Goomba38 > wrote:

>I've often heard told that down south previous generations
>would put out a spread for Sunday dinner at noon and cover it with a
>cloth. Then as the day progressed anyone could go back and forth for
>food and that was often the supper meal too. I don't recall hearing of
>resultant illness or deaths being attributed to this practice

During "previous generations" there were far fewer pathogens in the
food because factory-meat and factory-chicken had not yet been
developed. Plus, since antibiotics were not applied to farm
animals, the pathogens that were there were not "superbugs".

Basically food ingredients are now less wholesome so what
was safe practice in the past is no longer safe.

Steve