Which food do you ignore the risks?

The great food safety paradox thread got lots of us talking about our favourite foods and I have to admit that while I commented about the risks of raw oysters and how they're not for me, there are other foods I do take a risk on and ignore ANY concerns from a food safety perspective because I like the taste.

Yep, I'm a hypocrite.

So mould ripened and blue cheeses.  I'm not personally a fan of Stichelton mostly because I don't think it tastes very nice but I eat a lot of pasteurised but will eat even raw milk versions of these while being vehemently opposed to the idea of raw milk as a drink.  It's stupidity, there is data that some cheese manufacturers claim about competing microflora that "it's all fine" to which I say  :roflmao: and then eat it anyway.

I'm also a bit of a fan of smoked salmon.  Despite knowing the prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes.  And now getting close to an age where that's probably more concerning.  Also when I cook salmon at home?  There's no way I'm cooking it for as long as the pack says.  If it's just on the turn of becoming translucent?  That's when it's done.  

What are your moments of foods safety hypocrisy just because it tastes great?

I will never make cookies and not eat the dough.  I often sample cake batter and sometimes bread doughs also, but cookie dough will always happen. 

I freeze my flour for at least a week before dumping it in my bin and my bin gets a thorough scrubbing every December as I go through a lot of flour in Nov and Dec.  I tell myself it makes it safer (at least from bugs), but I know it's still a risk every time.  

Other than that I do watch dates and I'm sure I throw food away before it's actually bad more often than I should, especially partially used items.  I sometimes wish manufacturers would add a "use within x days after opening" on some of their packaging, and I occasionally see it, but I also understand adding more info to labels can be a huge burden.  I'm hoping as companies add QR codes to packaging that the use after opening timeframe will be added to the information when items are scanned.  

Oh, yeah same as Lynx. If my girlfriend is making a batch of homeade chocolate chip cookies, I'm going to eat some of the dough. I recall being scolded in here by the entire European group of food safety professionals as a whole in the past when I mentioned this. But here in the land of the free we eat cookie dough. 'Murica!

I eat fresh produce from my garden and orchard all the time with nothing more than rubbing it on my shirt to clean it.

Cookie dough, and maybe a few other baked desserts for the holidays usually get tasted raw.

I sometimes wish manufacturers would add a "use within x days after opening" 

They don't have that in the US?  Colour me surprised.  Seems to be room for it on UK and EU packs, possibly a bit too much.

It was a common thing to "lick the spoon" or "lick the bowl" when making a cake in the UK but we had a huge crisis with Salmonella in eggs in the late 80s which led to almost our entire flock being inoculated against it on an ongoing basis as part of the "Lion egg" scheme.  But I think the fact it had been such a scare so people stopped eating anything with raw egg in it but also increasing households where both parents worked meant less baking went on anyway.

So the cookie dough thing had it's equivalence here, it just took a really big scare to stop it and then it never returned even though the eggs are damned safe nowadays (the flour, not quite so much but even then if you actually test the flour, you don't get as many hits as you'd think.)

You guys and your rare burgers though, that scares me more than cookie dough.

Oysters.  Steak tartare with a raw quail egg on top.  Tripe tacos (not risky as long as it's cooked right).    Drank homemade rattle snake moonshine when I lived in MX.   Not risky, but I made carbonara with fried pig cheeks a few weeks ago, some people think it's 'gross'.   

When I became a vegetarian I went sans milk as well and started using Cashew Nut milk and Coconut milk for my coffee as we let anything that has to do with the taking of life off the list and that means milk cause the little calfs to be taken away from their momma's and many times killed, thus milk was a no no and I allways loved a nice cold glass of raw milk (yes I know a terrible thing in many peoples eyes) and I have to admit that I love raw milk - yesterday we could not get coconut milk or nut milk at the store but hey had a special on heavy cream.... yup, I caved in and today I've been enjoying it with my mushroom coffee.

And while I've gotten used to plant based "chicken" fillets and marinated Lions Mane mushroom steaks i will admit that living on an island with Fried Clam, Fried Oyster and Crab/Lobster meat rolls is starting to get to me - so much so, that I'm thinking about being a vegetarian and seafood person - but continue not eating land-based and air based animals.

There's just something about a Fisherman's Fried Platter with loads of tartar sauce that gets very appealing when summer comes.

Oysters.  Steak tartare with a raw quail egg on top.  Tripe tacos (not risky as long as it's cooked right).    Drank homemade rattle snake moonshine when I lived in MX.   Not risky, but I made carbonara with fried pig cheeks a few weeks ago, some people think it's 'gross'.   

Yeah but the pig cheeks aren't risky.  One of our supermarkets here in the UK used to sell ox cheek.  Now very sadly delisted.  I was probably the only person buying it.  THE most tender and flavourful cut if you treat it right.  They also stock things like ox heart, lamb heart, kidneys etc.  While I baulk at anyone in the last century realistically eating jellied eels, offal is still consumed in the UK, especially by older generations and it's had a bit of a renaissance in the past few years with a resurgence in "nose to tail" eating and celebrating some of our traditional dishes made with the unusual cuts out of history of widespread poverty in the UK and rationing.  We may have had a huge empire but most Brits didn't benefit from it.

Sushi. Raw oysters - only if I'm at a restaurant near an ocean. Licking the spoon of a batter. Potlucks.  :giggle:  - you never know the condition of other employee's homes. 

I am really fond of raw milk cheese-----and I won't apologize for it

Sushi particularly when you live close to a high density Asian population   I eat where the non English speakers eat

I do NOT however lick the bowl anymore, not because of the eggs, but the flour...........