[StBernard] READ THIS...ONIONS

[Westley Annis]

Amazing information I received from a friend!!

Rena

 

I had the wonderful privilege of touring Mullins Food Products, makers of
mayonnaise. Mullins  is huge, and is owned by 11 brothers and sisters in the
Mullins family. My friend, Jeanne, is the CEO. 

Questions about food poisoning came up, and I wanted to share what  I
learned from a chemist. 

The guy who gave us our tour is named Ed. He's one of the brothers. Ed is a
chemistry expert and is involved in developing most of the sauce formula.
He's even developed sauce formula for McDonalds. 

Keep in mind that Ed is a food chemistry whiz. During the tour, someone
asked if we really needed to worry about mayonnaise. People are always
worried that mayonnaise will spoil. Ed's answer will surprise  you. 

Ed said that all commercially-made Mayo is completely safe. 

"It doesn't even have to be refrigerated. No harm in refrigerating it, but
it's not really necessary." He explained that the pH in mayonnaise is set at
a point that bacteria could not survive in that environment.  He then talked
about the quintessential picnic, with the bowl of potato salad sitting on
the table and how everyone blames the mayonnaise when someone gets sick. 

Ed says that when food poisoning is reported, the first thing the officials
look for is when the 'victim' last ate ONIONS and where those onions came
from (in the potato salad?). Ed says it's not the mayonnaise (as long as
it's not homemade Mayo) that spoils in the outdoors. It's probably the
onions, and if  not the onions, it's the POTATOES. He explained, onions are
a huge magnet for  bacteria, especially uncooked onions. 

You should never plan to keep a portion of a sliced onion. He says it's not
even safe if you put it in a zip-lock bag and put it in your refrigerator.
It's already contaminated enough just by being cut open and out for a bit,
that it can be a danger to you (and doubly watch out for those onions you
put in your hot dogs at the baseball park!) 

Ed says if you take the leftover onion and cook it like crazy you'll
probably be okay, but if you slice that leftover onion and put it on your
sandwich, you're asking for trouble. Both the onions and the moist potato in
a potato salad, will attract and grow bacteria faster than any commercial
mayonnaise will even begin to break down. 

So, how's that for news? Take it for what you will. I (the author) am going
to be very careful about my onions from now on. For some reason, I see  a
lot of credibility coming from a chemist and a company, that produces
millions of pounds of mayonnaise every year.' 
  
Also, dogs should never eat onions. Their stomachs cannot metabolize onions.