in the house longer than overnight and she certainly never stored food in the hot kitchen or reheated things several times.

Of course people with appalling food hygiene practices survive but that doesn't make it acceptable or wise.

I wouldn't let my children eat food stored in that way and I wouldn't be eating it myself.

It depends.

Food that cooled overnight, covered, and then heated up to a high temperature the next day should be fine.

Dry cooked food doesn't rot that easily. Think of bread and how it can be left out for a few days before becoming mouldy.

However, a rare or medium rare steak, I wouldn't even put it in the fridge go keep.

If you boil something like soup with the lid on and don't open it, it should last at least a few days on the counter at room temperature.

So, in your parents' house I'd want to know how the food was handled and prepared before considering it safe to eat at any point. But wouldn't consider it unsafe necessarily either.

Strictly speaking, something can be crawling in salmonella and E. coli but as long as it is heated up thoroughly (and not then re-contaminated after being cooked) it will be safe to eat.

But it's all a bit dodgy so I'd be cautious with a 1 year old.

My parents are similar.

Because my late Dad was traditional (ie did nothing foodwise apart from eat it) my Mum was responsible for hygiene issues.

They quite often complained of upset tummies etc. Their medical box was dominated by medicines and tablets to cure digestive ailments.

She’d warm and rewarm food, keep uncooked meat above uncovered cooked food, keep food until it was mouldy, use food out of date order etc etc.

What made it worse was when my Dad discovered internet food shopping. What he didn’t realise was that he could change his order, perhaps not get something that they’d not eaten that week. He got the same stuff every week.

They had several fridges and freezers and not a clue was in them.

We, my brother and sister, found out that we all quietly disposed of unsuitable/mouldy food.

It’s easier now as my Mum is by herself and lives close to my brother, her buying is under control and we throw little out now.

We, and our children d isn’t suffer from upsets as being vegetarian we tended to take our own food.

A question..... my mum insists on wrapping bananas in silver paper and keeping them in the fridge. Has anyone else heard of this?