Parenting: Why We Should Always Check Our Kids' Food

Food safety is one thing I take seriously as a parent. I make sure Sam's food is clean. I even still sterilize all her cups and utensils! When dining out, I always wipe surfaces and other items that she uses. And just like the royals, I check and taste Sam's food before giving her any. Yes, I've had my fair share of disappointments with restaurants serving subpar quality. However, I was not expecting a disastrous and extremely dangerous experience with one of the most popular fast food chains in the country. 

We got to Bacolod quite late during our Negros visit. Since we had late merienda, R and I decided that we'd skip dinner. We opted to have some food to go for Sam before checking in at our hotel as she might get hungry later that night. 

I wanted to order a burger patty meal for her but it was "on hold" as the store was handling a big order when we got there. We went for fried chicken instead but we had to wait for 18 minutes. Since we did not want to look for another drive-thru, we just waited for it. 

The wait was shorter than expected which was good. We just checked if our order was complete and left for our hotel. 

An hour and a half after settling in our hotel, I began to prepare Sam's dinner. I began to cut the chicken into smaller pieces and as I got through a quarter of an inch, I noticed some red streaks. Then as I got closer to the middle part, the texture was off. It was slimy and quite rubbery. As Gordon Ramsay would describe it, IT'S RAW.

Raw chicken is not just unappetizing but dangerous too as it could contain salmonella. Suddenly, the Netflix show Poisoned was playing in my head. 

What if I got lazy and just let Sam eat the fried chicken by herself? She has no clue what raw chicken looks like. That was when I realized that this was a serious incident. I am so strict with raw eggs but this one is on a different level.

I reported it to the brand the next day and was assured that someone from customer care would get back to me. Sadly, it was poorly handled. I didn't get to talk to anyone until 10 days later. But that's a different issue.

So moms and dads, please pay extra attention to your kids' food especially when dining out. I really hope that this will never happen again to anyone.