It’s a bright warm day at a big summer barbecue and you’re standing in line for a third helping of macaroni salad. Someone mentions how incredibly hot it is here and the question of food safety suddenly occurs to you. The food has been waiting for almost an hour and that incredible macaroni salad is loaded with mayonnaise. How likely is it to give you food poisoning? Pretty likely you decide. Mayonnaise and heat are a bad combination. You skip the macaroni salad and instead have a second helping of barbecue baby back ribs.
| Channel | Publish Date | Thumbnail & View Count | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
 Mayo Clinic | 2017-11-07 17:01:15 |  10,051 Views |
Mayo Clinic Minute: Food Safety of Fruits and Vegetables
If this scenario sounds familiar you’ve fallen prey to one of the biggest food safety myths out there: mayonnaise is the most likely culprit behind food poisoning at picnics barbecues and other outdoor events. While this may have been true in the days before commercially produced mayonnaise nothing could be further from the truth. In fact the mayonnaise in that macaroni salad may actually make it safer to consume than its mayonnaise-free counterpart. Worse yet some of the other mayonnaise-free dishes that have been sitting on your Styrofoam plate are more likely to have you calling in sick to work tomorrow than dishes with mayonnaise.
So why do people believe this mayo myth? At its core it’s a holdover from the days when the only mayo you could find at that barbecue grill was homemade. Most recipes for homemade mayonnaise call for raw eggs which according to the USDA should always be stored at 104 degrees Fahrenheit or slightly colder. Leaving homemade mayonnaise out at room temperature let alone in the heat dramatically increases your risk of foodborne illness from salmonella and other pathogens. Back in the day when people realized the connection between homemade mayo and food poisoning they would (rightfully) shake their heads and groan “It must have been the mayonnaise” whenever someone developed food poisoning afterward. The habit stuck even when the advent of commercially produced mayo completely changed the microbial game.
The thing is store-bought mayonnaise is very different from its homemade counterpart. It’s highly unlikely to make you sick (unless it’s spoiled). For one thing it’s made with eggs that while raw are pasteurized to prevent harmful bacteria. (Store-bought tartar sauce is also made with pasteurized mayonnaise in case you were wondering.) Additionally the lemon juice and vinegar in store-bought mayonnaise make it too acidic an environment for foodborne pathogens which it actually kills and prevents them from forming. This means it’s more of a friend than a foe for food safety and its presence in that tempting macaroni salad or on a chicken sandwich probably helps keep pathogens away. So much for blaming the mayonnaise!
