You'll probably be fine why not? I too have eaten lots of things like you describe. If you have a healthy gut you can eat stuff that would surprise most and be just fine.

 

I went on a school trip oversees. One guy was religious about using and sanitizer every hour in the states and on the trip. I always take my chances - except when the TP breaks. Then I wash good.

Anyway. Guess who went to the E.R.

A month later I was eating at a place with .. .. let's say a lot of local color. When we saw a rat run across the floor, the others pushed their plates away and stopped eating.

I finished my meal. I already ate enough to get sick and figured I would at least die with a full stomach. (BTW: I lived)

 

food is to rotten to eat once the maggots have eaten it all. if i am hungry i WILL eat it. I have eaten 3 day old fast food burgers out of my hot florida car before..........i ahve never had food poisoning.

 

I have caught endless crap from people for this, but.......

Me, wife and both kids have eaten stuff from the fridge that is at least a week or two old. I have a thing about throwing away leftovers.

We always leave leftovers in the skillet (covered) overnight. Sometimes for a couple of days. A little water added (food dries out some when you leave it out), and someone will eventually eat it.

We have eaten KFC that has set out for three days.

I make salmon and beef jerky. It sets in the fridge sometimes for several months before being eaten. The fridge will finish drying jerky.

I make a HUGE pot of beans with pork or bacon (around 3 gallons):
Day one.... We eat bean soup.
Day two.... We eat some for lunch (Been setting out overnight.
Day three.. Goes in the fridge after day two.
Days four through seven. Sets in fridge usually uncovered.
Day eight.. Onions, and dinty moore canned beef stew added, eaten for dinner that night.
Day nine... After setting out all night once again, placed back in fridge.
Day ten.... Rice added (both white and wild) water/boullion added. Eaten for lunch.
Day 11..... Sets out overnight again, starts to smell slightly fermented. Eaten for lunch. By this time, there's perhaps less than a quart left. It gets put in the fridge in a tupperware container and used as a starter for the next pot of beans perhaps two months down the road.

We have NEVER been sick from this.... any of it. However, using a couple cups of slightly fermented beans to start the next pot DRAMATICALLY cuts the "fartage" of beans because the complex amino acids are broken down before you eat them better than beano. Also, better to let beans set out overnight after cooking and before eating. This helps too.
I do split pea soup this way also.
Adding a teaspoon of white vinegar or a tablespoon or two of worcestershire sause works as well.

 

I have caught endless crap from people for this, but.......
I make a HUGE pot of beans with pork or bacon (around 3 gallons):
Day one.... We eat bean soup.
Day two.... We eat some for lunch (Been setting out overnight.
Day three.. Goes in the fridge after day two.
Days four through seven. Sets in fridge usually uncovered.
Day eight.. Onions, and dinty moore canned beef stew added, eaten for dinner that night.
Day nine... After setting out all night once again, placed back in fridge.
Day ten.... Rice added (both white and wild) water/boullion added. Eaten for lunch.
Day 11..... Sets out overnight again, starts to smell slightly fermented. Eaten for lunch. By this time, there's perhaps less than a quart left. It gets put in the fridge in a tupperware container and used as a starter for the next pot of beans perhaps two months down the road.

Same here, you must be my long lost twin!!!LOL Beans never go bad!

 

@9113115

i can relate....LOL. i was with a friend from europe and several americans eating lunch when a giant roach walked across the table. my friend just calmly took an empty water glass and placed it over the roach trapping it alive and we just kept eating lunch with the roach watching us eat from inside the glass. i thought my american friends were going to vomit! i have to admit i was even a bit taken back when i ordered because the cook looked like he had run his finger thru the meat slicer and had bloody bandages wrapped around his hand.......but the lamb was excellent!

 

If the food is fermenting because it has juices in it then it's only helping to preserve itself by upping the alcohol content. I would eat it as long as the taste isn't offensive.

If it's a bread and it has some mold, I'll tear the mold off and eat it no question.

If it's a piece of meat and it has mold, I wouldn't eat it unless it was cooked to a piece of charcoal.

If it's a leftover container of beans in the fridge and it's covered in a half inch layer of white mold, I think I might pass too...

There's some mold that's normal to get on food, there's some that means it's past it's date.

 

If the food is fermenting because it has juices in it then it's only helping to preserve itself by upping the alcohol content. I would eat it as long as the taste isn't offensive.

Fermented foods are preserved because fermentation raises the acidity of the food. It takes a high level of alcohol to preserve food, and that can't be achieved by simple fermentation.

 

I leave out cooked meat out routinely. It's only covered so flies can't get to it and get down to business. After about day six I have a nice slim jim that was formerly a hot dog. Never had the runs.

In fact, in Afghanistan I never got runs or parasites from the local food. Then I ate at the official dining facility on a FOB. I had the drips for 2 days afterward. This is after I don't know how many pieces of goat in a pot, picked through by many fingers, washed down by tea made from wadi water, sweetened by sugar cane that was sometimes nibbled on by goats as it dried. Go figure.

 

All this is good when your young , your immune system is strong and built up very healthy ,to be commended for your culture.
I find that as I get older ,and this may not happen to every one ,but life can get a bit more sensitive as one ages .
Vinigar ,white or cider ,is the most common preservitive in the world ,going back before the time of Christ .
I am told old timers carried vinigar with them in their travels ,just to be safe ,eating questionable foods . It's a little late AFTER you get bochelism ,to take it, but a good start if you've evacuated your stomich first .
I would certainly encourage young people to develop their tollerances to deal with questionable food ,in the event it becomes scarce , all that hits the garbage bin in the back of the stores is rotten . Often it is just not pretty.
The danger is ,those that see you eating things that they don't have the immunity to stand up to, can hurt them ,especially during the hardest of times ,and having medicines or remidies to turn to are running thin.

 

You can build a strong stomach to help with rough eating, but if the food is actually diseased then noone should be eating it. There's a difference between eating food that would turn the stomach and food that is actually infested. Don't eat mold on foods like meat, rice etc... It needs to be thoroughly cooked before eating and then either refrigerated or cooked to where there's no moisture left(essentially jerked). In the case of rice, even cooking may not help with the problems that mold can cause.

If TSHTF, I won't be the one risking both my and my families lives with eating food that is spoiled that breaks my basic rules of safety. Perishable food should be the first eaten or preserved. I would even be suspicious with leaving pizza out for more than a day, such things are a recipe for disaster, it doesn't matter how 'strong' a stomach is.

 

I'm probably one of the few of any on this forum that has actually ate raw meat.
The meat was beef, and clean. Otherwise I wouldn't eat it. Pork, and fish scare me with the worms. I'm kinda iffy on chicken even.

When I was a health nut I learned about how cooking meat destroys the enzymes needed to properly digest it. There were a few weight lifters that swore by it. So I too started eating it raw. First starting off small, then eating bigger portions.
I did this for a few months, and the taste of meat started to become addictive. It's a very weird thing to experience.
Anyhow, I felt great when I did it, and after being begged by my mom to stop, I did. And that was years ago, and I never got sick, not got any worms or anything negative from it.

 

I guess I can come out now.... I too, am a raw meat eater as are my daughters. My wife will "taste" it but not eat it per-se. Whenever I take out a large amount of beef to cook or BBQ, I fix a bowl and put garlic salt, onion powder and pepper. Give a slice of meat a light coating and let it set for half an hour then enjoy. My oldest daughter can and will literally eat a raw steak as long as it's warm, so could I. My youngest daughter will eat it "blue" (Very rare, but has been cooked a little. My wife prefers them medium rare.

When I make meatloaf, the raw mix is in danger of being picked at until non existant by my older daughter. My younger one will eat it too, but usually just a bite or two.
Other stuff we eat raw besides beef:
Fish (warm or cold)
Sausage (room temperature)
bacon (warmed in the sun)
lamb (warm)

I agree, raw meat is addicting.
What we DON't eat raw:
Other than bacon/sausage, Pork. Non of us like the smell of it raw.
Poultry (Same reason).

Great recipe and simple for you raw meat eaters out there:
Good CLEAN hamburger 97+% lean and at room temperature.
finely chopped raw onion, salt, pepper, finely chopped cilantro.
Mix together, spread on club crackers and eat!

YUM! :

 

I don't know where to draw the line between safe and unsafe. But after having food poisoning a few times, I tend to err on the side of caution.

But many of today's recipes got their start as a way to hide the taste of spoiled meat. For example, German saurbratten.

 

I don't know where to draw the line between safe and unsafe. But after having food poisoning a few times, I tend to err on the side of caution.

This is me too. I'm the guy with all the chronic stomach troubles. I've had food poisoning a couple times and I'm not fond of it. My motto is "When in doubt, throw it out". I'd rather throw away $5 worth of questionable food rather than gamble that $5 on whether or not it will make someone sick.

Left overs get put it the fridge immediately in a covered dish. If it is still there 5 days later it goes in the trash.

I do eat sushi though. Go figure....

 

Anyone ever use to hangout with Gutterpunks as a teenager?

I eat raw minced lamb/beef a couple times a month. It is my favorite food by far. Been doing so since I was five years of age. No one in my family has ever got sick from it (Kibbeh). It really comes down to how you handle the meat. I'm still alive LOL!

The only time I had food poisoning was after eating at some Asian restaurant.
Anykind of restaurant creeps me out really.

 

I agree it probably helps your digestive system be able to handle things better when you eat a variety of foods and some with bacterial growth, and not always the good kind. However, in a SHTF situation a bad case of food poisoning could be a real problem. I think there is a line between not throwing out perfectly good food vs throwing caution to the wind and eating anything that isn't crawling with maggots. Just keep in mind that many times when people get food poisoning the meal they ate looked, smelled and tasted fine so you can't always go by your eyes or nose to determine if food is safe to eat.
I am super cautious about food and will only eat leftovers 2 days, then it gets pitched. If it was the only food I had I might take my chances a few more days but if given the option as I am now, it's getting trashed. Taking a class in microbiology really changed my point of view concerning leftovers.

 

I think knowedge is your friend on this. I have eaten all sorts of raw meat, and rare pork (from good sources). I have seen people eat maggots. I guess the maggots themselves are clean. I have also seen fast food that was dessicated, and probably would be safe to eat because of the high amounts of sugar, salt, and preservatives. Often, the healthiest foods decay the worst. Spinach is lousy after 48 hours! Sure, you can cook it and eat it, but it's vitamins are depleted. The same is true for many fruits. Whole grain flours are potentially lethal if moldy, altough some can be tolerated, it is often hard to tell just how much contamination there is. Of course, some foods decay so badly that the toxins produced by their decomposition actually make them safe to eat! One example is the ammoniated goats heads that they eat in Iceland. Shark cheese is another example. Ammonia is toxic, however, the residual ammonia being ingested is not nearly as toxic as the free ammonia vapors that kill bacteria, and can be absorbed through skin and lungs, so it is actually relatively safe to eat, just don't wallow in it. I know from personal experience that the hungrier I am, the more likely I will eat something rotten, because I sense it smells better, until I've had a chance to eat something. Other dangers are less likely to be noticed until too late. There are worm cysts in Egyptian water that will infect non-Egyptians, but go un-noticed to the population. Many diseases and parasites are insidious, and a healthy immune system may not be enough, since the immune system must be conditioned or selectively adapted for certain parasites.

 

I won't hesitate to eat food that has been left out all night & do it all the time. I eat meat that has been left in the frig for days & turned grey, as long as it don't stink it's fair game.

I've also eaten quite a bit of fresh red meat completely raw Beef & venison both. I very rarely ever get sick, probably cuz I'm such a germy bazterd the viruses all die once they've been exposed to what's inside me already.

However, you have to use common sense cuz you don't want to end up on an episode of "monsters inside me". If it smells less than savory, you can probably cook it to a crisp & eat it fine but, if it smells foul give it to the dogs.

 

I don't like washing a lot. I'll rinse, but I don't use soap all the time.

I eat cheese, after cutting off mold. I'll eat stuff after the expiration date, etc. The only time I've gotten food poisoning, I felt like I was going to die. I had liquid coming out every end... The culprit: Pizza Hut. Haven't eaten there since - can't even stand to look at their sign. Found out later that the restaurant was reusing their crap every night - seems I got the bad batch.

 

I was overseas with a guy who thought he had a cast iron stomach. he was easting everything in sight. He became violently ill. He was out in the desert, 125 degrees dry heaving. If it had been a survival situation I suspect that he would have died. I say it's better to go hungry than to risk getting seriously ill.

I too eat almost anything. But, if it is a risky food I wont touch it. I once got a massive case of food poison eating some raw-meat something that the German military fed us. I had to fly from Germany to the US in a jump seat, praying for death. It is far better to go hungry till you find safe food. Severe food poisoning isn't something you can push through, and if you are in a hot or hot and humid environment you could very well die from dehydration. You can push through hunger.

 

There is some truth that eating less than ideal food will help you build up a resistance to food-borne illnesses. But that will only take you so far.

I would say if you never got sick from what you ate then it's only because you're lucky. Sooner or later you will catch something, and since your body is pre-wired to reject the "light duty" germs, whatever you do get will be nasty and well beyond your natural ability to fight it off. Resistance to disease works both ways: You may not get sick as much, but when you do, you're totally screwed.

I can't see a perceived immunity as a good reason for eating rotten food on purpose. After all, your case is anecdotal and you are only guessing as to why you never got sick. I will agree that a lot of the accepted standards for what is considered "safe" food are well above the minimum safety margin; some of the rules border on the ridiculous.

Can one of the medical pros here clarify if resistance to food-realted illnesses stays with you always, or does one have to regularly eat icky food to maintain it?

~Tevin~

 

Iv eaten a lot of suspect kebab in my lifetime! I only got food poisened once, from clams I picked on the wrong time of the year. Dear grief that was horrible!

Far from that I eaten a lot of bad stuff from my fridge. If I was suspecting something, I would nuke it 5 min in the microwave and all good.

Question... If something is really bad & rotten. Let say some sort of meat. Can you boil it eatable?

 

We have this thread: "How Bad is Bad Food?":

http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?p=2138725

To which I replied:

Well as you have made it as far as this forum, my suggestion would be to prepare well enough so you dont have to worry about eating rotten food, and leave the people that didnt prepare to experiment with that.

However, from my personal experience:

-I have drunk rotten orange juice, tasted foul, but i didnt get sick (i probably drank 1/10th of a cup)
-I have drunk rotten apple juice, tasted foul, but i didnt get sick (i probably drank 1/10th of a cup again)
-I have eaten off potato, I was extremely sick for several days. I probably ate 1/4 of a small potato before I realized it was off.
-I have never eaten off meat before, but I know it can be fatal. The smell of off meat can make me vomit on the spot.
-Ate rotten celery once, just a bit of it, spat it out, drunk lots of water afterwards (to get rid of the taste mainly) but didnt get sick
-Had off milk once, felt really bad for a couple of hours then threw up, and felt fine afterwards.
-Ate rotten carrot before, dont remember it making me too sick
-Had off Tomato once, didnt get the mouldy bit but it did taste a bit of mould. it was a long while ago but i'm pretty sure it had a similar effect to the carrot.

I dont know if my rotten food eating is above average or what!! (didnt have a lot of money when I was younger, so we would get some dodgy stuff served up on our plates from time to time.)

The sickest I have ever been was probably the potato, or I got really bad water poisoning once (we where on holiday, and the council was cleaning the pipes and had issued a notice stating the water was undrinkable for a few days, but we didnt know about it till too late)

Anyway, thats all the off food experiences I can remember at the moment.

*edit*
Oh, I also had "just" off pumpkin soup once, only 2 spoonfulls or so. I felt sick for a few hours till I threw up.

 

Hey Kipper we have ate Vegemite that was way old....like Twinkies it's good for decades! Got a jar for every BOB!!! Marmite too, don't tell okay!

 

my suggestion would be to prepare well enough so you dont have to worry about eating rotten food, and leave the people that didnt prepare to experiment with that.

This. :thumb:

 

I don't see why so many are making an issue of eating raw meat and seafood. If it's not contaminated with bacteria, it's safe to eat raw. Raw meat is not the same as rotten meat. That should come as no surprise. I love sushi myself.

As for spoilage, the danger factor is not so much the spoilage itself, but how it's spoiling. Some types of spoilage bacteria are not harmful. That's why so many cultures have some form of rotten meat/seafood as traditional foods. Stinkeads (rotten fish heads) of eskimos, rotten shark in the scandanavian countries, rotten meat in fat in some of the middle eastern ones, fermented fish and rotten pork in asian cultures, etc. And a lot of veggies will ferment rather than rot, or can be guided to ferment by methods such as salting/lactic acid pickling.

It's the foods that have harmful spoilage bacteria that are the ones to worry about. How do you tell the difference? I have no clue! So I tend to err on the side of caution. I'm less worried about spoiled veggies than I am about spoiled meats. Yet I have no problem eating cooked meats from street vendors in foreign countries where the meat has sat out raw in the sun for hours. Why? Because they know what they're doing and have done it that way for generations.

 

People baby themselves to much today. I've done the same things as you and have never had any type of food poisoning.

 

Just because you've done the same thing as someone else, doesn't mean that your food and theirs contained the same types of bacteria. There are some bacteria that won't make you sick, and there are some that will. There are some that you can't built an immunity to because they produce toxins that make you sick rather than the bacteria itself making you sick.

While I'm all for increasing our immune systems as much as possible, and trying to build immunity to as many things as we can, I also recognize the need for food safety and cleanliness. A combination of both goes a long way to staying healthy.