All of this reminded me of this George Carlin routine.
http ://video.aol.com/video-detail/george-carlin-germs/2216695173
Link disabled because it probably goes without saying NSFW.
I always figured living this way would kill ya, it took ol’ George at the tender age of 71.
You’re pulling hot babes at the supermarket! Dammit, man, how do you do it?
I have a friend who routinely defrosts skinless, boneless, chicken breasts by putting them in a sink of hot water.
He’s going to kill his whole family some day.
That mushroom thing is pretty gross, considering that I package non-food items for a living and we’re not allowed to eat anything at our desks for fear of contaminating the parts. It’s never been specifically mentioned, but I’m pretty sure flossing would be right out. Of course, we have a real bathroom, too, for anyone who feels the need to floss.
Aren’t mushrooms grown in, well, to put it bluntly, shit anyway? That’s why I’ve always washed them thoroughly.
I wonder if we’re too paranoid sometimes, though. I bought green beans at SuperTarget last week. Their bin of beans had a little set of black plastic tongs in it. I usually shop at Cub Foods, and I’ve never seen any tongs in their bin. I’ve always picked up the green beans in my hand and put them in the plastic baggie. Well, maybe running my fingers through everyone’s green beans is a bit unsanitary, so I tried to be good and use Target’s tongs. However, it was so slow and such a pain that I later gave up and scooped beans into my baggie with my hands as normal. I was just going to take these beans home and wash them–and so was everyone else. What’s with the freaking tongs? So, that is why you should wash produce–because Tamex is not going to use the stupid tongs.
I bartend, and I’ve worked with/witnessed bartenders who routinely scoop ice for drinks in the same glass they’re going to serve it in. Saves them time or something? I’ve never gotten a rational explanation.
And while I’ve never done this–I was trained to use the tin or the ice-scoop and that’s my ingrained habit–I am the one who has gotten glass in her drink on more than one occasion at various bars. “Hmmm…this sliver of ice seems kinda hard…wait…wtf??”
Little chunk of glass. I’m just lucky I noticed it in my mouth before I swallowed it.
I don’t understand bartenders who scoop with the glass, because these are the same people who will burn the entire ice well (as they should) if a glass breaks anywhere near it.
Why bother, if you’re going to contaminate it anyway the moment you fill it back up with fresh ice?
My food safety horror story is… I live in Bangkok.
I´ll try to get and post a picture of some of the thousands of street food markets around here. Not even Rambo would eat some in some of them.
On the other hand I miss the Pad Thai a lady prepared on a street food stall close to my old apartment, even though I could see cockroaches scurrying around and the occasional rat or two.
Talking of roaches, you´ll find them either crawling around the food stalls or crispy fried for sale in others, together with crickets, worms and Og knows what other creepy crawlies.
You´ll see meat being dried up by the side of the road, chickens hanging from the neck in the heat all day long, dishes being washed by the gutters, etc, etc.
Googling around I found a page that will give you an idea of what I´m talking about.
I buy food at those street stands often, and never got sick from it as long as I remember.
You guys are paranoid. This is the best you can come up with? An apple dropped on the floor is a tale of food safety horror? You all realize that produce comes from (gasp!) outdoors, right? There are, like, bugs and dirt outdoors! Bugs that poop! How have we ever made this far as a species? Glass in your food is very bad, yes, but most of this other stuff is not exactly a big deal. Except for the McDonalds spit thing. Ugh. Even that probably isn’t all that dangerous, just icky.
Ewwww…that means there was way more bacteria than sauce, right?
Ordinary mushrooms are usually grown in composted straw - which may or may not have originally included shit, but in most cases, the compost is sterilised or pasteurised - chiefly in order to diminish competition from organisms other than the one being cultured.
I don’t wash them. I don’t generally wash produce, unless it’s dirty and/or I’m going to be eating it raw.
Jakarta here. And before that Egypt. And before that Mozambique.
It takes a lot to gross me out.
Unless something has already spoiled, I don’t worry about it much. But we are circumspect about what we eat raw.
Heat is your friend.
We’re not talking about your family-sized slab o’beef here – we;re talking about major chunks of animal – the kind Rocky used to use as a sparring partner. Leaving that much meat out to slowly thaw at room temperature gives me the heebie-jeebies.
Huh? I do this if we decide we want some stir fry or curry or whatever and haven’t put anything in the fridge to defrost that morning.
Frozen chicken, into a pot of hot water for 20 mins or so until it’s thawed, then cook it. So what? It’s not going to turn into toxic waste in that short a period of time. Heck, game birds are hung unrefrigerated for several days before being cooked.
Or is your friend leaving it in there all day? Thats probably a bit risky, as well as being unnecessary.
You won’t generally find any coprophilic mushrooms at the grocers. As Mangetout says, mushrooms are usually grown on sterile media – for both enoki and shitake, jars of rice bran and sawdust are sterilized and after they cool a spore solution is introduced through lids. The lids are only removed after the mycelium has colonized the entire jar – otherwise you’re gonna have a jar full of nasty mold.
tdn has “it”.
Ignorance fought.
Yeah, I gotta agree with Slappy there. If the chicken sits in the hot water sink for an abnormal amount of time or sits around on the counter for 45 minutes or more after thawing then it “could” be dangerous, otherwise if the meat is cooked right away then there wouldn’t have been enough time to get a nice deadly colony of bacteria going.
Now if the meat is going to sit around for long enough to be risky then I would have to wonder why it wasn’t thawed in the fridge or at room temperature, but if it is for immediate cooking and consumption then I don’t see what harm a fast thaw with hot water can hurt.
Bacteria do need time to grow, the deadly stuff doesn’t pop up instantly.
Same here. Some of the best foods I have ever eaten have come from street vendors in Mexico, Jamaica, and Barbados (never been to Bangkok … yet). No refrigeration, flies everywhere, yet the food is wonderful. These places would make a food inspector blanche with horror here.
I worked with somebody that grew shiitakei and and other mushrooms. He lad stacks of oak logs that were impregnated with the spores. He gets years of production out of them. He doesn’t grow a single species in dung.
Huh. I think the only danger there would be if he used that same water to rinse his clean dishes with.
You don’t defrost in hot or even warm water because it actually begins to cook the meat, which will render it tough and dry.
I don’t think there’s a safety issue there, presumably he cooks the chicken to well done after defrosting anyway.
Doesn’t it also put the chicken in the “danger zone” temperature (40-140 degrees F) for too long? That’s the temperature that causes bacteria to grow and multiply best. That’s why thawing in the fridge is safest–warm enough to thaw, but out of the danger zone.