I hate waste but....

I am a vegetarian so we dont have too many of the usual food poisoning suspects about, but meats in general pate, etc are excellent breeding grounds for bacteria if they are not stored or cooked properly.

My mum was not that good about food storage cooking. I am sure our family got a few tummy upsets through that!
There were a lot of problems with unsafe water though, until someone sussed that water born bugs cause so many cholera and summer diarrhoea out breaks. Some London Doctor had guessed what might be causing problems and chained up a particular water pump somewhere in London during a cholera outbreak.

That was a failure of someone's storage and handling standards.

When I was a child, we had no fridge, fresh food was kept in a larder, always covered to keep flies off it, and used up as soon as possible. Anything dubious went into the pig bucket, which was collected by a farmer and fed to his pigs.

My mother would not have cooked or handled food without washing her hands, and we all washed out hands after using the toilet or doing anything else that could carry germs. That was because it was an obvious precaution, not because it was government policy.

She made jam, which lasted years because it started with equal quantities of fruit and sugar, and was then boiled down to setting point (60% sugar) and chutney, which was preserved by the vinegar.

Some people think that the fridge will do their thinking for them, and forget to decide for themselves whether something is fit to eat. As Deedaa said, many people have never met anything that was really off, so don't recognise the early signs.

That was a reply to Faye

Definitely Elegran I agree with you and people would know by smell if food is off. My mother did all the same with our food and she minced meat through one of those grinder things. We never got food poisoning.

The company were blamed for their unhygienic handling of their mettwurst and salami. Only fresh ingredients in smoked meat should be used otherwise deadly microrganisms and deadly toxins develop. The contaminated smoked meat can damage an unborn baby's and children's kidneys and other organs. That is why most pregnant women (in Australia at least) don't eat them and nor should small children. The 23 surviving children are still battling major health problems.

bags my dear, I love it how you take everything so seriously. Wasn't it you who accused absent of having no sense of humour

No, she told us she had no sense of humour.

I never know when you're being serious, dogs. Possibly never . Half the time (at least) I don't understand your comments. I presume, for instance, that you don't like my taking things seriously. Woteva .

Half the time I'm serious bags but you've confused me with your penultimate comment as I said i love it about your seriousness......
..didn't I?

But you preceded that with 'my dear', so I thought you were kidding, being sarcastic – patronising even. I often find your posts cryptic. Perhaps it's just my reading of them that is at fault. It just goes to show, yet again, that seeing words in print is nothing like as good as hearing them said face to face when it comes to interpretation. I daresay we'd understand each other easily with facial expressions thrown in .

Besides, I'm not always serious, so it didn't make sense. See?

Nellie it was a Dr Snow and he removed the pump handle. Always quoted in infectious disease lectures.

bags it was intended to take the sting out of my observation, rather than the opposite.
I know the article below is from the DM but even so if I take your query seriously the answer to your question would appear to be approx 500x100?????
uk deaths from food poisoning

OK. I think I'm on the same wavelength now. (1) The article does not give a link to the study, so I can't check whether it (the article) is accurate, which would be my first step (we know newspapers are not good at being accurate about scientific studies). (2) I'm not sure where you get your 500 x 100 from. The article seems to be saying that the research suggests that three times as many people are dying from food poisoning (directly or indirectly) as was thought. Isn't that 500 x 3? (3) I agree that it sounds as if more research needs to be done on this. It seems something has been highlighted which is not yet fully understood. (4) Have to go out to a meeting but 1500 deaths still doesn't seem a huge proportion of the whole number of deaths per year. If it can be reduced still further, that'd be great, but I would still argue that food poisoning is not a major killer, and the indirect deaths would seem, from the little info we have, to be rather more complicated than simple food poisoning deaths.

Talk later. Gotta go.

Another article indicating that food poisoning can raise death rates for a while after the infection occurs.
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2003/02/17/785664.htm

Doubt whether any of them caused by out of date pickle though.

The only time food poisoning appeared in our family was when my father cooked himself some sausages. This was years before use by dates were thought of and , because he had no sense of smell or taste, he didn't notice anything wrong. My mother took one sniff at the ones he'd left in the fridge and threw them straight in the bin. They were green round the edges too, but he obviously hadn't looked at them either.

bags number of UK deaths annually x 100 years "how many people have died of food poisoning [sic] in the UK in the last 100 years?"

Ah. Of course. Well, anyway, on current numbers of deaths from all causes, deaths from food poisoning (including the suspected x 3) comes to approximately one third of one per cent. I would guess that hasn't changed much for 100 years. Probably impossible to eleiminate altogether as accidents such as the one Faye describes will always happen, plus some people are careless.

Current cause of deaths from all causes 100% surely??
j'abandonne!

A third of one percent of all deaths in the uk is a a big number.
What is your definition of careless bags - eating takeaways? eating yesterday's takeaway? Foraging in dustbins? Washing the dogs bowl with the human dishes? Eating salad sprouts even (cause of E Coli outbreak in Germany last year that killed several people) There is rather a wide range of behaviour when you look at humans and food isn't there. Difficult to define careless.
When I choose not to throw a pot of natural yoghurt away that has been opened more than three days is that careless? Some would say it was indulging in deliberately risky behaviour no doubt.

My sisters visit me once or twice a year and are horrified when going into my fridge or cupboards. I live on my own, now, but have never given anyone food poisoning or a bad tummy. Not even when cooking for a family of eight. I always say 'If in doubt chuck it out'.

Just seen your post from a few days ago, jess. Good question. It is difficult to define careless with regard to the details of food hygiene, but there are some basics such as handwashing at appropriate times that it really is careless to skimp on. That's the sort of thing I was thinking of, not things like whether one uses hot water and soap or bleach to wipe one's preparation surfaces with, or whether one will eat three or four day old yogurt.

Likewise, grannyval. I daresay some people wouldn't like my approach, but it has never caused any problems, so I reckon I'm not careless. Well, I know I'm not – I've carefully studied the subject of keeping food fresh for as long as possible, and I know I'm a lot more particular than many people I have observed.