How I Contaminate Stuff

[Macabre]

A thread for reminding us why we shouldn't trust food from other homes. Every single time I bake I think of these things and think I should start a thread (we had a similar one at our previous place).

[Macabre]

I made banana nut muffins this morning--with safe-for-us pecans. The recipe called for a half cup of pecans. I wasn't thinking and poured some pecan halves onto a cutting board and started chopping. Oops--a few fell onto my counter. I decided I will wait to decontaminate the counter.  Then I realized I should use the nut grinder.  I rinsed off the cutting board and set it in my right sink, where I often put clean dishes to dry.

So far, I have contaminated my counter top and anything that is set there. I contaminated the part of the countertop close to the sink, where I set the rinsed knife. And also unless I clean it, the "drying sink."

I am really good about washing my hands a lot, but I know I had pecan on my right hand when I lifted the handle of my sink, though I try to lift it with the back of my hand.

I cracked two eggs. I washed my hands with soap after, but if it had been DH, he would have merely rinsed his hands--and then proceeded to use the kitchen towel that we all use and that he would use again after really washing them and before cooking something else.

I was careful not to set my flour container and baking soasm box on the same counter where I had the nuts--because I was specifically thinking about XC. But guess what? When I was getting the flour out, a bag of pistachios that DS didn't fully close started to fall, and I caught it with my other hand. I *think* I didn't touch the flour container with that hand. I think. It all happened so fast, and I didn't want pistachios on the floor.

I poured some more coffee while making the muffins. I thought to wash my hands with soap beforehand, but I easily could have missed that step of I were not an allergy mom. And we don't out our coffee pot in the dishwasher every day.

Cleanup time! I had the bowl for melted butter and the mixing bowl in the sink. I dropped the scrub brush in the soapy water for the big bowl.  It has on it: pecans, eggs, dairy and wheat on it. Even the dishwasher may not get all the allergens off.

I sent DS with three of them. I told him to finish them in my car before going into his camp and to use the wet one packet I gave him so he doesn't contaminate the things that his camp kids touch. I OIT it in a nicer way than that, lol.

[lakeswimr]

Great topic!  I fluff flour and measure it.  A little bit of flour gets in the area around this and some falls on my measuring spoon.  Then go to get baking powder and sugar.  Both have hard clumps and I stick the same fork into both to loosen then.

I use the measuring spoon that has a little bit of flour on it to measure cocoa powder and salt and vanilla.  I get a little bit of flour on all three of those things.  It is now in my sugar, baking powder, salt, cocoa powder, and vanilla.

I don't have the right measuring spoons left out now that that one got wet with the vanilla.  I open the draw and some flour falls into the draw onto my utensils.

DS can now eat some peanuts and almonds.  He has to eat them daily.  At first we would be careful what we touched after touching them.  Now, I take a handful of almonds and eat it and then use the computer, turn on light switches, open the fridge, etc, etc.  I touch things in our house with hands that have nut and peanut protein on them.  I will have to clean all those things if we have a nut or peanut allergic friend to our house. 

I bake with eggs regularly.  DS is still allergic to raw eggs.  I take so many precautions to prevent cross contaminating the entire kitchen while doing this, as you described.  I crack the eggs in the sink into one bowl and use another bowl to hold the shells.  I carefully bring the shells to the trash.  I am aware my hands have egg on them.  I move the bowl out of the sink and use the back of my hands to turn on the water.  I get soap and then realize I got some egg on the soap dispenser so I pick that up and wash that, too.  I might have dripped some egg where the egg dispenser sits and some usually gets on the counter next to the sink so I have to remember to spray and wipe those areas up.  I wash my hands after touching egg and before touching anything else which means repeatedly.  I finish the batter and carefully put it into the baking pan or cupcake tins, and a little bit of it gets on the counter and around the area.  I put it in the oven and then wash my hands again because some batter usually gets on my hands, and sometimes on my shirt, too.  I wipe up batter from the counter, spray the counter and then wipe it with another paper towel.  Of course I wash my hands AGAIN.  I take my shirt off carefully, inside out, and put it someplace special, away from DS, to be washed and put on a new shirt.  If I use a fork to test to see if the cake is done I have to remember to not put it on the ladle holder on the stove to reuse since a bit of not fully cooked egg will get on that.

If I'm baking or cooking with milk, I often see a drop or two fly off through the air when I pull open the pull tab, not matter how careful I am!  I go hunt those down and wipe, spray, wipe them and wash my hands after. 

It was much, much easier when we didn't do baked eggs or baked milk.  DS is still allergic to both milk and eggs in some forms. 

Our soy margarine for DS and soy butter and jelly all have wheat xcontam. 

And then if I got the idea I could possibly make another person something gluten-free in this kitchen with that would not be very smart!  I'm sure I would gluten that person.  And now that person is me.  I have to be gluten, dairy, and egg-free and I now have separate containers for myself in a separate part of the kitchen and I still avoid baking for myself because it just feels too difficult given that we have wheat in our kitchen and use it to bake regularly (and DS needs it for his baked milk and baked eggs so for us I won't choose to go gluten-free while DS is at home.)

[spacecanada]

Just reading these sends chills up my spine.  Think of restaurants too.   

[Linden]

Macabre, I am so glad you started this topic.  I do remember it from before and it is a really important topic.

My experience is the same as yours and that of the other posters.  We eat peanuts and almonds under the direction of our allergist and I have tried so hard not to cross-contaminate anything.  But it's impossible.  Sometimes I open the fridge to get the almond butter and oops - I forgot to get the spoon. So now have to open the drawer to get the spoon.  And then the almond butter has to go back into the fridge so I have to open the fridge door.  I do wash my hands right after I eat but I can't keep washing my hands during every step of preparation because we under water restrictions here. 

Another thing I notice is that even after I wash my hands, my hands sometimes go to my mouth afterwards. For example I might be reading by the sofa and find my hand near the corner of my mouth.  Off to wash my hands again.

The nut allergens are the only allergens I am even careful about.  Other foods that nobody is allergic to in our house get eaten all over the house with no attempt to control for cross-contamination.

I would never attempt to prepare any foods for someone with food allergies.  Not even someone with DS' allergies as everybody's threshold is different.

[LinksEtc]

When MIL cooks in "our" kitchen w/ red spice, I can often see the cross-contam
trail.   

Let's just say that I try to do a good cleaning after meat has been cooked.

Glad we don't have to worry too much about allergy cross-contam at this point.



This post may break the "be nice" & "post as if your dd may be reading" rules that I'm trying to abide by.

[krasota]

When any of you spoon/fluff/pour/otherwise agitate flour, you cover your entire kitchen and anything that is open.  Lovely dust.  It aerosolizes, then settles over the next several hours.

(And that is why a non-dedicated allegedly GF bakery/mill isn't GF.)

[Macabre]

Okay--yesterday I thought of this thread.  I was pouring some PF pistachios into a little bowl for snacking.  The silverware drawer was slightly open, and because the bag was torn open in a way I did not anticipate, a few pistachios fell out onto the counter . . . . and into the silverware drawer. 

[CMdeux]

 



Exactly-- I pour several solid forms of powdered allergens in my kitchen-- milk and wheat both.

I also place sunflower-coated items into our dishwasher-- ergo, they may redistribute the allergen (a seed allergen, mind-- so super-potent) over everything else in the dishwasher.  We don't always have sunbutter in the house, but when we do, pretty much everything that goes through the dishwasher should be considered contaminated if the person in question has a low threshold.

[spacecanada]

Husband cooks perogies for supper.
Husband drains perogies form pot into the sink, which was half full of dirty dishes.
He rinses out the pot into the same sink, with quite a bit of soap and water to rinse away any potato residue from the pot and the dishes.
I went to do the dishes, knowing all the above, and ended up with a bright red itchy rash on my arms, a few hives, and a nose gushing like a faucet.  There must have been some potato water still in the dishes - a bowl perhaps.  I wonder if I'm now contact and/or trace reactive to potatoes (previous reactions were blatant ingestion).
So now the big clean up begins: All the dish cloths in the kitchen are now contaminated, as are the new ones used to clean the counters and sink.  And then the dishwasher door is contaminated too.  And the cupboard door because I opened it to get dish soap to wash my hands.  And now the outside of the dish soap bottle too.

[Macabre]

Oh yikes.  You need a hazmat suit to decontaminate!

[rebekahc]

I was just thinking about this thread last night as I contaminated my kitchen with flour.  My flour jar was getting low, so I had to reach pretty far in to scoop out the flour.  I know my arm got flour on it from the sides of the jar.  Even if we think about washing hands, I'll bet many (myself included) don't think about washing arms unless they are very messy.