How important is it to wash a slow cooker before its first use? - 3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community

3FCer344892 · 03-11-2011, 06:21 PM

I feel stupid. I bought a crock-pot the other day and decided to put on some soup for dinner. Anyway, I guess I wasn't thinking. I only wiped the stonware down with a damp paper-towel before throwing my ingredients in it. I didn't look at the directions until my soup was already cooking, so I didn't read that you're supposed to wash it in warm, soapy water. Is it going to be bad to eat my soup? It's already almost finished (been cooking for several hours). Will it be safe to eat or should I toss it?

Pint Sized Terror · 03-11-2011, 06:48 PM

I think if you knew half the gross stuff that ends up coming into contact with the products you buy in transit, you'd DEFINITELY want to wash it. My brother works at Walmart, and there have been trucks with smashed cans of maggot-ridden dog food leaking into other items, and he was told to wipe the items off and put them on the shelves. BLECH!!

Since your crock pot was in a box, maybe it won't be that bad, but the products they use to process the materials used to make the crock are probably why they tell you to wash it. That and it has been touched by people making and assembling it.

Then again, I can be a germo-phobe.

In all likelihood, I don't think it will make your food "bad" as in kill you or make you sick bad, just kind of icky bad. :/ If I had already made it, I would probably eat it.

3FCer344892 · 03-11-2011, 06:54 PM

I'm a germaphobe too. I can't believe it slipped my mind at all, but I haven't been all here here lately.

If I wasn't on foodstamps I'd toss the stuff. It was in a box, though. Hopefully it won't make me sick or anything.

bargoo · 03-11-2011, 07:05 PM

I wash all pots and pans and dishes before the first use.

3FCer344892 · 03-11-2011, 07:09 PM

I usually do too. I have no idea where my head is.

QuilterInVA · 03-11-2011, 07:43 PM

I just wipe them out and use them. If there are any germs in there, the long cooking will have done them in. I've never had food poisioning at home. Enjoy your soup.

fatburner77 · 03-11-2011, 08:10 PM

If it were me, I'd eat the soup. I've put grosser things in my body from absent-mindedly touching my fingers to my mouth after a day spent "in public."

kaplods · 03-11-2011, 08:53 PM

On a scale of 1 to 10, I think we're talking a 1 here. Unless you live in a bubble, you're exposed to far greater risks on a daily (heck, minutely) basis.

There are basically two possible sources of contamination - biological and chemical.

From a bio-contaminant point of view, just the temperature of cooking the food is going to sterilize just about anything to safe levels.

And from a chemical viewpoint, you'ld need more than soap and water to remove a dangerous chemical contaminant.

CrystalZ10 · 03-12-2011, 02:38 AM

Meh..my mom always said that everyone would eat a pound of dirt before they died..lol
As far as germs go, the crock pot cooks on high for a long amount of time so any germs would probably be killed off.
Its always safer to wash it, but I forgot to wash mine too, and the gumbo didn't make us sick.

I gotta say, your kitty looks a lot like mine in the face..(Fishy doesn't have any dark spots down his back, but he has the same dark spot on his head.

3FCer344892 · 03-12-2011, 02:55 AM

Oh, wow, Crystal. Our kitties do look a lot alike. It's funny, because I was thinking that the instant I looked at your picture, and then I laughed out loud once I read your last sentence.