Dilemma....would you eat it?

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)

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.

Edited by SwampWitch - 2/13/12 at 12:17am

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

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.

 

 

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.

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. (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.