Cooking safety/anxiety

Post Reply New Topic

I love to cook, it is one of my favorite hobbies. Recently, I have found it more difficult though. I get super-anxious about cooking and food safety, and stress out more about that than I do the actual cooking. I'm constantly worried that I didn't wash a pot or plate well enough, and that it will cause food poisoning from some trace bacteria or chemical. Or I will worry that my chicken didn't reach the proper internal temperature and cook it 20min longer than necessary as a precaution, even though I have used the same recipe dozens of times before. Sometimes I will even worry that the fumes from my stove are toxic and won't cook (not from the food itself, but the smoke generated from burning dust/fallen food particles/cleaning chemicals when you turn the stove on). I have always been this way a little bit (it didn't help that the first big meal I made for my family, I severely under-cooked the chicken and almost made everyone really sick). I've gotten worse lately though and spend more time cleaning cookware/utensils and reading about potentially hazardous foods/cooking items online, than I should.

Does anyone have any advice on getting over this fear? I know that it isn't an irrational fear as I have had food poisoning several times in my life, but I think that I am way more anxious about it than I need or want to be.

Hi, I would describe myself in the same manner, with the exception of "fumes from my stove are toxic and won't cook (not from the food itself, but the smoke generated from burning dust/fallen food particles/cleaning chemicals when you turn the stove on".

My OCD really kicks in, when cooking chicken. I take twice as long in the kitchen, when chicken or eggs are involved. I can absolutely relate to you/the contents of your post. I have no idea how not to be so extreme. I have always been this way, regarding germs, cleanliness, and things that just gross me out, in general. I generally wash my hands, more than what I believe to be 'normal', and when I am cooking and cleaning, I wash, obsessively.

Although this was not mentioned in your post, I'll add that I will NEVER touch a kitchen sponge, nor any other sponge for that matter. If I go to the home of a person who is not careful, or does not keep a clean kitchen, I invariably will refrain from eating anything.

I'm sorry I do not have any advice or words of wisdom to offer you. I do not see how I would ever be able to change this particular aspect of myself. I am not saying that you cannot. Perhaps you can, and I wish you much success in your efforts!

I get paranoid about cutting myself while chopping veggies.

I get paranoid about cooking meat. I cant convince myself its done until at least some of it is burnt

In general: Whatever gets anyway fully cooked or into the oven, is something, that you hardly need to issue yourself about bacteria or viruses.

Things that can be dangerous, even when cooked are actually about toxins. That means you should care for good hygiene when it comes to flesh and mushrooms. If you got bad flesh then bacterias on it can have caused toxins to exist, that could survive cooking. The same goes with bad/poisonous mushrooms.

What is more of an issues, is anything that you eat raw or medium done, because there you actually have to face the possibility of bacterias/viruses on it. Care for washing your kitchen desk, knifes, slicing boards, before and after cooking raw stuff. Wash vegetables on the outside, where they can have been touched or sneezed by others. ^^ While food can be infected by other people with all kind of stuff, its something else, when it comes to normal aging. So bread/vegetable/milk products can simply as well go bad on their own, because of age...that can make them taste less good or bad, but mostly is only causing an enhanced diggestion. ^^ (Means you will have to go rather fast to the toilette.) So as long as you work with those products, as long as they have not been open yet, there is a rather rare possibility, that there can be something dangerous about it, because it might have gone bad by age, but other people cant have added infection diseases on it.

If its about stuff that was open for a long time, then I would not take a risk, because in that time there can have gone all kind of bacterias into by air or by direct contact, and spreaded.

When it comes to direct animal products like flesh, fish and eggs, dont take any risc. Both can carry as well bacterias from others, as well can produce bad stuff, simply by aging. Specially when they are raw/medium. So dont risc anything.

Examples: Your kid sneezing on your steak or letting it fall on the floor, before you want to cook it. - No risc, the bacterias will die immediatly and cant start doing biohazard in about 5 minutes, until they get cooked.
Your steak already having weird colours or smelling weirdly - risc, because cooking will kill the bacterias, but not eventually produced toxins.

Yoghurt, closed, out of the fridge, two weeks beyond age: Look at it, smell at it, taste it if it tastes still fine. Worst thing that should happen is running to the toilette. ^^
Vegetable, fruits, salads: Pretty similar.

Vegetable, fruits, salads, that your kid sneezed on, right before you wanted to eat it...if he actually has a serious illness, I would not eat it. And if I dont know that person anyway, then the more you should not eat it.

Raw flesh, fish, eggs...dont take any risc, only use absolute fresh products from a source you know.

If you have a keen sense of smell don't cook anything that smells odd.When I worked at a cafe the cook always had me sniff stuff to see if it was good.
I've never worried about salmonella from eggs,as kids we loved to lick the spoon from the cake bowl.I still do it,maybe not a good idea but I have my own hens for eggs.
I'm more worried about a kitchen fire.Ive gotten distracted and really burned some stuff.I have a really good smoke detector in the kitchen and use timers.i hate the sound it makes but it is a necessary evil.

With eggs and chicken, the bacteria risk comes from the surface. Fears of under-cooked meat are overblown, except for ground meat. I always wash eggs before cracking them in order to reduce the bacteria risk from the shell.

I have a lot of food safety knowledge, both from working in a kitchen and from a longstanding interest in science. I calm my concerns by following a well-thought-out set of procedures.

How about one of those temperature probes?

That's part of the absolute basics, I'd think. If you get one of the basic cooking thermometers, like this one:
Make sure to calibrate it occasionally in a cup packed with ice and just a little water