What’s your food risk tolerance?

October 31, 2022 by
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Pathogens lurk everywhere: doorknobs, countertops, shopping carts, refrigerator handles, basically every surface you touch contains bacteria, some of it harmful. Your food can harbor nasty bugs too – salmonella, campylobacter, listeria, and E. coli are frequently found in grocery items ranging from salad greens to chicken. As someone who was once hospitalized (at Christmas, no less) for food poisoning, I do not take the issue of contamination lightly. At the same time, I continue to take risks in the kitchen.

A recent article from Food & Wine asking whether people left butter out on the counter or refrigerated it reminded me of this subject. (The US Food & Drug Administration says butter can be safely left out at room temperature although it can become rancid and therefore unpleasant to eat.) Leaving butter out at room temperature is the least of the risks I take with food. I eat raw cookie dough, even though the eggs and the flour both pose a slight risk of being contaminated. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that 1 out of every 20,000 eggs contains salmonella; however, even if you eat an egg with the bacteria, that doesn’t mean you will necessarily become ill. While approximately 1 in 6 Americans will get some type of foodborne illness in a year, the odds of dying from it are less than 1 in 100,000. (To put things into perspective, the yearly odds of dying in an automobile crash in the US are about 1 in 10,000.)

Not only do I eat raw or runny eggs, I do not follow the FDA’s guidelines for safe meat temperatures because chewing on a dry chicken breast is about as much fun as eating sawdust. I pull roast chicken out of the oven several degrees lower than what is recommended. My steak preference is medium-rare. I consume products past their best-by date if they do not contain mold or smell bad. For breakfast, I occasionally eat leftover pizza that has been sitting at room temperature overnight (please do not judge).

My risk tolerance is higher than others because I do not fall into any high-risk health group, plus it is in my nature to be adventurous. I ride a motorcycle, one of the riskiest pastimes you can have. Last week I climbed a 24-foot ladder on a stormy day to rescue a kitten from a tree when none of the neighbors would do it. (The cat is fine and was reunited with his owners.) When I was a child playing Truth or Dare, I always chose Dare.

While I do take some food risks, I am conscientious about kitchen safety, avoiding cross-contamination, making regularly cleaning high-touch surfaces, and throwing things away if they seem sketchy. I have a fire extinguisher handy because I am more concerned about a kitchen fire than I am about getting sick from cookie dough. My goal is to maintain a balance between being safe and enjoying life’s small pleasures, and I am happy with where I land on this spectrum. What is your kitchen risk tolerance?

Category: Antipasto

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13 Comments

  • lean1  on  October 31, 2022

    I love eating cold leftover pizza. But I don’t eat raw eggs, or drink raw milk, or eat raw shellfish. And I try to keep all kitchen counters clean everyday.

  • TeresaRenee  on  November 1, 2022

    The first time I thought about my food-related risk tolerance was about 8 months into my first pregnancy when I realized that I’d been eating those high risk raw eggs at least weekly to satisfy my cookie dough cravings. Oops. Apparently, I am not worried about raw eggs even a little.

    I usually throw food out if it passes its best before date, there is visible mold or its appearance changes. Once a cutting board or utensil has been used for raw meat/fish/poultry, it goes into the wash.

    I made a mistake last week though. I used up the last of some grated Romano cheese in spaghetti carbonara and it just didn’t taste quite right. After dinner, I checked the package and discovered it had expired in August – over 2 months ago. I worried for the next 24 hours but thankfully (luckily?) other than a bad aftertaste, there were no repercussions.

  • Indio32  on  November 1, 2022

    Agreed. Today’s complete obsession with ‘cleanliness’ seen in the numerous adverts on TV for cleaning products ie biocides is in my view the unhealthy part. I think it was Jennifer Patterson (1 half of The Two Fat Ladies) who said she’d never been ill because as a child she’d been exposed to all the pollution in the River Yangtze as she was bathed.

  • cookbookaddict2020  on  November 1, 2022

    meat and fish are the ones where I’m very careful. only clean tongs and plates for burgers once they’re cooked, etc., and err on the side of caution with lunch meat once it’s open. Dairy products will let you know if they’re bad, it’s very obvious, so I don’t pay attention to package dates.

  • sayeater  on  November 1, 2022

    Slight risks:
    Butter on counter (like it’s going to last long enough to go rancid??)
    Next day pizza from box
    Sniff/visual test for past dates (esp unopened dairy items)
    Cut mold off hard cheeses and use rest
    Cut around bad/soft produce spots when possible
    I don’t eat meat or fish and I like my eggs firmer so no issues there

  • TeresaRenee  on  November 1, 2022

    “ she’d never been ill because as a child she’d been exposed to all the pollution in the River Yangtze as she was bathed.”

    Sounds like my mother’s parenting advice: If your toddler is eating dirt in the garden you can stop sterilizing their bottles.

  • EmilyR  on  November 1, 2022

    One of my kids was obsessed with parasites for a long time and we learned roughly 1:7 people has one. The only raw thing I eat is sushi and having visited the Meguro Parasitological Museum that’s still not entirely dissuaded me.

    I think most people are going to have general cautions regarding meat and handling it safely. The bigger risks in my opinion are microwaving plastics, steaming things in bags, storing in plastics, using plastic wrap… I only use glass for food storage and microwaving. I’m far more concerned over that than the occasional butter or eggs left at room temp.

  • averythingcooks  on  November 2, 2022

    My biggest concern (phobia?) is raw poultry…I’m super careful of avoiding cross contamination ie hands, knives, cutting boards when dealing with chicken & turkey. Other than that, I follow many of the same ideas already given such as using my nose re: dairy products. I have developed the habit of testing dairy by adding a bit to warm/hot water before adding it to my casserole and I’ve saved a few meals this way.

  • christineakiyoshi  on  November 4, 2022

    I am vegan so don’t experience many of these risks. We do leave a pot of soup on the stove for several days in the winter and heat it up to boiling each morning. We also leave any leftover dinner on the counter and eat it the next day for breakfast—roasted veggies, Mapo tofu, rice, etc. I hate wasting food and many time cut a moldy spot off a piece of fruit or vegetable and sniff it to see if it seems ok. I have never gotten sick!

  • Frenchfoodie  on  November 4, 2022

    My tolerance is pretty high, even despite food hygiene qualifications that taught me the ‘right’ way. I am really careful on quickly cooling and storing rice and not cross contaminating with raw and cooked poultry and their marinades. But raw eggs, milk, sushi and sashimi ans raw beef in steak tartare are no issue and I like a blue steak too. I did give myself and a friend terrible food poisioning and ruined my gut bacteria for years one time I scraped mould off cheese and served it though.

  • LauraMB  on  November 5, 2022

    The “best by,” “sell by,” and “use by” dates do not indicate when food is no longer safe to eat. Here is a link to the FDA explanation of these terms.

    https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-preparation/food-safety-basics/food-product-dating

    As someone who was raised not to waste, I do not like to see good food discarded. Check it out. 🙂

  • ldyndiuk  on  November 11, 2022

    Thank you, LauraMB, I was just about to say the same thing! “Best by” just means it isn’t guaranteed to be fresh past that date, not that it will suddenly go bad once that date has passed. I actually saw an article recently talking about the idea of getting rid of “best by” dates since they are basically meaningless. Just look at the food, smell it, and use common sense.

    As for risks, I will likely never stop eating raw cookie dough, but I don’t mess around when it comes to meat (though I’m not a big meat eater anyhow.) I eat sushi, not that often, but only from places that I trust. I try not to leave food sitting out for too long but I’ve always felt unsure about when it becomes a risk. Our butter stays out because I like to be able to spread it without ripping the bread apart with it.

  • Rella  on  November 22, 2022

    I don’t eat anything from EWG’s Dirty Dozen (unless it is organic), and eat mostly from their Clean Fifteen. Growing up on a farm, tolerance re animals’ cleanliness made me feel there were a lot animal products I didn’t want to eat – not that they were prepared in an uncleanly fashion. For some reason, I eat bison maybe because it is far removed from a farm animal. My kitchen tolerance is ‘wash thy hands.”

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