To think that, unless you know the kitchen they were made in is very clean, homemade edible gifts go straight in the bin

[Bearbehind]

Especially this year

Given we’re sanitising things we touch and are ultra conscious about the spread of germs etc - AIBU to think that if you get edible gifts from someone’s who’s kitchen you either don’t know or don’t think is very clean - you’d just bin it?

I’m not saying you can catch Covid from the food but it’s the principle of not knowing how hygenic stuff is

I’m not a fan of homemade gifts at the best of times - I think a sort of rule should be that unless your homemade items are good enough to sell for actual money, then please don’t do it

No one is going to admit they binned it but I do hope those who would make homemade edible gifts, especially for teachers, this year think twice

Also, to add, the food is often ok - but the packaging!
jars that haven’t been properly sterilised. the rule if thumb for jam etc -store it for 6 months, if it isn’t mouldy then it’s probably ok. my (ex-chef) neighbour’s home made preserves always pass his test, so far I have never received a gift from others that didn’t turn fluorescent green in a month or so. mould is pretty toxic.
in containers that aren’t food safe (covered in glitter etc - if it isn’t food safe, it’s usually pretty toxic),
Chicken products raw on the inside, or home made mayonnaise (hello salmonella!)
Yes, commercial kitchens can be rank. But in most houses you are better off eating from the loo seat (usually spotless) than from the kitchen counter

To add, i’m also careful what I ear in restaurants - only well cooked stuff please. salads etc - no thanks (including garnish). well cooned and freshly made (or at least heated up thoroughly) - minimal risk. cold and/or not fresh - avoid.

Even in bon-Covid times, gifts of food go straight into the bin.

Children, pets, source of/quality of the ingredients-- ugh. We don't take chances.

@hashbrownsandwich

No way in earth would I keep anything I didn't make. Not because of covid but because I don't trust other people's standards.

Same here, hash browns.

OP have you or anyone you know become I'll by eating home made edibles?

@MingeofDeath not the OP, and haven’t become ill. But I have found mould in most homemade preserves i got over the years after about 1-2 months (so the jars weren’t sterilised properly), and loads of non food safe containers (not everything bad for you makes you ill immediately).

Do you have a grey velvet couch and hoover lines on your carpet?

Veg is grown outside, maybe a fox peed on your cabbage or a bird pooed in your lettuce then it continued to grow round it?
I think that people need reasons to pat themselves on the head, make them feel superior. I don't think I'd eat stuff if I was a teacher, even though I'm sure most DCs making things would be well supervised, but to be so paranoid is daft. Maybe the person who served your meal /drink scratched their bum before picking it up?

I've never not eaten a home made cake or jam etc I've been given.

But in fairness I don't think people should give teachers home made gifts (unless you happen to be a professional cake maker / ceramics maker etc and they're labelled as from your shop) as they'll have to look grateful and then feel bad about throwing it away, which is not exactly the aim of a gift.

Just want to check - when I refuse a wrapped, home made gift this Christmas should I state my reasons or just say ‘No’ because that’s a complete sentence?

The people who give us homemade gifts tend to be friends, who live in houses similar to ours in terms of hygiene and set up. That's good enough for me.

balloons

I would eat edibles from close family and a couple of friends (who are neat freaks). Some home made stuff is really lovely and lots of effort has gone into it.

YANBU.

Also watching Come Dine With Me has really opened my eyes to the state of some peoples kitchens. I'll never forget one episode where the lady kept stirring/turning things (steak, roast potatoes) not with a kitchen utensil but with her crusty oven glove! 🤢

I hope you get nice pairs of socks for Christmas, OP.

Im the same as you op. I am grateful but Ive had a couple of bad experiences. A friend gave me cupcakes she'd made. 2 out of the 4 and hair on them and in them.

My husbands colleague brought in a home made cake into work. Their whole team ended up off with severe food poisoning and my husband was so ill. He said he would never eat home made ever again after that.

But this year for me which I haven't seen anyone mention is Xmas cards and everyone licks the envelope. I did it myself the other other day and realised that my saliva is on all the Xmas cards

I don't eat homemade products unless I know the person and the kitchen. I don't have to bin them though as I have a husband who will eat anything.

Food poisoning from a cake?! What did it have in it?!

Food poisoning from a cake?! What did it have in it?!

Possibly the butter icing
I dunno
But it made me vomit several times

Hasn’t put me off cake though or homemade cake

Very sad.
I love accepting home made cakes etc. (more likely to bin shop bought stuff although actually just get the dcs to eat it).
And the friends I share my home made cakes with are always asking for the next one!

Just want to check - when I refuse a wrapped, home made gift this Christmas should I state my reasons or just say ‘No’ because that’s a complete sentence?

😂😂😂

It seems that, in this scenario, that old MN adage doesn’t apply!

As it turns out, if you say to someone you don’t want any gifts, that is translated by the giver to mean ‘no gifts obviously doesn’t apply to my delicious x’

And the only actual way to prevent receiving such gifts is to tell the giver, before you even know they’re planning on giving you anything (as you’ve already asked them not to give you anything so assume they understood that already), that they shouldn’t give you anything homemade as you will be binning it, as that is the only possible way for them to accept that by ‘no gifts’ you actual mean you don’t want anything!

Gotta love how contrary MN can be!

@grassisjeweled

It's just that no-one makes food that good. It's never as good as they think it is.

That is just rubbish. Why would you think that?

Many times friends have said 'that's the best (insert type) cake I've ever had'. They are delighted to receive more.

The same applies to others - one of my friends makes the best flapjack- far superior to anything in the shops.

Homemade cake is always superior to shop bought. Always. Anything made by hand in small quantities, designed to be eaten within a few days, is going to be much better than stuff mass produced in a factory.

My victoria sponge is made with butter, eggs, flour, sugar and strawberry jam. That's it.

Tesco's version has: Sugar, Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Raspberry Jam (11%), Pasteurised Egg, Butter (Milk), Glucose Syrup, Water, Rapeseed Oil, Pasteurised Egg White, Humectant (Glycerol), Whey Powder (Milk), Palm Oil, Wheat Starch, Raising Agents (Disodium Diphosphate, Potassium Bicarbonate), Emulsifiers (Mono- and Di-Glycerides of Fatty Acids, Polyglycerol Esters of Fatty Acids), Invert Sugar Syrup, Preservative (Potassium Sorbate), Cornflour, Flavouring.

Raspberry Jam contains: Glucose-Fructose Syrup, Raspberry Purée, Sugar, Gelling Agent (Pectin), Acidity Regulators (Malic Acid, Sodium Citrate), Colours (Anthocyanins, Plain Caramel), Preservative (Potassium Sorbate).

Yum yum.

People are so weird about hygiene and germs and these threads where people are agreeing that it's perfectly normal to sanitise the fuck out of everything and only ever eat from restaurants and NEVER homemade as it's manky/dangerous just reinforces disordered thinking. All these "eww, manky and HOMEMADE" parents passing their neurotic behaviour onto their kids.

I think my home made cake and fudge is pretty good and I get good feedback. My kitchen is a home kitchen but I do sell from it so it has been inspected and I do have food hygiene certificates. The items I sell are “home made”. I gift them to family for Christmas and as far as I know people don’t Chuck them away.

Given the chap ingredients, the palm oil, additives, sweeteners, in shop bought food, I think many home made cake are far better quality.

100 per cent agree with you OP. Just reading a lot of threads on mumsnet and you can see how dirty a lot of posters are with showering/changing clothes etc

And this is how we are wrecking the planet: by imagining that wearing the same pair of jeans twice without washing them is going to cause us harm.