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Turning Pico into Salsa, any tips?
(lemmy.zip)
When in doubt, throw it out.
I don’t wanna waste food and I’m under the impression that cooking it will fix it.
It'll fix some things. Cooking won't stop botulism, as there, the problem is a toxin that's been already produced by a microorganism, but it'll kill salmonella or listeria, if you do sufficiently cook the stuff and avoid cross-contamination via cutting boards or similar getting into you. But...at least for me, the tradeoff in trying to save money wouldn't be worth it, not for any food that's probably already made me sick. And health agencies are going to tell you to discard food where there's a known outbreak, not try to process it specially.
Yeah, you’re all right
It’s not really the money, just the idea that I’m wasting food. That’s always hard to overcome. It doesn’t help that this is my favorite food (topped over rice and beans) so I’m gonna have a disappointing set of dinners this week, assuming it’s not something else that made me ill
You should start a compost pile to help ease the idea of wasting food.
While it would be more beneficial to consume the food(when its still good), composting allows it to not go to waste. Turn it into something that can feed a nearby tree or plant.
I like that idea, we’re already saving eggshells for the calcium for that reason
I’ll look into it, thanks!
Toxic substances (ones that make you sick) are not food. Unless you are an assassin or a masochist, you are not wasting anything by throwing toxins away.
That said, did you cook the beans long enough? Some beans can create what feels like food poisoning if they are not cooked long enough.
Instant pot 30 min high pressure, 40 min natural release (black beans)
I’ve not heard of that issue with beans, only that undercooked beans are crunchy lol
As few as four or five raw beans can trigger symptoms
Well damn, you learn something new every day
I didn’t realize raw beans were so dangerous. I’m surprised they even mentioned green beans in there since those I’ve considered edible raw
Probably not the beans then. Black beans usually aren't the primary concern and you definitely cooked them long enough.
The other comment provides a good resource for the particular issue I was thinking of, so you can probably look at the other sources, and you're right to question the raw Pico.
The universe wastes nothing. Matter is never truly destroyed.
Botulinum toxin is neutralized by cooking.
The toxin, though not the spores, is destroyed by heating it to more than 85 °C (185 °F) for longer than five minutes.
There are many other types of toxins in spoiled food, so the advice is still to discard it.
In addition to the comments about cooking it not guaranteeing safety, I would also add that even eating safe salsa a day or two after you’ve had food poisoning would probably be rough on your body too. BRAT diet probably better.
I’ve never heard of BRAT, what’s that?
I’m guessing simple, plain foods?
You got it. Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast.
Oh cool, I didn’t know that had an acryonym!
I’m throwing some chicken soup into the mix to rehydrate too. It’s moments like these I’m glad I prep and freeze a bunch of soup ahead of time
Unless you know exactly what it's contaminated with, there's no safe way to turn it into something edible.
I doubt you'll want to perform all the lab tests needed to find out if it's something that can be killed by cooking it.
Yeah I was worried about that
I think if it were bacterial based I could probably cook it to death, but idk if the bacteria release other toxins that cooking doesn’t kill
I’ll see what happens if I just eat my rice and beans. It sucks not knowing what the exact cause is!
Inb4 it’s the rice
Yes if it is bad enough to already poison you, cooking it won't help.
To expand on this, food poisoning isn't always from food bacteria. It can also be from toxins produced by those bacteria. Cooking kills the bacteria but cannot remove the toxins.
Yeah I probably should have meantioned the microbial toxins.
The funny thing is that sometimes temperature treatment (cooking or deep freezing) can be enough to render food safe. I think that mostly just kills parasites, though.
Certain pathogens can multiply very quickly in as little as 4 hours in what is known as the temperature danger zone (41 to 135 F or 5 to 57 C). If you didn't wash ingredients properly or let the cut ingredients sit any longer than this at room temp then that might be the cause. Beans are particularly more vulnerable, so that was probably the bad ingredient.
Also another side note, if your food was contaminated already, certain species of bacteria release toxins and compounds that aren't destryed by heat, so eating previously contaminated food, even cooked, is a gamble. Not all of them produce toxins, but if they did those toxins will still be there even after the food is cooked.
Honestly no matter what the dish is or how it got contaminated, it's not worth it. I'd reccomend tossing it to be safe, food poisoning is not fun.
Did you wash your ingredients thoroughly beforehand? Did it sit overnight in the fridge or at room temperature?
I mean, throw it away for sure. It might be safe after cooking, who knows, but it's not worth the risk. Better to throw it out than to throw it up, isn't it?
Now, if the answer to my questions is 'no (or 'maybe not') and 'the latter' then there you have the answer at what made you sick.
Yeah everything was washed and refrigerated, I’m leaning toward some recently relaxed FDA regulations being the cause of this (assuming it is the pico)
Their site has sooooo many recent cross contamination - salmonella and some other bacteria - warnings for food
If it repeats or if your wary of it you might start washing the vegetables your gonna eat raw with a bit of bleach, like by submerging it in water with a couple ml. I usually don't do it because most I eat is the commercial kind and I assume they've disinfected it enough, but when it's something that comes more or less directly from the ground or the plant it's a must. Just a couple minutes and the you rinse it well with lots of water, it's erfectly safe and it doesn't have any smell or taste.
this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2026
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