To think this will cause food poisoning

[pteradactyl]

First off, I'm hugely emetophobic so am pretty anxious right now.

I made my daughter a packed lunch last Thursday night, for Friday lunch, but she decided she wanted to get a canteen lunch. I then forgot to throw it out (I know. I'm a slummy mummy at times. I have no other defence). Anyway, I made her another lunch last night and realised when I came home that it was still in the fridge. When she came home I proceeded to ask what she had eaten for lunch and she looked at me in confusion and said the lunch I'd made her. She'd obviously eaten the one from Thursday night The ham was in date until 27th (just checked the packet in the bin!) And the bread was probably best before Saturday, so may or may not have got a few mould spots. She said the ham was dry on the edges, which she still ate, but otherwise it tasted and smelt fine. It was only in a sandwich bag, not a tupperware container.

I'm now pretty anxious about the night ahead. Part of me thinks it will be fine and the other part is envisioning horrible vomiting brought on by food poisoning. So:
Yabu- she will more than likely be fine
Yanbu - she's defo going to suffer for that
I know in reality all I can do is wait and see. Its been about 8/8.5 hours since she ate it and she still feels fine, but I suppose there is still time as the nhs site tells me it can take days or even weeks to show symptoms (!)
Anybody else eaten similar and been fine/not been fine?!

PS I am sure your DD will be OK even if there was mould spot on the bread. After all mould was the first antibiotic. Hope you feel easier too.

I have severe emetophobia too OP but I think it'll be fine.

If the ham (and maybe butter?) are in date and have been in the fridge then it's probably not a lot more risk than there would if you'd just left the packet of ham in the fridge and made the sandwich last night. Mold on bread tends to be fairly harmless unless you have a specific allergy and it's also fairly obvious so your DD would probably have left the sandwich if she'd seen blue mold.

If the sandwich had been out of the fridge for a whole day or something then it would be a different matter.

@lljkk

You don't want to know how long ago packed sarnies you buy in shops were made.

She will be fine.

Not that long actually. Most will be on the shelves within 24 hours with a sell by date of 48 hours. Kept refrigerated through the whole chain. Food on sale in EU and former EU Country (UK) is the safest food in the world. But in this case the food was chilled and within date which means chances of any pathogens multiplying to a dangerous level are extremely small. Don't give this another thought.

If you hadn’t made the sandwich the ham and butter would still be in the fridge anyway, and you don’t get food poisoning from bread that is 2 days past it’s sell-by. Especially if it has been in the fridge.

Had it been a rice salad or egg mayonnaise or mackerel pate, that would have been more concerning.

She’ll be fine.

I thought she'd have been ill by now but not too sure

I hope you're not talking to her about this like you are on here.
This is your thing, don't influence your daughter into thinking she's going to vomit at any second.

Your responses and body language matter, don't think she wouldn't notice.

My (possibly incorrect) understanding Is that if a food is going to make you vomit, it'll do so quite quickly; it's at the other end you get delayed effects. She'd have digested it by now so even if it does make her ill (and I agree with PPs, there's no reason why it should), it'll most likely cause the shits... not sure if that helps...

I used to monitor sandwich dates in downstairs cafe, waiting for them to go half price. 3 day waits typically. They were kept in an open cooler, not as temp controlled as a home fridge could be.

After I bought one half price I could end up waiting a day or 2 extra to eat them -- never a problem either.

Thanks all. She was fine !

Also read all your points re: food poisoning and anecdotes with interest so thank you for sharing.

And solidarity to any fellow emetophobes - its a horrible phobia to have!

Have you ever seen the date on shop bought sandwiches ?