Is this going to kill us all?

[HolidayDjinn]

DH is flapping.

On busy days when no one is going to be home until 18:30 I sometimes make up a tray bake and put the oven on timer so it will be ready just as we walk in the door. The ingredients come out the fridge about 6am and oven comes on about 17:45 so that’s nearly 12 hours at room temp. Today’s has no raw meat but does have chorizo. Sometimes I do sausages. Have done chicken thighs before. I feel like this is probably fine but DH is convinced we will contract food poisoning. NB his worries don’t come with an offer to sort dinner.

Oh my goodness slow cooker food is amazing so you are totally doing something wrong!

And I've had food poisoning before, I personally wouldn't eat your tray bake lol

You could do exactly what you’ve suggested but with frozen meat. That way it just defrosts during the day.

What do you mean? It's a pretty valid concern.

If something happens, would insurance cover OP if her kitchen burned down? Probably not as she wasn't even home and was reckless

I'm usually fairly relaxed about many food related things - as in I trust my senses quite often rather than BBE dates, that kind of thing

Food-poisoning bacteria can't be detected by any of your senses.

No but any sensible person will understand that given that 56% of supermarket chicken in the UK is contaminated with Campylobacter (the most common cause of food poisoning), 11% of which is 'highly contaminated', you can take a common sense approach to determining whether you should eat chicken past the BBE date or not.

If it smells and looks fine, it's almost certainly as safe to eat as chicken within its BBE date as long as you cook it correctly.

Perhaps I should have added that I also use my common sense...

The combination of working senses, common sense and an awareness of food safety works well for most people!

How do you detect food-poisoning bacteria using common sense?

How do you detect food-poisoning bacteria using common sense?

What does Campylobacter and/or it’s toxins smell like? (I’m not asking what they look like because they’re microscopic.)

Why don’t you cook it the evening before and heat it when you come home? I wouldn’t have raw meat sitting out all day.

Try to stop what? My oven has never caught fire when I've been in, and i haven't heard of ovens catching fire full stop.
I've heard of gas leaking if you do it on a gas oven, and I've heard of the glass doors shattering (best to be out if that happens) and I've heard of ovens tripping the electrics.
I don't think oven fires are a consideration here personally.

What's going to happen?
But yes, of course the insurance would cover it. There is no "you must be in the house at all times the oven is on" clause.

Thanks all. To clear up a few things - no I don’t do all the cooking but on our busy nights 2 adults and 3 kids all arrive home at 18:30 from different places and are hungry. I do have quick dinners like filled pasta and beans on toast on the rotation too and we’re by no means a ‘meat at every meal’ family.

The thing with some veggie meals is that there’s not enough protein and fat to actually fill you up just loads of carbs to sit heavily. Unless you add loads of cheese of course.

Using frozen meat a good idea - individually frozen sausages or chick drummers would work I think. The kitchen is a cold one - about 16° through the day.

Can’t believe some people haven’t heard of oven timers.

I’ll not be convinced about slow cookers - they just can’t compare to the same recipe but slowly cooked on hob or in oven. Even with same ingredients (with liquid reduced) and pre sautéeing onions.

Oh and I do have an Instant Pot. Love it for barley soups, risotto and dahl.

The thing with some veggie meals is that there’s not enough protein and fat to actually fill you up just loads of carbs to sit heavily. Unless you add loads of cheese of course

Beans, lentils, seeds, etc? We barely eat meat during the week - sweet potato and black bean chilli, mix of wholewheat and vegetable noodles with vegan duck and hoisin, etc.

These are just what we've had this week so far, but obv loads of options that don't involve cheese and meat.

I can really get stuck in grooves, food-wise - I love hearing other people's ideas.

It doesn't have a smell. What I meant was that, given you cannot tell if your chicken has Campylobacter (but you can cook the meat to make it safe) then you should check for the normal look and smell to make sure there are no other issues - the chicken starting to rot for example. If it looks 'right' then you can use your common sense before consuming, which might mean ignoring the BBE date.

The original post I was responding to was about not being able to detect bacteria with your common sense. My point is that given you can (and we frequently do) safely consume meat that has food poisoning-causing bacteria, we can just use our common sense to work out if its safe.

Exactly! People were probably walking around thinking that feeling slightly queasy all day was quite normal.

Death by diarrhoea (#1 symptom of food poisoning) was 10x more common a hundred years ago due to lack of refrigeration.

YABVVVVVU for the fire hazard of an unattended oven. Can your local fire brigade and ask their opinion.

YABQU about slow cookers. Bland and watery means you simply don't know how to cook in them. You add the spices and you control the contents to not be too watery; put the veg separately for bits you want crispy. We would usually set up the meat in the slow cooker, then have the veg done up on a tray. Tray takes 35 min in the oven. Or you could go with salad, or sweetcorn, beans, peas and other quick veg.

YABQU about the meat, if the kitchen is cold it'll be ok, but only really the processed meat. You can do veg protein instead without the risks. There are also hundreds of other "easy" meals from omelette to salads with chopped cooked meat. I can't fathom why it's necessary to take the risk with meat growing bacteria all day long.

Why not stick with your automatic traybake minus the meat and just do the meat in the slow cooker, then throw it all together?

Actually, that sounds horrible

I think the OP needs to up her vegetarian game if she can only think of doing meals which don't contain enough protein and good fats, or which fill you up with empty carbs. Good grief there are so many nutritious, tasty and filling veggie options.

Could you do something like jacket potatoes in the oven so they're done when you get back? I do one where I scoop the insides out once they're cooked, mix with cheese, chives/spring onions, creme fraiche and bacon, then put them back in and do for another 10 mins. You could have made up the stuff to mix in before hand and they're really delicious so I don't feel like I'm being hard done by by having to have a jacket potato.

I wouldn't mind chorizo in there all day but it's a no way from me on chicken.

Also definitely think you have to get the recipes right with slow cookers and I have one where you can sear first which makes a massive difference. I do Bolognese, meatballs, bbq pulled pork and a pork and cider casserole as well as the odd soup in mine mainly.

Having been a vegetarian for nearly 30 years it's completely untrue to say that vegetarian meals are lacking in protein and fat! I make literally hundreds of meals which are hugely satisfying and have the right balance of nutrients. For proteins and fats I eat cheese (many types of cheese), eggs, a big variety of pulses, nuts, avocados, olive oil, coconut oil. You just need to Google vegetarian recipes. I'm actually struggling to think of any that don't have enough proteins or fat.

I wouldn't eat it. Sorry OP

You'll probably be fine, but there's no guarantee. We all tend to have cast iron stomachs in our family though

If you haven’t become Ill yet then you are hardly likely to. People are way over
the top about these things. Chorizo would be fine it’s so processed.