In article .net,
Edward Greeley wrote:

OK, Jeff, I LOOKED at a jar of Hellman's "REAL" Mayonaise that is in my
fridge which bears a "Best if used by" date of Oct 11 05. The label
plainly, clearly and specifically states: "REFRIGERATE AFTER OPENING".

The list of ingredients includes WHOLE EGGS and EGG YOLKS. Ain't NO WAY
I would use the stuff if it had been stored at room temp for any length
of time (say, more than a couple of hours max) 'cause I've had food
poisoning before and it's not a lot of fun.


See my other post. Straight mayo is innocent. Mayo *MIXED WITH OTHER
THINGS* is a whole different story. As the pepsi gal said, the acidity
is too high to permit bacterial growth.

Datapoint for you: my family has *NEVER* stored mayo cold. *EVER*

We've had three cases of food poisoning in the family during the 40
years I've been walking this earth. 2 were from home-canned stuff that
didn't "take" properly - verified by testing at the MSU lab after
"incidents". One case was botulism, from venison heart my grandmother
had canned. Testing showed that the entire batch was so loaded with the
bug that it should have killed us all (It didn't mainly because the
taste was "off" enough that nobody ate more than a couple bites before
sending the whole batch of stew to the garbage - Mom was the only one
who got sick.) The other was, of all things, a batch of mom-canned peas
that showed ptomaine when tested, and made me sicker than sick for most
of a week. The third was (strongly suspected, but never formally
verified) spaghetti sauce from a long-since defunct italian restaurant
that put my mother in the hospital for several days.

We all eat mayo like it's going out of style. And after each use, the
jar either sits on the kitchen counter or gets tucked back into the
pantry along with the dry and canned goods.

I can look through the doorway to my left, and see the two-quart jar of
Best Foods (AKA "Hellmann's" east of the Rockies) Mayo is sitting where
I left it on the counter the other day while making egg salad. It is,
and will remain, just fine indefinitely, and I'll use it until it either
goes rancid (At least months, if not more than a year), or the jar is
empty, whichever comes first, and I'll have absolutely no hesitation
about doing so. Same as I've done for the last 40 years without incident.

The "refrigerate after opening" is specifically aimed at slowing down
the air-oxidization that turns mayo, butter, and several types of
cooking oil rancid. It has nothing whatsoever to do with preventing food
poisoning.

--
Don Bruder - - New Email policy in effect as of Feb. 21, 2004.
Short form: I'm trashing EVERY E-mail that doesn't contain a password in the
subject unless it comes from a "whitelisted" (pre-approved by me) address.
See http://www.sonic.net/~dakidd/main/contact.html for full details.