Question About Food Temperature/Food Poisoning

[Christine]

I think I may have poisoned my husband!!

On Saturday, I bought some pre-made Chicken Enchiladas from Costco. They had a sell-by date of the 19th. On Sunday evening, I prepared them for dinner.

Cooking directions said to heat oven to 350 degrees, cook for 40-50 minutes, or until thermometer registers at 165 degrees. I was kind of surprised to see the temperature warning as I assumed that already-cooked chicken was in the enchiladas. I mean, I would never put raw chicken in an enchilada.

So, like a good girl, I cooked these things for an hour. I checked the temperature at that point and they were at 150 degrees. So I put them in the microwave for 5 minutes. Still not much increase in the temperature. I figured that these things HAD to be done.

I cut my piece off. The chicken looked well cooked and it was very hot. I didn't care for them and only ate a few bites. DS only ate a small bit. DH ate the most.

He called from work this morning and said he had horrible intestinal cramps. Two hours later he had to head home. Feels like he is doubled over.

The only thing I can think of is the enchiladas. But I guess it could be a myriad of things.

Has anyone ever tried these Costco enchiladas and do you think they could be the culprit? Did I cook them wrong?

 

[ChristmasElf]

Gee it sure does sound like he has it!!!
But, I would have thought he would be feeling sick within 2-3 hours of first eating the enchiladas as they were travelling down through the digestive tract.

Hope he feels better soon!

Try the BRAT diet later on if he feels a little better.

Bananas
Rice
Applesauce
Toast (dry)

Rice is one of the easiest foods to digest and will help absorb excess stomach liquids. Bananas provide potassium. The dry toast will help settle his stomach. (Just make sure not to butter the rice or the toast untill he is much better. as the butter will aggrevate his stomach)

 

[Christine]

Hmmmm....so you think the food poisoning from the enchiladas would have happened that quickly? I just don't know what the "rule" is on that stuff.

I'm sure he only had a bagel for breakfast this morning. Apparently it didn't hit him until he had been at work about 2 hours. We ate dinner around 5:00 p.m. yesterday so it was about 14 hours after he ate them that he got symptoms.

 

[mum4jenn]

Even if something has been fully cooked before hand it still needs to be brought back up to the proper temperature to ensure that a food-borne illness is less likely to occur. Also it is possible that the chicken used could have already been contaminated.

Also since it had been several hours it could have been the veggies in it. Even vegetables can lead to food poisoning. If not that maybe it was just too spicy for him and his tummy was reacting to the spices

 

[golfgal]

I found this on the net: http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/poison.html

It will give you some different kinds of bacteria and their symptoms and onset (at the bottom of the page). It is possible that he did get some food poisoning. Do you have any of the food left so they can test it? Usually they will contact a supplier to let them know too.

 

[Christine]

I found this on the net: http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/poison.html

It will give you some different kinds of bacteria and their symptoms and onset (at the bottom of the page). It is possible that he did get some food poisoning. Do you have any of the food left so they can test it? Usually they will contact a supplier to let them know too.

No, nothing left anymore.

 

[Christine]

Even if something has been fully cooked before hand it still needs to be brought back up to the proper temperature to ensure that a food-borne illness is less likely to occur. Also it is possible that the chicken used could have already been contaminated.

Also since it had been several hours it could have been the veggies in it. Even vegetables can lead to food poisoning. If not that maybe it was just too spicy for him and his tummy was reacting to the spices

I don't believe that this was a previously cooked food. The internal ingredients, though, I think were not raw.

The worst part was that I cooked this thing 15 minutes longer than it called for and then used the microwave on it. I still couldn't get it up to the proper temperature. I'm suspecting that my thermometer might be wrong. I think my oven is fine as I have no problem with baking cakes an stuff that is very sensitive to proper oven temps.

Of course, I'm sitting here PRAYING that I don't get it. It takes me a good hour to get home from work AND I'm in a carpool. How uncomfortable is that?