Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to expect my cleaner not to throw out mine and DCs supper for this evening?

94 replies

Babbity · 20/03/2009 18:18

Mumsnet lentil soup was cooling in a lidded pan in our (very cool) utility room when I left for work this morning. Came back this evening - no soup to be seen. Not in fridge/freezer/anywhere in kitchen. Pan cleaned and hanging up. Has she really thrown it out?? I am furious.

OP posts:
BigGitDad · 20/03/2009 20:53

Next time send some over I'd like to try it. Can you send the link for the recipe?

AitchTwoOh · 20/03/2009 20:54

i would totally and completely eat vegetarian food at room temp, and to my knowledge i've never had food poisoning. i mean, i know a lot of people talk about food poisoning... but i don't think i've actually had it in my life. it just doesn't seem as common as you'd think, given the dangers supposedly lurking on every work surface.

Original poster
Babbity · 20/03/2009 20:57

recipe (like the one I loved as a child, but with extra cumin, Mmmmm)

OP posts:
LoveMyGirls · 20/03/2009 20:58

it's ok to leave food out if its dry it's moist and warm that causes the trouble apparently

Kathyis6incheshigh · 20/03/2009 21:01

If it's lentil soup it'll have just been boiled so there won't be a lot of bacteria on it to start with. At the lowish temp in the utility room any bacteria that do get into it will multiply very slowly. Then you can kill them again when you cook it.

I'm all for caterers and restaurants being ultra-cautious, but I really truly wouldn't worry in this instance

AitchTwoOh · 20/03/2009 21:03

yes, but as someoen who generally has soup on the go and rarely gets the chance to refrigerate it, all i'm saying is that i really don't think i'm poisoning us all. seriously, why aren't we all getting food poisoning all the time?

Kathyis6incheshigh · 20/03/2009 21:08

Joanna Blythman (in Bad Food Britain) thinks a lot of food hygiene advice has more to do with superstition than science (eg small food manufacturers who had been using wooden implements or packaging were made to change to plastic even though there was no actual evidence it was safer). She thinks the attitude to food risks which children are encouraged to develop ends up frightening them off cooking and increasing their reliance on processed foods.
Just thought I'd throw that in there.

ingles2 · 20/03/2009 21:10

YANBU Babbity... I would be peed off!
My lovely homemade dinner gorrrn!
And to throw a whole panful away! What a waste!

BigGitDad · 20/03/2009 21:12

Thanks Babbity, I'm on a weightwatchers diet and that looks pretty good to eat as well as being easy to make. (low in points too!)

Original poster
Babbity · 20/03/2009 21:12

I know ingles2 I'm such a skinflint that I nearly cried.

OP posts:
JazzHands · 20/03/2009 21:17

I always make enough food for an army and leave it in the pan and reheat. Stuff like curries, bolognaise etc.

Never ever had food poisoning.

Got the habit from my mum who has also never had food poisoning (from that anyway - shellfish don't agree with her but she has to keep going back...).

She is a doc incidentally and while reheating the food always gave me lecture no. 46 which is lengthy and relates to how bacteria get on food in the first place, how they multiply, what you can do to kill them off and what myths abound to do with food. The lecture lasts approx 6 hours

My dads credo is if no-ones getting ill then obviously it's fine.

Which is all tangential to the food-chucking cleaner. I would be miffed if I'd gone to all that effort just to have someone throw it away...

AitchTwoOh · 20/03/2009 21:17

i admit i'm a bit like that with mussels, kathy, i know it's counter-intuitive but i like a nice man in a restaurant to cook them for me cos i'm convinced i will Kill Us All.

LilianGish · 20/03/2009 21:31

Maybe she ate it!

JazzHands · 20/03/2009 21:51

lillian

blossomsmine · 20/03/2009 21:51

oneplusone, you have really annoyed me actually, regarding your comment about a cleaner not being the brightest spark because she wouldn't be a cleaner if she was!!!!! What a narrow minded, stupid comment!!!
I work as a cleaner and i take it very seriously, i also, until recently, ran another business from home and took care of all my bookwork, sales, marketing and pr. Before i was a cleaner i had several other jobs which may have been more high powered but the cleaning fits around my other commitments at the moment.

Regarding the throwing away of the soup, i possibly may have thrown it away aswell

MollieO · 20/03/2009 23:28

YABCU. I would have left a note rather than relying on my cleaner's psychic powers!

Quattrocento · 20/03/2009 23:33

It sounds as though you are not totally happy with your cleaner - suggest you find one that you are happy with ...

BexieID · 20/03/2009 23:39

If I was the cleaner I think I would have just left the soup with a note on it saying: I didn't ditch this in case you still wanted it.

I wonder if she thought you'd made her lunch .

HecatesTwopenceworth · 21/03/2009 07:09

what does YABCU mean?

Original poster
Babbity · 21/03/2009 07:18

Hecate I think I was being "completely" unreasonable.

I shall be post-it-ing next time.

Quattrocento I am not totally happy but I have impractically high standards, and we live in a tiny village so the cleaner has to have a car etc. It's proven quite difficult to find someone that will come to us. The last cleaner left because she developed a phobia of spiders (old house; lots of spiders). Couldn't get a cleaner the usual routes so we use an agency. At the moment I'm fairly happy; it seems as though if I leave very detailed instructions and think ahead with resgard to post it notes etc then I'm happy enough to carry on with her. It's quite hard to remember all of this when I'm rushing out in the morning though.

OP posts:
HecatesTwopenceworth · 21/03/2009 07:20

ah, thanks. I couldn't think of a 'c' word. oh dear. Well, in my defence, it is early in the morning!

StealthPolarBear · 21/03/2009 07:39

Does everyone on MN really stick hot stuff straight in the fridge? I thought that caused problems with the fridge heating up?

StealthPolarBear · 21/03/2009 07:40

If I made soup in the morning I would definitely leave it all day on the stove and then reheat it at night - cold utility room even better

talbot · 21/03/2009 07:48

What would be the rationale behind throwing it out? Why would someone leave a full pan of something with a lid on it in a utility room if they wanted it to be chucked out?

Janos · 21/03/2009 09:21

What a load of daft middle class angst about nothing of any importance. The cleaner threw out the soup - heaven forfend!!!!