She poured the marinade that the raw chicken had been in on the cooked chicken and served it

[CrocsNotDocs]

Just that really.

Chatting to my lifelong friend while she was preparing dinner for her kids and that is what she did. She took the cooked wings out of her air fryer and poured the leftover marinade over it and served it to her kids. I was so taken aback and said oh you shouldn’t be doing that- it will have raw chicken germs all over it.

She looked at me like I was absolutely mad and said that’s how her mum always did it and the marinating chicken had been covered in the fridge so it was fine. I weakly said I didn’t think it was fine and she just laughed.

It’s not fine is it? I’s not going mad am I? She’s such a better housekeeper and cook than I am that I’m actually beginning to doubt myself! It’s so crazy- I ate at her house hundreds of times at a kid and I am certain her mum wouldn’t have done this. Is this a sliding doors of knowledge moment where she missed something fundamental? She’s like Martha Stewart and this is all completely mad.

As far as I am aware, her kids have never had a bout of food poisoning.

With the right ingredients the marinade could be bactericidal - but I certainly wouldn't risk it. Anything that completely and reliably kills the bacteria probably wouldn't be very pleasant to eat.

That is really dangerous. Salmonella poisoning is a huge risk especially to children.

Oh my god, that’s really bad

I actually feel sick reading this. Terribly, Terribly wrong. Makes you seriously worry eating at other people's houses 😱

Raw chicken is about as dangerous as you can get-
I have a Therapy Dog and they aren’t allowed to be fed raw meat because of the disease transmission risk to vulnerable people.

Cooked “human grade” meat is fine as salmonella is killed off.

God no, absolutely not. I’d pour the marinade onto the chicken to cook, but no way would I pour it on without cooking when it’s had raw chicken sitting in it. You’ve raised it though, maybe she will go away and research and realise it’s a big food poisoning risk. Hopefully, as they could get very sick.

You're in Australia - don't eat her Beef Wellington!

That's a good point actually. If it's all vinegar and sugar, it'd likely kill any germs foolish enough to take it on. Her explanation didn't seem to take germs into account, though, so there was no biochemistry in her thinking.

Approx 22% of food chicken has salmonella, according to this. It seems to be 6% in the UK.

You're dead right op, but I think if she's not open to hearing she might be wrong, bringing it up again could cost you the friendship as she's already dug her heels in, laughed at the suggestion and would lose face to admit she'd risked her kids health all this time.

So I'd only bring it up again if you think she'd be open minded enough to consider she could be wrong without shooting the messenger.

But you weren't wrong, she is!

Send her a link to the information. That's pretty basic common sense.
Although I hate air fryers aswell . Especially for cooking chicken 😆

I'd send her a link:
https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-preparation/poultry/poultry-basting-brining-and-marinating#:~:text=Cover%20poultry%20while%20marinating%20it,Cook%20immediately%20after%20stuffing.

I mean this is very basic stuff. I am married to a retired scientist and we have a separate chopping board for raw meat. We try to make sure raw meat is not even in the same shopping bag as other perishables. I did find an old family recipe which had been published doing the same thing with the marinade so I can only assume some families had cast-iron digestive systems. Just imagine the cross contamination that is probably going on in her kitchen if she thinks this is safe especially in an Australian summer.

No!!!!

Why did she even bother cooking the chicken, if that was ok?

Oh god, that's horrible! I would pour over for the last 5-10 mins of cooking, but anything less is wrong.

I am generally quite casual when it comes to food safety rules, but this has actually caused me to retch. How absolutely disgusting! 🤮

Yes she has got to have cooked the marinade surely?!?!? Otherwise it’s cold bacteria ridden sauce on chicken wings- her kids would have been sick. Bloody hell this is just wrong if she did cook it.

That's really weird! 😧Yes, please tell her it is completely unsafe, otherwise her kids will do the same in the future and it will pass down the generations!

I hate to say it but I don’t think you raising it again will help anything.

She will just be angered and defensive at the criticism, and not believe you. So you’ll have a falling out for nothing.

Just don’t eat there again or let your kids eat there.

By the way, she probably won’t be able to tell the difference between tummy bugs caused by viruses and that caused by food poisoning. Most of the time when people think they’ve had “stomach flu” they’ve actually had meat bacteria food poisoning.

Find a good link to an article or something that explicitly states not mixing raw, uncooked foods in the way she did. Keep it light, telling her this is what you were worried about:

https://www.jpaget.nhs.uk/media/280022/IP-13-Salmonella-llt-v1-web-llt.pdf

She's not going to listen to you. Just don't eat at her house

Do you mean a marinade that she has made, or the natural juice/water in the container?

Maybe she'll believe you if it comes from an Australian source:

https://www.taste.com.au/quick-easy/articles/how-to-marinate/o9kqwhkn#:~:text=Marinades%20used%20for%20raw%20meat,will%20kill%20any%20harmful%20bacteria.

Or

https://www.eatright.org/food/home-food-safety/safe-cooking-and-prep/how-to-marinate-safely

Nooooo. I had campylobacter and I haven't eaten chicken since
Honestly never been so unwell, the sweating was insane and I ended up at hospital

In Australia that is even worse, it is freaking 44 d here today.

Please tell me you didn't eat it?

She's likely made the same assumption I've seen before: that chilling or freezing food will kill bacteria in the same way as heating does. This is wrong, what happens is the bacteria are slowed down in their replication (which at room temperature sees them double in number every 20 minutes) by chilling, or halted by freezing, they are not killed off. As soon as the temperature rises, especially in the ideal environment of a 37.5 degrees Celsius body, as humans have, they "wake up" again and do their thing. Cooking (to at least 60 degrees Celsius) is what kills bacteria. That's the basics of common food poisoning bacteria, other pathogens need even higher temperatures, e.g. BSE is only killed off at something like 350 degrees, or you have to use autoclave methods for things like surgical tools. It's an easy mistake to make, maybe frame it like that so she's not too defensive (which she likely will be, pretty awful thing to have to admit).