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Original poster

Safe to eat?

27 replies

FluffyCushion123 · 14/12/2021 09:13

Veggie sausage and bean casserole been left out over in heavy cast iron pot with lid. Would’ve been cool from around 8pm so been out of fridge 13 hours. Room temperature in kitchen is now 20 degrees but would’ve been a bit lower overnight.
Gah! I hate waste :(
Bin or eat?

OP posts:
NameChangedForAChange · 14/12/2021 09:13

Eat!

freezingtoes12 · 14/12/2021 09:15

it's veggie -eat!

EmpressCixi · 14/12/2021 09:16

Bin it. Doesn’t matter that’s it vegetarian. It’s still cooked food left out at room temperature for far too many hours.

MrsPelligrinoPetrichor · 14/12/2021 09:18

That's been out far too long.

Original poster
FluffyCushion123 · 14/12/2021 09:19

Okay so divided opinions so far!

Those saying bin, are you also cautious about sell by dates ( ref recent yoghurt thread) or is this especially unsafe in your opinion?

OP posts:
FluffyBooBoo · 14/12/2021 09:20

I would eat it.

lliitttlepiinkhouse · 14/12/2021 09:20

It might be ok. Meat would be an absolute no go. But it's still got potential for bacteria to produce over that period of time at room temperature.

I couldn't enjoy it knowing it hadn't been stored correctly.

Personally I'd bin it.

MrsPelligrinoPetrichor · 14/12/2021 09:21

@FluffyCushion123

Okay so divided opinions so far!

Those saying bin, are you also cautious about sell by dates ( ref recent yoghurt thread) or is this especially unsafe in your opinion?

Not especially.
emmathedilemma · 14/12/2021 09:21

definitely eat it!

EmpressCixi · 14/12/2021 09:27

@FluffyCushion123

Okay so divided opinions so far!

Those saying bin, are you also cautious about sell by dates ( ref recent yoghurt thread) or is this especially unsafe in your opinion?

Sell by dates depend on the food they are attacked to. So cautious about meat or milk. Not cautious about cheese, yogurt, jars of pickled gherkins, raw vegetables etc.

Why I say bin your leftovers is because I used to work in a restaurant as a chef and part of that included mandatory food hygiene and safety courses. You have veggie sausage and beans which has a low boiling point that is at a temperature too low to kill any bacteria already in the food. Then, when this cooked food was left at room temperature the toxic bacteria started to multiply. The longer it is left, the more toxic bacteria there are. After 13hrs, there are enough such that you have a high likelihood of food poisoning. The other thing people do not realise is even if you now boiled the veggie and sausage at 100C for three minutes (which would actually ruin the beans & sauce) to kill the bacteria, these bacteria are still toxic even when dead as like any living creature they leave waste chemicals that can still make you sick.

BarbaraofSeville · 14/12/2021 09:55

Binning it would be ridiculous. I leave things out routinely and am never ill. It's only the last few decades that people had fridges and before that, all food was out for a day or two and stews were often pretty much a never ending pot that was added to and reboiled before serving..

BlackInk · 14/12/2021 11:43

I'm paranoid about these things and I would eat it! Just make sure you heat it up thoroughly.

Original poster
FluffyCushion123 · 14/12/2021 12:01

@EmpressCixi i have to admit your post has freaked me out a bit but on balance I think DH will be absolutely fine eating it 😬

OP posts:
EmpressCixi · 14/12/2021 13:19

Sorry don’t mean to alarm you. But in a restaurant settIng, we would never ever serve something that had sat out all night instead of being properly stored in a refrigerator.

And as for @BarbaraofSeville nostalgia for ye good old days of yore when we had no refrigerators and left things hanging in a kettle over the fire for days on end. It wasn’t without a cost. Far more people died of food bourne illnesses due to this very lack of refrigeration and food safety practices.

lastqueenofscotland · 14/12/2021 13:23

I’d eat it

MrsPelligrinoPetrichor · 14/12/2021 13:26

In the place of fridges there were proper stone larders, they were really cold. Food wasn't just left out on the side.

InTheLabyrinth · 14/12/2021 13:29

I'm usually on the side of smell it, eat it. But id bin that.

EmpressCixi · 14/12/2021 13:43

@MrsPelligrinoPetrichor

In the place of fridges there were proper stone larders, they were really cold. Food wasn't just left out on the side.
Yes, I know, but @BarbaraofSeville specifically stated that most stews were just left for days with new bits thrown in each day and the mixture reheated. I was responding to that comment because it implies you can leave cooked food out anywhere for days and it isn’t an issue “I never get ill” she said. Her advice is even worse than the centuries old safe food storage practices of using a cold larder with stone shelves or cold store or ice house or spring house.
TuftyMarmoset · 14/12/2021 13:58

I’d eat it but just make sure it was properly nuked when reheating

Heruka · 14/12/2021 14:02

I’d definitely eat it!

allofthecheese · 14/12/2021 14:09

Would most definitely eat it and have done so in the past. Also barely register sell by dates either

FindingMeno · 14/12/2021 14:14

I'd bin it, but if you decide to eat it, report back!

negomi90 · 14/12/2021 14:14

I would. If I make homemade soup and its ready late, then often its still too warm to go in the fridge overnight. This means it doesn't go in the fridge until the morning.
I make huge things of soup regularly. Have one serving straight away (from the main pot), then take soup out of the pot to reheat separately throughout the week. I've never had a problem with this, especially as I reheat things very well before eating (any other bacteria is killed in the reheating).

Original poster
FluffyCushion123 · 15/12/2021 07:31

@FindingMeno reporting back as requested… DH ate the whole lot last night and has just jumped out of bed to make me a cuppa so is still fit and well 😬! He added extra stock and boiled it furiously for a few minutes before eating it.

OP posts:
NameChangedForAChange · 15/12/2021 08:23

Well done OP!

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