No Pot Pies For Me, Thank You

                                                

Just as my normal get-ready-for-work routine involves watching "Good Morning, America", my evening get-home-from-work routine involves watching the news while changing into my play clothes.  Today, an interesting news story caught my attention while I was changing into a t-shirt and khaki shorts.  Apparently, there have been over 70 reported cases of salmonella poisoning from eating Banquet chicken pot pies.  But the news story went on to say that ConAgra, the corporation that owns Banquet, had no plans for a recall on the pot pies.  WTF?  There have been 139 reported cases in 30 states of people getting sick after eating the pot pies and ConAgra doesn't seem to care? 

Ever the inquisitive one, I did some research on this, and was surprised to find that salmonella poisoning is fairly common in pot pies.  To make the long story short, people get in a hurry for their pot pies, and they simply don't cook them long enough.  I was surprised to find out that botulism is fairly common in pot pies. Here's what the CDC (Center for Disease Control) website had to say about it: The organism produces a heat stable toxin when allowed to grow for several hours in foods such as chicken pot pie. This bacterial growth doesn't cause any off color, odor, textural or flavor change, but the toxin will be secreted into the food.  The toxin is not affected by heating or freezing.  Even though the food is heated before eating, the poison in the food will still cause illness although the heat has killed the bacterial cells. I guess you pay your money and you take your chances.

When I was a kid, I remember my Grandpa eating the Banquet chicken pot pies all the time; mainly, because we got them from my uncle who worked for Premium Foil - the supplier of the aluminum foil that made the little pot pie pans.  He loved them.  I could never bring myself to eat one, and still can't, even though KFCand O'Charley's advertise them as being awesome.  I just don't like all of my foods jumbled up into one little area. Now, if they had the crust shell, chicken, and vegetables separate, I'd probably eat it, but not all contained in one pot pie.  At least I won't have to worry about getting salmonella from eating contaminated pot pies;  I can focus all my energy on avoiding e Coli in my medium-rare steaks.