Aaah! Bad salsa?!?!

[mess_of_a_dreamer]

So this morning my dad made himself a burrito before he left for work (refried beans, tortilla, salsa) and when I came back from school I made one for myself and being me I smelled the beans and salsa over and over before I made it and they smelled fine. So I made it, and ate it and it tasted fine.

Then my dad comes home just now (like 4 hours after I've eaten this) and he says "what did you eat for lunch?" and I said "a burrito..." (this is what he told me to eat this morning) and then he's like "you did?! didn't you get my text? I told you the salsa was bad!" and I hadn't, because my phone plan had run out and I had to wait for him to get home so that I could renew it with his card and meanwhile the service is shut off. He never thinks ANYTHING goes bad, he'll drink old milk and just pull mold off of food and eat it anyway. I'm so scared!! I took every precaution and then this!! Freaking out!!!

Even if it wasn't bad, that means my dad is sick or something if he actually thought it smelled/tasted sour! (((((

[Grace47]

I think I would ask him to explain what bad means. does it mean it was past it used by date? or does it mean the bottle didn't pop when he opened it? If he thought it was bad, why didn't he just throw it away? Maybe it just tasted bad to him.

[mess_of_a_dreamer]

He said it tasted "sour" and that he thinks it went bad. It's not a jar, it's like one of those fresh ones that has bits of the actual vegetables and comes in a plastic container. It was almost gone so I assume he's had it awhile. He didn't taste it today until he'd gone to work so he wasn't here to throw it. I didn't see any mold...I swear I smelled it like 3 times and it smelled fine! And when I tasted it it tasted good...but what if I can't even tell the difference? My stomach is hurting and my heart is racing. How long would you say something like this would take to make you sick if it was bad? I ate like 2-3 spoonfulls.

[Grace47]

Probably pretty quickly. However, in this case, I think the seasoning has gotten stronger over time and he doesn't care for that flavor. A lot of salsa is made with lime and maybe he doesn't like lime.

[mess_of_a_dreamer]

But I haven't eaten any of this particular one before, meaning he must've eaten the rest of the whole container (which is quite a bit)...plus idk, where he grew up they are like SUPER finely attuned to the exact smell/taste of spoiled things. And he's been eating nonstop so it doesn't seem like he feels sick? Gah! Are there things that make people think food tastes weird other than sv*s or the food actually being bad? Like I know for me before my period that happens, but he's a guy soooo...I'm scared to go smell it again because if it doe smell sour to me now I'll freak out even more :/

[staystrongxx]

I wouldn't recommend smelling it again. Now that you are panicked, it will smell bad to you. Try to relax. I know it's hard. Check the expiration date and if it's fine, it should be fine. If your Dad is eating, he most likely doesn't feel sick. Take deep breaths hun x

[mess_of_a_dreamer]

Thanks I didn't want to look for an expiry date haha...cause usually those either mean if it's unopened or a sell by date or something. Plus if it had passed I'd freak out. The vast majority of food at my dad's is expired -_- (but like, he'll freeze it...sometimes). I don't even like to eat his tortillas if they're getting near the sell by date.

Does anyone know how long it would take for me to know for sure this isn't going to be a problem? The internet says it usually takes about 24 hours before you can be sure which is terrifying cause I have to be somewhere important tomorrow morning. As of now it's been nearly 12 hours...it's just a lot scarier to think of dealing with this in the night/in public.

My feelings are probably exacerbated by remembering quite a few years ago when my dad got really bad diarrhea from eating what he said was bread that was a couple weeks old (he got sick maybe 8 or 9 hours after eating, I think). Since then I refuse to eat bread if it's more than a week old.

[mamacat]

Food poisoning tends to happen pretty fast, in my (limited) experience, so I think you'd be feeling something by now if it were truly bad salsa. Is it possible your dad has sinus problems or a cold right now? That can definitely mess with your sense of smell and even your sense of taste!

As far as bread goes--if you keep it in the refrigerator, it will keep safely for a couple of weeks. It will be stale, but if you're just using it for toast or planning to toast it for a sandwich, it won't matter anyway. Just FYI

[mess_of_a_dreamer]

Okay I finally got up the courage to look on the container and it says "best by 10/20/13". that's obviously past but I suppose that doesn't mean it was bad but just not as good? So that's why it tasted weird to my dad? Idk, nothing happened.

But now I have a new problem. My dad cooked a butternut squash before he left today and I just came home and looked in it to see all these little white spots--they don't look furry like mold but I don't know...I'm so hungry and I really want to eat it but I want to avoid any possible illness obviously... what is this, does anyone know?
I don't know how it would be moldy on the inside after it's cooked...

[jparsons93]

If he cooked it with butter or oil it could be the hardened oils. Ask him how he cooked it.

[mess_of_a_dreamer]

Ok well I asked him about it and he said it's not uncommon for organic squash to get like this and it's some sort of resin and it's perfectly fine. So I ate it lol. Idk, it was delicious...hopefully not bad! And yeah no butter/oil just half a squash in some water.