THE BBQ BRETHREN FORUMS

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Tricky

is one Smokin' Farker
Joined
Dec 6, 2010
Location
Ventura County, CA
Not sure if this is appropriate categorized, but looking for some help in determining whether my meat might have been responsible for some sick folks.

Family gathering over two days, and on Day 1 two adult members of my wife's family are complaining of stomach problems and are making trips to the bathroom. Everyone else is happy.

Day 2, I smoke a standing rib roast that is served at about 4 pm. I think I follow safe food handling rules, but the roast does rest for a long time. Everyone eats some except the two family members who were feeling sick the day before and one who is a vegetarian.

By 8 pm that night, as people are leaving to head home, I crawl into bed with a horrible case of the runs and a general feverish feeling. I start throwing up and can't really move for the next 24-36 hours and have zero strength. I later find out that two of my BIL's (traveling home separately) each have to stop on their way home from our house to get out of the car to throw up - one doesn't even make it out of my neighborhood before being sick in my neighbor's front yard. Later that night, my wife and a couple others get similar symptoms.

Ultimately 4 people don't get sick on the night of Day 2 or the next day: the two people who had already been sick on Day 1, the vegetarian who didn't eat any of the rib roast and my MIL, who ate a normal slice of the roast.

Although I've never been to medical school, I imagine this fact pattern as an essay question on a medical school exam - there are some facts that seem to say it was the meat and others that seem to say it was something else that was already going around in the family.

Whaddya all think?
 
Tough to say. I think food poisoning get thrown out there way to much. A stomach bug is much more likely. Did anyone go to a doc?
 
Seriously, a word problem!?!? GAAAAHHHH!

Okay, 11 people, two are sick on day 1, and 7 who get sick on day two. Two, who ate differently did not get sick at all, one of whom is elderly(ish) and one who is not eating any meat. However, the two from the previous day had compromised immune systems from Day One.

My take, is that Day One sick people infected some of the people who got sick on Day Two, on Day One. Given a 24 to 48 hour window for incubation, it is more likely a virus, that was brought in, than food borne illness, over two days.
 
Interesting . . . I don't think anyone did. And now that I think about it that's a bit surprising given how completely down for the count we all were.

I am inclined to think it was a bad bug but the fact that it hit three or four of us almost at exactly the same time (and within a few hours of eating that roast) is what has me wondering.

Its a shame - we ended up throwing away a lot of perfectly cooked prime rib because no one could stand to look at it without getting sicker.
 
You mentioned that the prime rib rested for a long time How long, and how was it rested?

It's more likely that the two who were sick the day before were responsible for getting the others sick than it is that it was your food. Foodborne illnesses usually don't happen that fast.
 
Do you have natural gas as a fuel source in you're home? If so, maybe a gas leak? Just throwin' that out there as I have experienced these symptoms at a friends house who later found a gas leak.
 
I think we wrapped the roast in foil and let it rest on the counter for a couple hours, which seems ok. But this was a couple of years ago and I don't remember exactly how it all went down.
 
Do you have natural gas as a fuel source in you're home? If so, maybe a gas leak? Just throwin' that out there as I have experienced these symptoms at a friends house who later found a gas leak.

Yes, we had a gas furnace, gas water heater and gas stove. But in the 6+ years we lived there we never had any other gas problem.
 
Okay, 11 people, two are sick on day 1, and 7 who get sick on day two. Two, who ate differently did not get sick at all, one of whom is elderly(ish) and one who is not eating any meat. However, the two from the previous day had compromised immune systems from Day One.

My take, is that Day One sick people infected some of the people who got sick on Day Two, on Day One. Given a 24 to 48 hour window for incubation, it is more likely a virus, that was brought in, than food borne illness, over two days.

I think you're right, although if I call my MIL "elderly" that result will be worse than the pain I've already experienced from the bug. :wink:
 
sounds like food poisoning to me, what did you have for side dishes?

I can't remember. But your point is a good one - the meat is not the only possible candidate. I think I immediately assume its got to be the protein that gets you sick, but it could have been something else.
 
This was a couple of years ago?

Why are you even worrying about it?

Intellectual curiosity. I read the thread about the guy who got sick after eating ribs last night and it reminded me that I was still curious as to whether my roast was responsible for the illness we all got. Since I now post on this site and ther are some smart fellers on here with a lot of experience in food handling, etc., I thought I'd get the sense of the forum and see what people thought.

If I confined my energy to solving actual, current problems, I'd probably get a lot more done but be more bored.
 
I agree with a couple of others here, I think that there was a bug of some kind brought in by one or two people that got spread to almost everyone else. If it were your food, I think there would have been more casualties by the end of day 1!:wink:
 
Sick person 1:*cough* "I'm just going to eat this here salad" *picks up salad tongs* (Or whatever side dish or doorknob for that matter)
Healthy person: "Oooh salad!" *picks up infected salad tongs*

rinse and repeat
 
Intellectual curiosity. I read the thread about the guy who got sick after eating ribs last night and it reminded me that I was still curious as to whether my roast was responsible for the illness we all got. Since I now post on this site and ther are some smart fellers on here with a lot of experience in food handling, etc., I thought I'd get the sense of the forum and see what people thought.

If I confined my energy to solving actual, current problems, I'd probably get a lot more done but be more bored.

Stop beating yourself up over it. Coming from someone who had food poisoning in the military, it doesn't effect people in multiple stages. Although incubation of the spores may vary slightly from person to person, but from my experience everyone gets ill almost at the same time, and it certainly does not happen right after eating. Incubation of clostridium perfringens is about 10/12 hours. Most other forms take almost a week before they show any signs of symptoms.

I agree with "Landarc" the first two were carrying a bug like stomach flu.
 
I don't know about the rest of you, but my body has a built in "safe mode" that will "alert" me about things like that. For instance, I got food poisoning from this Mexican food place once. Now, every time I dive by there my stomach cringes! That being said, I don't do that when I get sick after eating while having the flu.

So, I say invite them back over and have the same meal! If you get the "Hell Naw!" RSVP then that my be a clue..... Lol
 
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