Where are the food safety experts?

seeker

Thu, Jan 19 2017, 7:45 pm

(Maybe we should start an ongoing thread because once in a while food safety posts come up that could be beneficial to keep bumping on the same thread instead of starting a new one and having the old ones get lost in time)

Scenario:
Pot of water was boiled (well and long) but then left sitting for a few days in a warm kitchen, covered with lid that is not tight.
A sealed bag of chicken cutlets was placed in the water to defrost.
Defrosted chicken bag is removed from the sitting water and discovered to have a leak. Water from the previously boiled but then left out pot seeped all over the chicken and sat there for a while.

What are the chances that the sitting water has unsafe germs in it that could have contaminated the chicken to the point that it would be unsafe to cook?

The plan was to eat the chicken cutlets for Shabbos lunch which means they'd be heated over a blech but probably not enough to get it to cooking temperature all the way through (which in the case of cutlets would probably thoroughly dry it out as well.)

MagentaYenta

Thu, Jan 19 2017, 7:59 pm

seeker wrote:

The water was room temperature, it was there for a couple of hours just to defrost. I had it in a sealed ziploc freezer bag which I was expecting would hold up Sad

Toss it in the bin, meat should be defrosted in cold water.

seeker

Thu, Jan 19 2017, 9:02 pm

That's comforting. Though it keeps saying "pure water" and I'm not sure how pure the water has to be. Is Norwegian water (as per the article) purer than New York water? I'm sure our water has all kinds of minerals in it.

I'm not so worried about the warm defrost because I've done that before to get it done quickly. As irrational as it is, despite the known contradictory safety data, one tends to be less suspicious of one's own habitual actions. Yes, I'm irrational. It's not like I left it out all day (though I possibly should have put it back in the fridge sooner than I did.)

It's really the week-old standing water that seemed gross to me. I was so sure it wouldn't get into the bag. Learned my lesson but now...

sequoia

Thu, Jan 19 2017, 9:11 pm

jewish613 wrote:

Not sure if this is reliable, but seems to say the water should be ok to drink/eat: http://sciencenordic.com/can-water-spoil

I'm sure our water is much worse than theirs.

greenfire

Thu, Jan 19 2017, 9:21 pm

a week doesn't seem long for water ... however in general it is possible for water to get moldy - then again the sink water is chlorinated + you boiled it & had it covered

upstate new york it could be problematic ~ tried saving well water once or as I call it "frog" water