Oh god have I poisoned myself?? :(

[arghstupidmistake]

Please be kind. I'm severely emetophobic and my anxiety is sky rocketing because I think I've just given myself food poisoning.

Basically - cooked mince on Saturday, put it in the fridge cooked. On Sunday added it to a lasagne and reheated in the oven when I cooked the lasagna. There was left over lasagna
(and this is where I was stupid😫), so I put in the fridge on Sunday. Just heated it up in the microwave tonight for my tea. I ate just under half before I realised my mistake - ie eating mince that has technically been reheated twists after cooking.

I'm going to get poorly arent I? 😭 I'm really scared.

It's not so much the bugs you need to worry about, but the toxins they produce, so cooking til piping hot wouldn't kill toxins, but as I said above I'm sure you'll be fine in this case

it's probably not ideal, but most likely you'll be fine.

All fine OP the important things are a. it went in fridge in between and b. reheated thoroughly.

Food hygiene-wise: cook it, kill bacteria. put I fridge, hugely slow the growth of bacteria. Cook, kill bacteria. in fridge, v. slow growth... cook again- kill bacteria !

As people say, the dont reheat warning is for rice.

Yes, I've done just exactly that - plenty of times. Makes for some delicious dishes. Congrats on not wasting food. You'll be fine.

You'll be fine. It was cooked and then refrigerated.

The only reason you would be unwell is because of your anxiety/phobia.

Honestly - did it taste nice before your phobia kicked in? Bet it did.

I do and have done this for years and never been ill . Sometimes I reheat it for a third time in the microwave for lunch or reheat agin in the oven with extra cheese if I am at home . I have also reheated mince to make a spaghetti bol or chilli and made it into a toastie butty the next day . As pps have said , as long as it is piping hot it is fine .

The bacteria count goes down when you reheat. Since you refrigerated the mince after it was cooked, you'll be fine.

Yes it was lovely. I was really enjoying it. Then panic descended as it dawned on me 😥

You should be fine, don’t worry.

That'll be because it rested in the fridge overnight - it really improves the texture and flavours.

When you aren't ill (because I'm certain you won't be), remember how much you enjoyed it. That's what eating should be - a pleasure, not a source of terror.

OP, find a good hypnotist and get your phobia sorted. It will probably take no more than 1 or 2 sessions and you can stop all this unnecessary worrying over nothing.

@NeverDropYourMooncup
thank you for your kind words

Not read the full thread sorry!

The reason we are told not to do it is because of the danger zone, this is where potentially harmful bacteria multiply at their fastest. If you cooked it to 75°c this will have killed the bacteria, you then want to chill it quickly to less than 5°c because then bacteria develop really slowly so take a good few days to get to a harmful amount. In between those temperatures is the danger zone. Every time it’s heated/cooled it travels through it, if you’ve looked after it properly the amount of bacteria will be minimal so you will be fine! There needs to be bacteria introduced or not killed initially to increase the chance of illness.

And thanks to everyone who has reassured me. You've honestly no idea how grateful I am.

I've done this plenty times. I also cook chicken without defrosting it first and lots of things you're supposed to not do..

Don't worry OP
I do not have a stomach of steel, anything dodgy will give me a bout of D&V, I don't eat anything out of date.

But I wouldn't hesitate to eat that and have done the reheat twice with second being a microwave reheat for certain meats mince being one of them. (I would never reheat twice either in the oven that's my line across the sand but since you didn't , I'm hoping you're perfectly safe as I have been many times)

Ooh delicious, twice reheated lasagne. Goes all fudgy. Yum.

Oh, I do this often. You'll be fine. I always think beef is pretty safe, too.

Can I just check ... those who are saying they do it all the time, do you mean:

Day 1. Cook mince in pan and put in fridge
Day 2. Add to another dish and cook in oven. Put leftover in fridge.
Day 3. Reheat leftover.* (in microwave yes)

That's basically what I did.

Yes absolutely

You can reheat repeatedly, this will not make you sick. You must quickly cool and refrigerate and when reheating must heat until piping hot. As long as you do this it's fine to reheat

That happens with lasagna all the time. Since you have to cook the meat before hand, it often gets held for an hour or overnight. Lasagna often means leftovers. If this was a problem, the world would be littered with lasagna victims.

I take food poisoning really seriously because my DH has ended up hospitalized due to underlying conditions. We take no chances at our house. I wouldn’t worry about this for a moment.

(and now I just get to sit here being jealous that you got lasagna because I am now allergic and can’t have it anymore and I miss it so much)

Yep also in the 'done this a million times' brigade. Try not to worry.

Anyone else really fancy some leftover lasagne now?

I often reheat food a few times, so long as it’s only over a couple of days and stored in the fridge in between I figure the bacteria don’t have that much opportunity to multiply. That may be very bad science but we never get ill!

Totally fine.