Can we talk about food poisoning? (not graphic)

[k10]

I know the main causes of food poisoning are undercooked food (usually meat), cross contamination of foods, and poorly washed produce.

I'm curious, though, about if food is a little old or has gone bad - can you get FP from it if it's fully cooked? Does cooking kill all bacteria that may cause FP?

(I'm not asking because I plan to eat spoiled food - just curious)

[sdfl]

Remember the golden rule y'all: expiration dates are just a suggestion, not an absolute. After all, food has no brain, so it doesn't know if it's spoiled rotten or not. The best way to tell is to use your own judgment. If it stinks, has green spots on it, or your cheese is blue and it was cheddar, then common sense says don't eat it.

As for cooking it, I have no idea if that would make a difference for spoiled food and killing bacteria. Perhaps, but it'd still taste ridiculously awful I'm sure.

[Asil]

I saw a program once where a man ate foods past the use by date for two weeks. He was eating fish that he said smelt awful, chicken that looked grey and various other things. He cooked everything properly and did not get ill. Ill try and find the name of the programme. The only thing im careful of is fish and chicken but ive eaten chicken passed the date aslong as it didnt smell off. Theres also a site you can go on to tell you how long after a best before/use by date a food is good for.

[Asil]

The programme is called the best before challenge if you type in daily mail with the title in google you will find the results of the programme

[staystrongxx]

That sounds like a really interesting program!

[k10]

I'll have to check that out! It confirms what I thought - that cooking to a high enough temperature prevents FP!

I brought this up because sometimes it's obvious that food is bad and you just throw it away - but other times I'm not sure! I guess cooking to a high temperature is a pretty safe bet.

[Asil]

I think aslong as it doesnt look and smell off and you cook it right then you will be fine. The only thing to be really careful of is oysters as they are notorious for noro and reheating rice. When people get food poisoning alot of the time its from rice. If its not cooled correctly and quickly it grows bacteria that arent killed when it is reheated. I think ive had food poisoning once and it was from salmon, me and couple of friends went for tapas and all ate the same things apart from i had a salmon dish and they didnt, i remember it being luke warm but i didnt think and ate it. Within an hour i was violently ill and a further four times after then the day after i had d and awful cramps. I dont think the salmon was off i think it wasnt cooked properly

[EvilCookie]

You most certainly can get sick from cooked food, if it was initially spoiled or stored improperly at any point. The problem is that some fp bacteria produces toxins that are heat-stable and survive cooking. They can then multiply under improper conditions. I think the main two are bacillus cereus (found in rice), and staph. So the main risk foods for that are rice and grains, and ready-to-eat or restaurant food that was handled by someone else (main source of staph infection). Hence i think the risk would be much smaller say, from a chicken dish you cooked at home, than from a takeout sandwich or something. But of course I still wouldn't risk cooking stinky chicken. JMO.