Food poisoning

[Hungry]

Food Posoning

It appears that I clipped the wrong paragraph for this post.

For as long as I can remember keeping food prepared with mayonnaise out of refrigeration was a NO! NO!.
The information I wanted to pass was that mayonnaise is not the threat that I have thought all my life which I believe is the same feeling that a lot of others have.

I thought posting the whole article would be quite lengthy for this forum.
I said in my post, “You can read the complete article” and gave the link to SNOPES.

 

[mbasiszta]

It appears that I clipped the wrong paragraph for this post.

For as long as I can remember keeping food prepared with mayonnaise out of refrigeration was a NO! NO!.
The information I wanted to pass was that mayonnaise is not the threat that I have thought all my life which I believe is the same feeling that a lot of others have.

I thought posting the whole article would be quite lengthy for this forum.
I said in my post, “You can read the complete article” and gave the link to SNOPES.

Thanks. I too was always wary of anything with old mayo. I was taught that long ago. I am still a sceptic.

 

[kitchenelf]

Hungry - I think the problem is what you say - you posted a snippit with the onion as the "subject" so to speak. By making the onion the subject, and then going to the article and reading it, the article does contradict the implication of your onion - saying it is "undetermined."

Admin Reminder: Remember, you can't cut and paste the whole article from Snopes - a link is ok though.

If you had snipped a small portion stating the mayo was NOT the culprit, but, possibly something else in the dish - the whole thing would have read differently, that's for sure.

Even tomatoes go bad before mayo - anyone ever been sick off of tomatoes that have been out in the sun too long? A friend of mine will tell you it's pretty horrible!

We're sorry to fill your inbox (you can change that to 1 daily reminder if you wish) but, when someone posts something that doesn't quite ring true it's only human nature (especially on a cooking site) to not let what we perceive as misinformation stay out there.

Also, what does Mullins Food Products have to do with this and why are we googling it?

 

[mozart]

Thanks. I too was always wary of anything with old mayo. I was taught that long ago. I am still a sceptic.

A few points:

Health departments do not "look at onions first". They don't look at any food first. They develop what is called an "attack rate" chart, where the names of all served foods are lined up across the top and all the names of the sick are lined up along the left side. Each food a sick person ate is then checked off. The food with the most checks becomes the suspect food. Sometimes it is obvious as one food will have many more check marks. Sometimes it is not, as in some cases, almost everyone ate almost everything (for example a fish fry)

Step two is to get samples of all food if available as well as stool samples from as many of the sick as possible. Then both the food and the stools are tested for for the suspected bacteria (based on the symptoms and period of onset). This often resolves the case. Sometimes when nothing is available, it just becomes a best guess.

Commercial Mayo is relatively safe, and in fact the health dept doesn't even require it to be refrigerated on a sandwich bar in a restaurant. The reason, as has been pointed out is the PH. Once you add potatoes and other items you raise the PH of the entire product and this allows bacterial growth. It is a misconception to think that the bacteria grows only on the potato in this case. Bacteria like protein and mayo whose PH has been raised is a good source.

Finally, food poisoning is caused by pathogenic organisms given the proper temperature and time for growth. Some foods, particularly those that are most likely to be improperly handled, may be implicated in a larger percentage of food poisonings, however, almost any food with the right PH and a high enough water activity can be a host for growth.

 

[mbasiszta]

Yikes! That is a lot of information that really scares me.

 

[Hungry]

Mayo

Hungry - I think the problem is what you say - you posted a snippit with the onion as the "subject" so to speak. By making the onion the subject, and then going to the article and reading it, the article does contradict the implication of your onion - saying it is "undetermined."

Admin Reminder: Remember, you can't cut and paste the whole article from Snopes - a link is ok though.

If you had snipped a small portion stating the mayo was NOT the culprit, but, possibly something else in the dish - the whole thing would have read differently, that's for sure.

Even tomatoes go bad before mayo - anyone ever been sick off of tomatoes that have been out in the sun too long? A friend of mine will tell you it's pretty horrible!

We're sorry to fill your inbox (you can change that to 1 daily reminder if you wish) but, when someone posts something that doesn't quite ring true it's only human nature (especially on a cooking site) to not let what we perceive as misinformation stay out there.

Also, what does Mullins Food Products have to do with this and why are we googling it?

I explained that I did clip the wrong paragraph to make my point.
The link to Snopes was so every one could read the whole story and make their own decision.

Ed Mullins is a chemist in the Mullins Food Products. The Google to the Mullins Products was to show the magnitude of the company and hence support the information in the article.

Besides the tomatoes there are the potato "eyes" and the potatoes that the skin has turned green from laying in the sum. Both are said to be poisonous.
If a person was so inclined he could probably find dozens of like instances.

 

[jennyema]

Potatoes don't turn green from lying in the sun. They turn green from any light at all. Just pulling them out of the ground starts the process.

You are right that they can be toxic.

They produce chemicals called solanine and chaconine which are related to strychnine and can make you sick.

Always peel older potatoes to remove all the green.

 

[mbasiszta]

Hey guys, but I love potatoes. I scrub mine, soak them for a while and then scrub them with a vegetable brush again. Then I slather them with butter and bake them whole at 350 degrees for 80 or 90 minutes to get a nice, thick, crispy skin. I spray them twice with spray oil. I hope I am safe with all of that?