Dilemma....would you eat it?

Hi,

  I have a lovely neighbour,he is a 65 year old man who lives on his own with his dog, he has an allotment and reguarly gifts us potatoes and other vegetables which we are very grateful for. He is not the cleanest of people and he enjoys a drink so kind of lets his housework slip. I pride myself on my house and like to keep it clean so I am a bit funny about dirty kitchens and so on. Well,yesterday he brought me round a huge bowl of stew and dumplings,as he knows we are having a tough time,it looks and smells delicious but I am a bit dubious as to whether to eat it or not,his personal hygiene isn't the best but I don't want to throw it away,he has gone to a lot of trouble making this and I hate throwing anything away. My friend told me to put it in a casserole dish and cook it again for about an hour on low she said that way its completely cooked and should be fine. OMG I feel terrible,I really do because he is such a lovely man but its hard to explain,my friend also said tho its no different to eating from a take out we don't know if the people preparing the food are totally clean and she has a major point.

  What would you do? Thanks.x

I would at least try it. But I am very very careful when it comes to eating other peoples food. I inspect every bite! (I get grossed out very easily)

Trouts mom said:

I would at least try it. But I am very very careful when it comes to eating other peoples food. I inspect every bite! (I get grossed out very easily)

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Well,I put it on high heat in the oven for just over and hour,the dumplings went nice and crispy on top and it was really nice. I feel so ungrateful as he was doing a genuinely nice thing and no disrespect to him as some people aren't as clean as others but when it comes to your own health you just have to be a bit selfish sometimes I think.x

I couldn't eat it, no way. I get grossed out very easily, too, like Trouts mom (although she is braver and would have tasted it!).

At least restaurants have some kind of guidelines they are supposed to follow. ANYTHING can go on in a private home. I don't even buy stuff from bake sales, I can't risk it with my immune issues. Glad it turned out okay for you, though.

Yep, I would.... I would just cook it and eat it

Years ago I belonged to a baking forum, and the home-baking community there generally felt that it was okay to put cakes on boards covered with cut-up vinyl shower curtains - plastics which are not meant to be in contact with food, ever and are made cheaply and include toxins like mercury and lead. These women made lots of cakes for kids' birthday parties!

There are strict guidelines that must be followed (and they cost more) for manufacturers of food-safe plastics. Shower curtains, like paint buckets, trash cans, etc. are household plastics and don't have to follow any non-toxic guidelines in their manufacture. They are not meant for food. It was crazy how some of the bakers were so defensive that it was okay. Eat your carcinogens and endocrine-disruptors, kiddies!

In the cake-decorating section a woman posted how she created a character out of fondant but couldn't find the right color glitter dust from her edible collection, so she went into her makeup bag and cleverly found the perfect color in her eye shadow! Many people were disgusted, but others defended her saying makeup is non-toxic and if the eyeshadow was new and unopened (what were the odds?) that it's probably okay. In a larger bakery with more bakers, it would be more difficult to get away with these kinds of "winging-it" health violations.

I will never buy from a baker who bakes in the home, sorry if that offends any home-bakers, but yuck, I read too much on that site.

Well done Ruthy, and I bet you feel better for eating it, nice stew with dumplings couldnt be better in this weather.

Milk maid said:

Well done Ruthy, and I bet you feel better for eating it, nice stew with dumplings couldnt be better in this weather.

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I know,I want to make one myself now,I love dumplings.x

When we were really poor growing up, we ate a lot of things I probably wouldn't jump at today.  But making sure the internal temperature of everything in the pot was something like 150 degrees would likely take care of most problems.

mrblanche said:

When we were really poor growing up, we ate a lot of things I probably wouldn't jump at today.  But making sure the internal temperature of everything in the pot was something like 150 degrees would likely take care of most problems.

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That's just what my friend said,he is a professional caterer and thats why he recommended to cook it for another hour and I really think that added to the flavour,it was delicious.x

1) Most cases of food poisoning have nothing to do with household cleanliness.

2) You're totally kidding yourself if you think restaurants and processed food is sterile. As far as the chemicals from plastic leaching into our food, look up BPA. The FDA is definitely not looking out for us. And don't get me started on FDA approved food dyes.

3) You're totally kidding yourself if you think whatever it is you're doing to clean your house/dishes/produce/body is killing germs in any meaningful way. Also, there's a good chance cleaning chemicals are causing you more harm then good. Just google the ingredients in your shampoo.

Just keep in mind there are certain things that no amount of cleaning will prevent. And just simple, basic, non-OCD cleaning is good enough to prevent most bad stuff. A little BO is meaningless.

Edit: Just realized you're British! You don't have the FDA! I'm sure you have the equivalent there, but I have no idea what it's called. I think BPA is actually outlawed there, also.

aeevr said:

1) Most cases of food poisoning have nothing to do with household cleanliness.

2) You're totally kidding yourself if you think restaurants and processed food is sterile. As far as the chemicals from plastic leaching into our food, look up BPA. The FDA is definitely not looking out for us. And don't get me started on FDA approved food dyes.

3) You're totally kidding yourself if you think whatever it is you're doing to clean your house/dishes/produce/body is killing germs in any meaningful way. Also, there's a good chance cleaning chemicals are causing you more harm then good. Just google the ingredients in your shampoo.

Just keep in mind there are certain things that no amount of cleaning will prevent. And just simple, basic, non-OCD cleaning is good enough to prevent most bad stuff. A little BO is meaningless.

Edit: Just realized you're British! You don't have the FDA! I'm sure you have the equivalent there, but I have no idea what it's called. I think BPA is actually outlawed there, also.

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Thanks for that, I don't know anything about FDA or BPA lol. I definitely know though that you are more likely to get food poisoning from a take out or similar though.x

BPA is a chemical called bisphenol A, that is controversial because it's used to make plastics and things and is an endocrine disruptor, meaning it can mess up your body basically.

I would totally have cooked it and eaten it! I'm glad you did, and I'm glad you enjoyed it! What a sweet thing for him to do. :heart3: (I do understand your concern, though. I'm glad your friend helped you out with the way around it. ).

I would have kindly refused.

I had a similar experience last year.  There was a woman living on my floor that was strange at best.  When she was on her medication she was nice, but when off, she became "stalker-ish".

One day out of the blue last summer just before the building construction started, she showed up at my door to offer me a roast beef dinner that she had made.  I thanked her and told her that I had just cooked a roast the day before and had tons of left overs already.

She wasn't the most kept person I've seen, and I had no idea what the inside of her apartment looked like, or what her cooking hygiene was like. So I didn't want to take the chance.  Plus I didn't want her to think that my accepting was an open invitation to be at my door all of the time.

Our cleaning products are all natural, preservative free and cruelty free. We don't use products or companies which test on animals.

That being said, I keep a clean house. I remember being over at a friend's house when I was little, the place was filthy (as I recall they had 20+ Cats) and didn't clean up anything- the cats were just allowed to go everywhere.

So because of the many times I went over there (though my mom didn't allow it often) , I would end up physically sick. One time it was the smell, another time- tainted mayonnaise. So I don't take risks either.

If it was a roast dinner then I don't think I would have eaten it but a stew is different because you can re-cook it to temperature and the way I cooked it everything if there was anything would have been killed. He's a lovely man his wife died and he lives with his dog,unfortunately his personal hygiene isn't the best but I know that when his wife was alive he was totally different,I suppose he thinks why bother.x