Food safety - raw meat on same shelf as other stuff

[CoolHands]

ok I'm not overly worried as (my family) have managed to live this long, but: I notice on Ramsey's kitchen nightmares he castigates chefs because they have raw meat on the same shelf as cooked meat. He goes mental at them about how it's dangerous. So on our bottom shelf of our fridge we often have raw meat (in the shop-bought packaging, eg the tray and cellophane wrap) and also keep lettuce, tomatoes, and sometimes other cooked meat in a separate container etc. on the same shelf.

Is it genuinely dangerous? How do the germs get from one thing to another? Or is it that in all likelihood it never is a problem, but obviously if you're running a business you can't afford to ever get it wrong.

[grumbledoak]

"Dripping", in short. The germs don't fly between foods under their own power, but dripping blood or water will do it. Contamination by touching one then the other is another.

The supermarket packaging is pretty impermeable (because they don't want contaminated shelves either).

[scdan4]

If an EHO were to find it in a commercial kitchen they'd have a blue fit. It's a big no no.

There is a potential for contamination with potentially serious ecoli'y results.

At work it never happens, at home we've never paid it any attention and not died either.

[Pit Pony]

When I have rented a room in a shared house, with a shared fridge, I always insist on the top shelf in the fridge, and put all my raw meat in a sealed Tupperware, so it can't drip on my housemates food. Call me paranoid, but I've never had the sts.

[wijit]

In terms of commercial premises, either food manufacture or food preparation it is a massive nono. But there should be a fast enough turnover of food and cooked properly there really shouldn't be time for bacteria to grow sufficiently to cause any harm. I've been in food auditing for almost 15 years and never come across this sort of contamination actually causing a problem, even though it in theory, invites bacteria.
Similarly at home, basic common sense dictates that you would be a bit careful, but still it is far harder to cause a problem than it is to avoid one.

[calibrax]

Pit Pony said:

When I have rented a room in a shared house, with a shared fridge, I always insist on the top shelf in the fridge, and put all my raw meat in a sealed Tupperware, so it can't drip on my housemates food. Call me paranoid, but I've never had the sts.

But strangely your housemates always seem to get them?

Seriously though, as long as it's sealed then it shouldn't be a problem.

[Pit Pony]

calibrax said:

Pit Pony said:

When I have rented a room in a shared house, with a shared fridge, I always insist on the top shelf in the fridge, and put all my raw meat in a sealed Tupperware, so it can't drip on my housemates food. Call me paranoid, but I've never had the sts.

But strangely your housemates always seem to get them?

Seriously though, as long as it's sealed then it shouldn't be a problem.

My niece is very OCD, and flips out big style if you use her MUG for coffee, and not one reserved for visitors. And yet the inside of her fridge is a the worst mish mash of open packages of raw and cooked meats, and open cheese going mouldy. Randomly thrown in and
half of it past it's use by date. I don't get it.

[CoolHands]

While we're on this topic what's the thing about letting freshly cooked meat go cold before you refridgarate it? At the moment we leave it on the side until it goes cold naturally over a couple of hours, then put it in the fridge (or freeze it). This is because I think you're not meant to put it in fridge warm, right? But how cold must it really be ie stone cold, or what? Only ask cos shepherds pie etc can take ages to go cold.

[grumbledoak]

I think that's old advice to prevent you warming up the fridge/freezer's other contents. I don't think it is such an issue with modern fridges so I put things in as soon as I dare these days.

[jmorgan]

Re just cooked and freezing. I keep it out the freezer until it is sort of cool, unless there is a space where it will not warm up something else past freezing. Some freezers are better than others and will cope (one which survey had a freezer taking over 24 hours to to freeze something)

With regards separating cooked and un cooked. People will get away with it but one day the solids will hit the fan. Well, solids, liquids..... that I will avoid if I can and it is easy.