OCD, food wastage and labelling

[vicky23]

Hi all,
Thought I'd write a post about things I've been thinking about lately.

So, I am currently doing exposure response prevention as therapy for OCD. My main theme at the moment is contamination with regards to food so I basically want to avoid becoming ill. This expresses itself through hand washing, inspecting food before I eat it for signs of spoilage etc

My therapist wants me to do things that go against the desire to try to make things as safe as possible. The aim being to show myself that I won't get ill and I'm being overcautious. One of my 'challenges' is to eat something past it's use by date hence the title of my post.

I feel like there is a big push in society at the moment to try to stop food wastage, however a lot of labels on food that give instructions on how to avoid sickness from it causes people like me to waste so much (unnecessarily?)

The thing that causes me the most irritation is the storage instructions on things like yoghurt. On almost all pots of yoghurt it says 'once opened use within 3 days' I have part of my brain saying 'I'm sure it'll be fine' but the OCD part (which is so convincing) tells me that I should follow the rules to stay safe and so I would throw the yoghurt away once it'd been open 3 days. This would cause me angst and guilt (I hate wasting things and I'm frugal minded) but but but....what if what if....

I also noticed on a package of beef mince from ASDA that it told me (in bold letters no less) to not reheat the product. Now I like cooking and read many books, watch hundreds of cooking shows and I've always been comfortable reheating mince. But now I'm being told I SHOULD NOT so the OCD side of my brain goes into overdrive "must follow rules, rules keep us safe"

So with the help of my therapist I'm learning to go against food standards agency guidelines (aarrghh scary!!) and trust my instincts. This is the horrible nature of OCD is that it's so inflexible. I guess most people will generally follow the expiration date but they also know that supermarkets will obviously want to cover their backs and not be sued for making people ill so they will be extra cautious so won't panic if they eat something out of date.
I don't think there's an easy solution. I guess it's a matter of weighing up the risks on either side. If I follow food hygiene rules to the letter then I will have less chance of getting food poisoning. However, I have been doing that and it costs me something in time, energy, joy, money. So I'm choosing to take more risks.

Anyway, I'm off to eat my out of date yoghurt now :scared15::roflmao:

Love to all
Vicky

[pulisa]

I hope you survived, Vicky?!!:D Seriously, very well done because this sort of challenge isn't for the faint-hearted and it's so hard to mentally challenge entrenched beliefs.

What is your next food challenge?

[Scass]

What a fascinating post & exercise. I completely relate to this.

So how did it go? How was the yogurt?
I’d really balk at eating the reheated mince....

Edited to add: well done by the way!


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[MyNameIsTerry]

I suspect the FSA and NHS say this stuff is concrete simply to avoid the mistakes that could come from the variances between products, manufacturers, storage methods, transportation, etc.

The question I also ask myself about is how exactly can anyone predict a product will suddenly turn "bad" after that date? And when? Is it a few seconds after the mystical date? A few hours? Some people throw everything away even if it's a few hours after this date has expired. Are manufacturers really that precise? And if they are how is that every piece of food they have ever produced globally always expires at the same time?

As said in this article there is a margin of error. The FSA just try to keep us safe and that perhaps means over cautious directions?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-drink/news/eating-food-past-use-by-date-really-harmful/

I've been eating yoghurt that is over a week out of the use by date for years. Never had a problem. The same with cheese including soft cheese (Quark) as long as the latter had no trace of mould.

So, why aren't A&E's flooded with food poisoning cases? Maybe our immune systems can cope more than we realise or maybe we aren't taking quite the chance they seem to indoctrinate into us if we eat that yoghurt 15 seconds into the day after the date expires? :winks:

And as for not going by smell testing...they may want to have a think about all the food that has gone off before the use by date. Why would someone say it smells awful, like it's gone off, but still eat if because the FSA say you go by the date? How many times (in my house) has bacon, chicken, even yoghurt been opened days before the use by date to find it smells like it's come out of the dustbin? Even though it has been carried home in a refrigeration bag and put straight in the fridge it didn't last to the date. But then how do I know Tesco actually refrigerated it properly all through their process? See last Christmas and their rotten turkey's fiasco about that.

[vicky23]

Thank you guys! it's lovely to read your kind words.

Well as a graded exposure I did yoghurt that had been open 4 days and it said on the pot eat within 3 days of opening.
As you will have guessed from reading this I survived woohoo!
I've got to say it is really hard but it'll be worth it.
so next is the eating something past it's actual use by date, I've also been eating stuff that's dropped on the sofa, next is the floor :scared15:

Those are some very good points Terry, it's better for these organisations to assume people haven't got any common sense lol

[MyNameIsTerry]

Good old fashioned common sense :yesyes:

I bought a TENS machine for my sciatica a few years ago. In the do not do bit in the instructions it said "do not attach to genitals". :roflmao:

Well done on the yoghurt. :yesyes::yahoo: I know from eating it out of date I find it just tastes more acidic after a while. The same with soft cheese.

Yeah, exposure work is really hard going. It's the total opposite of what fight or flight is screaming at us. It doesn't always seem to work straight away and repetition is important.

What are you life with Sell By Dates? Those are perfectly safe as it's only a measure of quality assurance but if your anxiety stops you eating those too maybe these could be a stepping stone to the Use By Dates if you need them?

You'll be eating that piece of pizza that always hides in the sofa next :sofa::yesyes:

[vicky23]

Hahahaha I'd like to meet the person who inspired that do not instruction! :doh:

I'm mostly fine with best befores and sell by, unless it's weeks after it then I get a bit wary.

Arrghhh behind the sofa pizza, maybe I should live with a bunch of university students for a bit, extreme exposure :roflmao:

[pulisa]

I always buy food with a long expiry date-the further away the better-so I never have the problem with throwing food away if it's because it's gone past its sell-by date. Is this cheating? Should I be buying milk with a short expiry date? Isn't it "normal" to want to buy stuff which is the freshest possible?

[vicky23]

Ooooh Pulisa see this is THE question haha My therapist would say that to treat OCD we sometimes need to go 'above and beyond' what 'normal' people do in order to really show it who's boss.
Like you say it's natural to want the freshest things possible but if that is OCD's sneaky excuse to avoid the fear of becoming ill then it may need to be addressed and so would probably be a good thing to by the milk closer to expiry date.
I remember reading about the CEO of OCDUK licking the bottom of his shoe at a conference to demonstrate this concept of 'above and beyond' to really kick OCD to the curb. I really hope my therapist doesn't suggest that for me arrghh lol