Tainted Food Scare

[birdhouse]

A few weeks ago, my fridge died during a record heat wave (of course), the day after I'd made a major shopping trip (of course) & I lost pretty much everything. The freezer wasn't involved & everything stayed frozen, which I definitely appreciated.

 

More so because I'd just put up a huge batch of bird food which I make up & freeze monthly. The cooked portion of barley, rice, dried peas, beans, corn, macaroni, whatever, gets done the night before & refrigerated &/or soaked overnight. Then any freezable fresh diced greens, veggies & fruits are mixed in & frozen in cups that are about 1-1/2 day's portion.

 

A couple of weeks went by & my ekkie started having stinky poops. Some foods do that to her & we'd been pigging out on cherries, which I thought was the cause. Then she started having very wet, stinky poops. Again, there was a seemingly reasonable explaination. She was drinking more because of the heat. She was also getting long baths daily. She always drinks enough to change the amount of water she passes. She also got quieter, but everyone was because the temperature was staying in the mid to upper 90's.

 

The solid part of her droppings looked normal, but the water content continued to rise to an alarming amount on the 4th day. When I started to worry, I remembered the fridge problem & wondered if it could be the food.

 

Unfortunately, I had to dump everything out of the freezer so the repairman could fix the fridge. I tried to be conscientious about inspecting everything before I put it back. The pyrex food cups were a little sweaty, but looked like the food was still frozen solid...

 

But apparently it wasn't. I stopped the mix & within a day things started back to normal. By the second day, she felt well enough to start being mischievous again. I, very gratefully dumped the remaining food.

 

No other person or bird has gotten sick from anything in the freezer. But Kura gets the lion's share of the mix. It was apparently just tainted enough to cause her real problems.

[danmcq]

Good investigative work and thanks for sharing this story.

 

We certainly cannot be careful enough in ensuring the food we provide or birds is still "Good". I believe the lesson learned here, is if in doubt, toss it.

[judygram]

Dan is so right, I live by the rule, "if in doubt toss it out" I don't want to feed my birds any tainted food as I wouldn't for the rest of the family including myself but thanks for sharing your story with us because you never know it might save another bird from the same fate.

[birdhouse]

Dan is so right, I live by the rule, "if in doubt toss it out"

 

So do I, which is what scared me enough to post this. I don't have a/c & it was so hot the milk jug was sweating in the time it took to pour a glass. That's what the pyrex cups looked like when I put them back.

 

When I move a cup to the fridge at night, it might not even be thawed through by morning. So, I had no reason to doubt they were safe to keep. Also, none of the other birds had any reaction as far as I could tell. And all the people food has passed just fine.

 

So I wonder if this may be about something in that particular batch of food that turned it so easily (like maybe I didn't wash the greens well enough?) &/or ekkies' unique metabolism. But something was extremely reactive to a short term temperature change. And I really wanted to share in case it helped someone else some time.

[Luvparrots]

Thanks for the reminder of how careful we must be with our birdie's food.

[tarm]

Personally if everything was rock hard I would have likely done what you did but at the first sign something was wrong I would have pitched it as you did. Food is cheap and meaningless compared to your Ekkie. Glad you figured it out quickly and no real harm was done Funny how everyone seems to relate and gauge their greys health by how mischievous and much trouble they get into. LOL LOL

[birdhouse]

Funny how everyone seems to relate and gauge their greys health by how mischievous and much trouble they get into. LOL LOL

 

So right! lol It's all good again once your fid starts flinging her toys at the dog.

 

New hypothesis... Fridge stopped cooling because an ice block gradually formed & stopped the cold airflow from the freezer. It isn't where the thermostat lives & was likely not keeping a consistent temp for days before I noticed, especially in that heat.

 

The cooked portion was left to cool for about 30 hr. I finished & froze the batch in the morning then found the problem that night. Now I'm wondering if the cooked food stayed warm enough long enough to culture bacteria before I froze it. Its being out of the freezer may or may not have contributed to the problem rather than actually caused it.

 

Of course, a month later, I'm never going to know for sure. So, like everyone keeps saying, we can just never be too careful with food.

[tarm]

30 hr. Absolutely is plenty long to breed the nasty stuff. I have had a commercial food handlers permit and you would not believe what can form in a warm culture in only 24hr. I felt something was lost in the post as you stated everything was still hard and I yet to see food turn that does that in my entire life. Only if it thaws to the point of being soft. Based on that info I am willing to bet that the issue started with that long cooling period you left it for. I vacuum seal everything hot for that very reason. Once things are cooked they go straight into a vacuum bag and double sealed on each end. With multiples like this you just never cut them off the roll after sealing and can just keep going. Using the narrowest rolls they sell. Then right into the frig then into the freezer. I have two separate units. A note to people with deep freezers. If you already have items in there is is far better to first place new items in the fridge first to get down to 40 degrees first then into the actual deep freeze or main freezer of the fridge unit. It will help prevent burn and "freeze thaw freeze" of other items in the freezer. Also if you looking for a deep freezer for long term storage look for ones that are not frost free or auto defrost. The way auto defrosters work is to actually warm up the inside for a short period from time to time to remove the frost. It will cause your food to not last 1/2 as long as some becomes partially thawed ever so slightly causing freezer burn. Auto defrost for your regular freezer (not a deep freezer) is fine as stuff there will be used somewhat more quickly or at least should be and you are in it far more than the few seconds at most a deep freeze may be opened each day at very most hopefully less.

[birdhouse]

I just cannot remember when I started that batch of food a month after the fact. Now, I'm thinking it was max 24 hr. But, again, I thought all was well in my fridge. I put people food into the freezer if no one wants to eat it by the end of the next day without incident.

 

For years I've been making the bird food in 2 stages. Most of the cooked portion needs to soak overnight. So, it isn't going to get frozen any sooner if it's separate from the veggies. Then it goes into Pyrex cups, rather than plastic which I think clean better & may be better temp control. On average it probably hits the freezer, in 12-16 hrs.

 

I'm familiar with the risks inherent in food handling & try to be careful. Clean, cool & covered always. But this was an unusual combination of circumstances that I look to have seriously misjudged, overestimated & just didn't know about. I lucked out & it didn't go horribly wrong in the long run. I'm grateful that it only ended up being a serious reminder.

[tarm]

Yep I agree it was just a unique set of conditions that came together to cause the issue.

 

When I was speaking of food being left out I meant after it was cooked not soaking. We would really be in a pickle if that was an issue. It really when food that has been cooked is allowed to drop into the middle 100s and below and left out and not getting it down below 45-40 degrees that there is an issue. Kind of common sense stuff as yo have said. Only reason I mentioned it is that I have been very surprised at just how little some people have been taught /learned about many things people from a generation prior would have considered very basic ": common sense" type stuff. It only seems to have gotten worse with each generation. IMO started with people born from the middle late 60s on up.