To think cooking in this way would kill all bacteria?

[polkadotdinosaur]

Settle a debate. I’m making mashed potato. Dropped a bit of potato in the sink. Sink hasn’t been cleaned for a while. If said bit of potato goes in a pan full of boiling hot water, any germs would be removed right? Been told it would’ve been better to bin it rather than throwing it in…

YABU - nope could still have germs
YANBU - absolutely! boiling water means no more germs

I mean it depends what you'd been doing in the sink before hand, I highly doubt it would kill anyone but I'd still bin the bit of spud. The boiliny water might kill bacteria but won't kill any taste contaminants; I don't want fairy liquid in my mash.

No, the sink was dry. It was a tiny piece of potato. Apparently the concerns are that we had chicken a few days ago and there could be leftover bacteria. To me that makes no sense as cooking chicken would kill bacteria anyway

I’m surprised at all the YABU! Why?

Honestly I think it will be fine bacteria wise.

Also why did you have a raw chicken in the sink? Because you aren't getting bacteria from a fully cooked and correctly cooled one. There is no need to wash chicken, in fact washing can be more harmful as you might spray chicken water droplets all over.

Might be fine bacteria wise but totally minging to drop it in a dirty sink and put it in to cook may aswell drop it in the toilet

'Sink hasn't been cleaned for a while'

How long is 'a while'?

Boiling it will absolutely kill anything on the potato.

That's a bit far, OP didn't say she used the sink as a toilet....I'm not saying it's the most hygienic of practices but come on.

This makes no sense. If it's fine bacteria-wise, how is it minging? What is minging, if not bacteria?!

Why wouldn't you just rinse the bit of potato before putting it in the pan?

4 days

I thought so too!

The ick can put you off food.

It would just rinse off. Potatoes come out of the ground - soil and horse manure (if they're organic).

Good point; I didn't actually think about rinsing lol.

Meh, I often just put all my potatoes in the sink to peel them, as they come covered in soil.

Seriously though clean your sink. 4 days is a while.

You can boil chicken and kill the germs - boiling chicken as long as a potato requires would kill any bacteria for sure.

I think whoever is worried about this is veering on unhealthy obsession with germs. Potatoes are grown in horse manure…

Well considering all we had to do during covid was let everything stand for 48 hours to make sure there was no cross contamination, I believe most of the time dry services don't keep bacteria or virus alive on them for long. Although have said that never do a swab test on your keyboard for bacteria. https://blog.mattbierner.com/keyboard-bacterial-culture/
They are worse then most tolite seats as they don't get cleaned and you have your hands all over them.

But that aside, boiling anything in boiling water for 10 minutes will kill any bacteria so its not a problem and your all food wasters if you throw if away before it's been cooked for dropping it in the sink or on the floor.

How can you not clean your sink for 4 days? Particularly after having raw chicken in there? Gross.

To be honest the thought of germs wouldn’t even have entered my mind . I’dve just picked up the potato and just carried on ..

I wiped it with an antibac wipe after the chicken. Two days since we’ve eaten at a friends and been out for tea. This is day 4

Perfectly fine, water boils at 100c .. no bacteria can live pass that.

Chicken is cooked to 75c to ensure all bacteria is killed.

I want to be breezy about this, but I live with dogs. Sink gets washed often, throughout the day here. For me though i also have weirdly fond memories of my grandmother's kitchen, and her sink, and watching her clean it at the end of a tidy up after a meal. For some reason i found that comforting and I now do the same!