Think I'll almost certainly get food poisoning. How do I stop obsessing?

[HopeI'mWrong:P]

Hi, thanks in advance for reading. Basically, I went camping this weekend - went on the Saturday, came back this evening (Sunday). My friend cooked a chilli this evening which contained mince meat. I fell asleep just as she was finishing making it. When I woke up (about 3 hours later) I ate some of the chilli. My problem is that I didn't realise that the mince meat hadn't been in the fridge prior to cooking. It had been put in a cool box when it was frozen and left there for a day and a half inside a van! And it's been really hot yesterday and today. In addition to this, once it had been cooked, it had been left out in the warmth for a few hours before I ate it (it was still warm when I ate it).

So basically, I think I'm almost certainly going to get food poisoning. But not only that, I'm also completely catastrophising and thinking that it's going to be really bad and that I'm going to end up in hospital and possibly even get septicemia. I have suspected inflammatory bowel disease, so I think that food poisoning would be more severe for me.

I really can't think about anything else right now. I regret eating it so so much. I feel like for the next week I'll just be waiting for the inevitable food poisoning. I don't know how to stop obsessing over it. Any advice would be great. Thanks

[NervUs]

I am obsessing about something else right now. Longer incubation so that sucks...

There is no easy answer to this. I am doing fairly well by reminding myself that I have awareness so, if we come down with symptoms, I can tell the medical pros about the possible exposure. Other than that, I know it is silly worrying since the likelihood of the worst outcome is so slim. It becomes a mind over matter thing. Just remind yourself, in those moments when you're obsessing, I am fine now, no sense worrying and keep reminding yourself until you really believe it.

[cattia]

It sounds like it had been refrigerated, it would take a day cor it to thaw out and if it was in a cool box it wouldn't have warmed up that much. Eating it as it was cooling down is fine, we always leave mince out for the evening before putting it in the fridge as we don't want to put it in the fridge warm. I reckon you'll be ok.

[ankietyjoe]

If you don't already have it, you ain't gonna have it.

Minced beef is pretty low risk in terms of food poisoning anyway. If it was frozen in a cooler box, it was probably still very cold, even after a day or two.

Cooking it would have killed anything likely to cause food poisoning, and it being out for a while is highly unlikely to have caused any issues either.

Fish and chicken are the ones to worry about when it comes to uncontrolled temperature variation.

[NancyW]

Is mince meat, ground beef?

I would think if you were going to get sick, you would already be sick. Is anyone else that ate it sick?

[HopeI'mWrong:P]

Thanks for your replies - they have helped to reassure me :)

In response to your question regarding whether mince meat is the same as ground beef; to be honest, I'm not much of a cook so I don't know, haha. But after looking on Google, they seem to be the same thing/ similar.

It's been 24 hours now and so far, so good. So fingers crossed. Everyone else is absolutely fine too and apparently they ate it about 6 hours later without refrigerating it or heating it again (they're very relaxed when it comes to food!).

Thanks again :)