Is this "rule" followed in the UK.

[Onetwistedsista]

So I've worked in the USA and this rule about food not being refrigerated within over 2 hours drives me nuts! Do people in the UK do that? For example, bake cottage pie, leave to cool, then forget about it ( by mistake) but toss it out for possible baceria. Here in South Africa they'd just laugh at me. I've not followed it till now simply because of my DS but its stressful. So cook a pot of food, but takes forever to cool then dip it in a cold sink of ice so it cools faster! What a schlep! Has anyone here actually really gotten 'sick 'by eaten something that hasn't been refrigerated within 2 hours?

I'd leave it to cool before refrigeration, for fear of heating up the fridge to a dangerous level.

Food hygiene regulations for businesses say perishable food can be left out at room temperature for four hours before needing to be disposed of, and that's being on the safe side because feeding the public is different to feeding your family.

I've always let food cool before refrigerating but I'll be honest I'm not super militant about it being within 2 hrs.

The US rule is more in relation to family bbqs in the summer and cold dishes like potato salad. Summers are hotter in US than U.K.
I was posted to Florida for 3yrs and the winters were hotter than our U.K. summers.

I had heard about the cool down thing, but it’s really meant to be measured from when the food hits room temperature not from when it comes out the oven.

Never heard that and I grew up in America.

Let food cool, sometimes that means overnight, then fridge. Keep for up to 6 days in fridge. Not ill or dead yet.

I did a weeks food hygiene course years ago, when I was with another company, and I follow the three hour rule, not two, but generally I will have it in thr fridge within two hours,

I once had terrible food poisoning from a raw egg in a cake someone made, and I'm very careful with food hygiene since that and the course.

You only need one episode of shitting and puking at the same time to make you risk averse,,,😂.

I lived in America until I was 30. I've never heard this 'rule'. I do work in public health and yes, food ideally should be cooled to a proper temperature and then refrigerated, but there is no hard and fast rule about how quickly and it very much depends on what it is/how it was cooked/ambient temps/etc. My family in the U.S. definitely leaves food sitting out overnight after being cooked and then dishes it up for Thanksgiving/Christmas/whatever the next day. That does make me feel a bit ick to be honest, but to the best of my knowledge, none of them have ever gotten sick from it.

I've always done it in Britain as I had to do food hygiene courses but nobody in the States follows the same rule that I've noticed. They all just put it in hot!

In fact dh and I fight because I leave things sitting out all night and he thinks it's gross. None of us have ever got sick so he's wrong.

My first job was working in a kitchen so I learnt not put things in the fridge until cool. But I never do it spot on 2hrs just when I’m clearing away or tidying later in the evening

Cold food, eg buffets, can be left out for 4 hrs before being chilled or binned.
Hot food can be left out for 2 hrs, before being chilled or reheated iirc.

I'll leave stuff out to cool, not generally overnight, but probably more than 2 hrs.

I live in (the north of) the UK. I leave stuff out to cool naturally, except rice or sometimes casserole which I cool in the pan by submerging in a sinkful of cold water. Hence I prefer stainless steel pans, even for cooking in the oven; no danger of them cracking due to heat difference between the outside & inside. However I have occasionally forgotten & just left it to cool naturally, even overnight.

Fruit pies, & anything that's just vegetables etc, I leave to cool naturally before it goes in the fridge. In winter it often just gets left out until the next day. None of us have ever had food poisoning. I've always heard that you shouldn't put hot things into the fridge as it raises the fridge temperature beyond safe levels, increasing risk of spoilage for everything inside, just for the sake of cooling one food item.

Well certain upmarket restaurants in Los Angeles where i worked apply this. I guess each state is different

Oh you're saying it gets chucked out if it's left out too long? Sorry was half asleep when I read it. Yes dh doesn't have a hard and fast rule about 2 hours but after a (quite short) time he'll refuse to eat anything that's been out.

Having said that, we have much warmer summers and I've noticed how food goes off much quicker than the UK here.

It depends on the weather. In winter I’ll happily leave things out longer. In summer I’d rather put something in the fridge when it’s still fairly warm (how safe this is depends on how good your fridge is) rather than leave it out longer.

If I was a restaurant I’d have stricter standards as it would be my whole business on the line if someone got ill.

My mama leaves food out overnight and will eat it the next day. She's not died yet. I think she forgets though that we are not in Russia anymore where it's so cold it doesn't matter if you leave it out because the outside is probably colder than the fridge.

If I have something like Paella I will decant it out of the pot (cast iron which stays warm for ages) into a container and stick it in the beer fridgeuite quickly, as rice can be dodgy.

I'd be the same with chicken or fish but something like cottage pie wouldn't be as fastidious

The beer fridge is brilliant for coooling things fast and I've rarely had the beer warm up. Wouldn't do it with a normal fridge

I use ice blocks to cool things quickly.

Apparently modern fridges recover much more quickly from having hot food placed in them so whilst you might not want to put 3 or 4 family sized cottage pies in the fridge straight from the oven one should be fine.

I quite often cook in the evening, leave overnight to cool, put on fridge early next morning. Never been ill on that. Wouldn't do it overnight like that in boiling hot summer but rest if year is fine. I never put warm/hot things in the fridge. But I always bin rice that's leftover as I once got campylobacter from rice at a restaurant and I was really ill.

I'd leave a pot of stew on the hob overnight, just shoved to the back. Might or might not refrigerate next day, or simply simmer it for 15 minutes before eating.

Human beings survived before fridges. They had pantries and meat-safes. You just need to heat it long enough, at a high enough temperature, to kill the bugs. Unless it's rice, of course.

I leave things out on the counter to cool and it goes into the fridge whenever I remember. I've accidentally left things out overnight, reheated them and lived to tell the tale.

How on earth did we manage before we all had fridges? I don't mean back in the dark ages, but when I was a child and food was kept in the larder?

certain upmarket restaurants in Los Angeles apply this

Well in a restaurant of course!

In the house? Nah.

I’ve left food out until the next day until sticking in the fridge. Oh regularly leaves the leftovers of last nights takeaway on the side and sticks it in the microwave for breakfast the next morning. None of us have got sick