Food poisoning at a wedding!!!

I've never had food poisoning before, so I just thought in was something rare. You have opened my eyes. And now I can't unsee that meme, lol, or my friend in it. Can't wait to pop that bad boy out the next time he has us over to his house.

Well thank god we've opened someone's eyes. It's usually at this point that an OP will start talking about how everyone is a board certified chef and their event will be different and we're all meanies.... Hang around, it'll probably happen tomorrow or so.

A lot of the "24 hour flu" that people talk about is actually mild food poisoning.

ETA: or hangovers, lol.

The last wedding I went to was lovely. Their son was adorable, the bride cried, everyone was happy.

Until later that night when their potluck/self-catered food (it was a combination of both) decided to turn on me. Not fun :-(

I've had food poisoning from professionally catered weddings, have never been to a self-catered one, and we are not self catering our own.

That being said, the concerns about liability and being stuck with a loved one's medical bills speak to the sad state of affairs of our country - we're ridiculously litigious and we're overburdened by incomprehensible medical bills for even brief hospital visits. Slightly off topic and also rather depressing I suppose.

To get back on track, I'm curious - wouldn't logical consistency here also mean that people shouldn't host dinner parties? Or have friends and family over for potlucks? I understand there's a lower chance of getting food poisoning when cooking for a much smaller crowd due to obvious logistics but still - it is in theory a risk every time you make food for anyone. ***note: not a defense of self catered weddings!

@ Sarah, I think that's why I've never given it a second thought. We have a potluck every Sunday at work, every holiday with family, and 2-3 times a month with friends. I will be more cautious from now on though.

Good point, Sarah. It becomes a question of acceptable risk. If you're feeding family, say, vs having a business dinner. Wedding I think falls somewhere in between.

In addition, if this many people here feel this way, then possibly some wedding guests may feel equally queasy about the possibility.

I would think the risk is smaller for smaller crowds because most people have the proper equipment for a small crowd. Most of us don't have the appropriate gear to cook dinner for 50. So then you have to veer off of the acceptable routine of food making and start to improvise. Recipe for failure (pun intended). No household oven was meant to produce meals of that size. Thus commercial kitchens.

Nope. Been to two, actually some of the best wedding food I had. I have had food poisoning from restaurants, but not at the few catered weddings I've been to. I think if you know what your doing and have a small wedding (20 people or less) it's really not that bad. But I think it's too much work and equipment to keep food for 100 people hot or cold is expensive and it's just better to hire a caterer.

@Sarah: while there is certainly still a question of whether or not food will be properly prepared/kept, a small dinner party or even a bigger dinner like Thanksgiving is much more likely to have everything kept appropriately if only thanks to the availability of the person's refrigerator and kitchen. It's much easier to stick a big bowl of potato salad and a platter of deviled gags in the fridge while waiting for a turkey to rest (and cooking sides like sweet potatoes,) before carving, than it is to find an ice bath to keep the food cold enough at a wedding reception outside in the August heat.

I mean, I can easily keep all the cold stuff cold in my fridge for our 15-20 person thanksgiving dinner, and since I use a roaster for the turkey, I can easily time everything else to ensure its all ready about the same time, so it's all safe to eat.

As for the medical bills, while I wouldn't personally sue a family member for food poisoning, I would be somewhat put off if they expected me to cover a bill like that if I ended up with it as a result of them trying to cut corners at their wedding.

Self catering is bad for many reasons. The food poisoning, the disorganization, the making-friends- and-family-work factor. The everything will be late factor. The "your venue may not even let you do this' factor.

The last week before your wedding is insane with details that you can't predict now and cooking and serving food for lots of people is a singular activity. It's not like making Thanksgiving dinner.

NO one should even consider this.

@BeachBride, if you get food poisoning in Ontario, and it's confirmed by a doctor, they must report it to Public Health. A Public Health nurse will come and interview you about where you ate and they will ask inspect the facility where the food was served. We had an incident about 6 years ago where a restaurant got shut down because of 60 cases of food poisoning from a catered event.

It happened to me. Not a wedding, but a self catered family reunion. I got horrible food poisoning from a slice of pineapple that was left out in the sun for too long when I was 12. The only reason why I didn't go to the hospital was because my mom was also too sick from eating it, too, to take me. Professional caterers monitor food and would know better than leave food out like that for too long. Also, at a neighbor hood party (and I mentioned this in a post last week) I went to go eat a slice of chocolate cake that my neighbor made, and found that it was packed with cat hair. Gag.

@Grooms there was a bride on here not long ago who bought all the food herself and a free "friendor" cooked it. The majority of their guests got sick from the meat. Bride and Groom had to delay the flight to their honeymoon because they were so sick. The only time I've gotten food poisoning was a restaurant, and I blame the iffy-looking bean sprouts that were on top of my dish.

@Grooms there was a bride on here not long ago who bought all the food herself and a free "friendor" cooked it. The majority of their guests got sick from the meat. Bride and Groom had to delay the flight to their honeymoon because they were so sick. The only time I've gotten food poisoning was a restaurant, and I blame the iffy-looking bean sprouts that were on top of my dish.

Those are good points, and I guess I can see how a loved one would be more likely to sue if their food poisoning was due to cutting corners rather than just my bad cooking.

@ bicycle, always blame the sprouts! Blergh

YES!!!!

Ended up in the hospital for 3 days. I couldn't keep anything down and I was loosing weight rapidly. We think it was from the salad "bar" they had.

Moral of the story, NO SELF CATERING!!

We self-catered and no one got food poisoning. That said, we handled the food properly using proper temps and handling procedures.

Can it happen? Of course. But so can professionally catered weddings.