my roast lamb....

[surfmama]

oh i hate a panic. have woken up all worried about the leg of lamb i cooked yesterday now. i only ate the well cooked bits but i am worried they might have sat in the standing juices which were still pink, no point making it dry I thought but then didn't carve it myself and it might have got pink juices on it. help.

It's fine. All will be ok. A bit of pink lamb is not going to harm... Assume the outside was cooked?

And now I really want some lamb, juice and all (and am pregnant)

hello topaz mmmmmm it was lovley wish i could share the outside bits with you. yes they were cooked but then probably left in the juices whch were pink. silly but i was worried about tox plas or parasites or something. was such a treat to have a posh leg too!

i'm sure you are fine if you ate only the thoroughly cooked bits but it isn't correct that you need to only have the outside well cooked- that is to prevent some forms of food poisoning . It does not kill the toxoplasmosis parasite.
Toxoplasmosis can only be destroyed by either freezing the meat for long enough or cooking it to 70- some say 67 (C) (test the centre).

but please don't worry if you ate only the well cooked meat!

me again back on the bleedin lamb, honestly I wonder how they get through pregnancy in places like India and Africa, clearly don't have room for obsessing like me. right, now I need to use up the slightly pink closer to the bone bits of the lamb I cooked on new years day... am going to make a mousakka and cook it really well, lamb will be cooked first in sauce then in oven and it really is okay isn't it.... just seem to have lost my mojo around food at the mo!

Oh good God, how many times have you had food poisoning from a roast dinner in your life? Bet it's none! Fwiw, the most common cause of food poisoning is poor hygiene and soil residue in salads.

If you've ever had toxoplasmosis before you'll be immune. If you've lived with a cat or dog at some point you've almost certainly had it. 3 in 100000 women get it in pregnancy and most of them will pick it up from cat poo not farmed, cooked meat.

Current NHS guidelines are that you can have a solid cut of meat cooked pink - steak / chops / roast / etc - as long as the outside is thoroughly seared as it I'd the outside that harbours the bacteria. It's mince and cut meat that you need to worry about - so no rare burgers!

cooked meat kept in a fridge that is operating to the correct temp will keep for 3-4 days. I wouldn't trust it longer at all. Pregnant women are more susceptible to food poisoning as our immune systems are lowered. I'm sure if you eat it today and don't reheat again it will be fine. For toxoplasmosis purposes as long as its been thoroughly cooked it is safe and sounds like it will be! (NB qualifications= recent food hygiene course)
As for getting through pregnancy in developing nations, sadly they suffer far more pregnancy losses than we do . Toxoplasmosis is far more common outside of Europe and N.America.

happycamel and lotuspalm i'm sorry but you are misinformed. Please see toxoplasmosis thread that is still current. Also pregnant woman are 20 times more likely to get food poisoning than other healthy adults, this is due to our immune systems being lowered. For most of us risks taken won't matter and it is a personal choice we all make, but some pregnant women and their babies are affected every year (some very severely) and everyone deserves to know the facts so they can make their own minds up.

have a look at Tommy's online leaflet on Toxoplasmosis for the full facts.

arr yes. I did only eat the cooked bits so hopefully they didn't touch the not so cooked bits and all is well. anyway going to make mousakka and double cook the leftovers. so much conflicting into isn't there. I was told steak was okay pink too, but won't go there now then! thanks to you all and enjoy your suppers!

Well my source of info is the NHS website www.nhs.uk/conditions/toxoplasmosis/Pages/Introduction.aspx so hardly spurious info

yes that's what I had read recently. and am dreaming of a rare steak...

And mine is the most recent NHS pregnancy book - I'm 27 weeks pregnant, and double checked with midwife!

Food poisoning is easier to get. But you don't tend to get food poisoning from rare meat. It's all about provenance. And I wouldn't eat reheated food unless it was nukes to all hell, and then I probably woulnt eat it because it would be disgusting!

Happycamel it is not true that "If you've lived with a cat or dog at some point you've almost certainly had it. " neither is it true that "most of them will pick it up from cat poo not farmed, cooked meat." You are just as likely- and maybe even more likely to catch it from what you eat. If you google toxoplamosis and mumnset you will be able to read old threads where people who have had cats all their lives, and those who are vets and veterinary nurses say that they tested negative. There are also people who have eaten lots of rare/cured meats also testing negative. It is often just bad luck to catch it, though of course the more often you do something the more likely it is to catch you out- hence the very high rates of toxoplasmosis in pregnant women in France- famous for their love of rare meats.
Lotuspalm your comment relates to food poisoning such as E.Coli, salmonella, and camylobactor . It is true that cooking the outside of whole joints stops those forms of food poisoning. It is NOT true that it stops or kills toxoplasmosis. And toxo is predicted to rise as the trend for free range meat consumption rises in this country.

But French women are tested for
Toxoplasmosis immunity with standard bloods and if they have antibodies then advice is not to worry isn't it?

Maybe they'll start to do the same here?

lotuspalm testing positive is not necessarily bad, in fact it may mean you are immune as it could be antibodies from an old infection (once caught you are immune for life from further infections). If you caught it at least 3 months prior to conceiving then there is no risk to baby or yourself (if you are otherwise healthy). The issue is those women who get toxo for the first time when pregnant or in the 3 months prior to conception- though the rate of transmission from mother to fetus is very, very rare at such an early stage.

I doubt they will start routine screening here, a recent review advised against it because of the amount of positives that would be nothing to worry about and because it is completely preventable by following guidelines.

The gripe I and some of the women on the current toxoplasmosis thread have is that information - particularly on the NHS website- especially the foods to avoid page, but also it seems from midwives is incorrect and some women are inadvertently putting their babies at risk from the devastating effects congenital toxoplamsosis can have. I completely believe in free choice of what you eat and drink but I also believe in clear, consistent information being given so we can make that informed choice.

It is very rare to catch it during pregnancy and it doesn't mean you will pass it onto the baby but the numbers of babies born infected will be under reported as many will have no symptoms at birth and most people who catch toxo are unaware that they have acquired an infection as it is usually symptomless, another gripe is that GPs say if you haven't had flu like symptoms then they won't test- madness when in most it causes no symptoms. All pregnant women who want to be tested should be. I'd like to at least see routine screening for newborns.

The fact is that you can theoretically get food poisoning from anything.

I find it extremely hard to believe that a parasite would survive much more than flash frying when enzymes are denatured at 45 degrees. In addition if it was so easy and prevalent we would all be immune already.

I reckon the NHS advice is there for a reason.

they've tested it under lab conditions. Its a very resistant lilttle bugger. Survives even freezing unless you do it for long enough (either 24 hours or 48- cant remember).And yes survives heat up to 67-70 c. Look at the Toxoplasomosis thread currently up on MN and read Tommy's info leaflet. NHS guidelines under Toxoplasmosis say rare and cured meat and unwashed salads/veg are a risk, yet on foods to avoid it doesn't mention that fact (least not about the meat).