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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to not eat chicken casserole left out overnight?

92 replies

tumpymummy · 15/04/2017 18:50

Help! We have just arrived at MIL's house for Easter weekend. She is getting dinner ready which is a chicken casserole. However she has just said that she made the casserole yesterday and has left it on the hob for 24 hours! Hubby asked why she hadn't put it in the fridge after making it? She says it was because she couldn't lift the pan (too heavy with casserole in) and that it will be fine!!! I dont think it will and would never normally eat chicken that hasn't been refridgerated. I have said to hubby that I am not happy eating it, but he says we have to so as not to offend her after she has been to all this trouble. She also had the heating on today so it's not as though her kitchen has been cool all day. What do I do?!

OP posts:

Dothehokeykokey · 16/04/2017 08:19

Why the hell wouldn't you eat it?

And what's all the bollocks about @not with it being chicken" and "if it was beef, but not poultry"?

People are nuts, nuts I tell you!

kingscrossnoodle · 16/04/2017 08:35

why the hell wouldn't you eat it?

Probably because of the risk of becoming ill. You can get some nasty bacteria breeding away when you leave food out at room temp. That's generally why the advice is to refrigerate within 2 hours.

people are nuts, nuts I tell you

You think people are nuts because they suggest heeding the advice of may many years of food testing and investigation?

Right then.

You may want to take your chances, and that's absolutely fine, but when you are going against food safety advice it's downright rude to insult people who simply follow.

BlueSkyBurningBright · 16/04/2017 10:10

When I was a child, we would spend all out school holidays at our holiday home in Wales. My mother used to make our 'holiday stew'. It was meat and vegetables, lived on the stove and she would just add more ingredients as the week went on. Sounds vile now, but we loved it. No side effects or illness. I think we are all tougher than we think.

BoreOfWhabylon · 16/04/2017 11:23

FFS, you have two microbiologists on the thread explaining how this is perfectly safe!

I almost never eat casseroles/stews until the next day - they are much better when given time for the flavour to develop and also all the fat solidifies when cold and can be lifted/scraped off.

Like another poster (sorry, can't scroll back to name-check), my casserole dishes are too big and take too long to cool down to go straight into the fridge.

HowSmug · 16/04/2017 11:46

FFS, you have two microbiologists on the thread explaining how this is perfectly safe!. 😱😱

I used to investigate food poisoning outbreaks and it is definitely NOT perfectly safe to eat chicken casserole that has been left out over night. Chances are it will be ok but there is still a risk that it won't be. Food poisoning can be really severe. I'm shocked so many people think it's ok. 🤢🤢🤢
It's a bit like riding a bike without a helmet - chances are that you will be fine but why take the risk?

HowSmug · 16/04/2017 11:53

Igneococcus and TheWayYouLookTonight

Surely there is a risk of Clostridium perfringens, Clostridium botulinum or Bacillus cereus? Not saying it's a big risk but for home cooked food surely it's there? (I'm NOT a microbiologist so happy to be corrected)

needastrongone · 16/04/2017 12:21

For me (and I can only speak for me) it's about weighing up the risk.

To continue using the cycling analogy Smug, meandering on a quiet cycle path in the country side I wouldn't wear a helmet, although I accept there is still some risk possibly. On a busy main road in rush hour, I would wear a helmet.

Chicken cooked thoroughly, left overnight with the lid on tight, and reheated thoroughly, yes I would eat. Left uncovered for 3 days, no I wouldn't

What's the risk of putting still warm food into a fridge? I would like to know that too personally.

mortificado · 16/04/2017 12:22

I always do this! Never been ill once!

Mo55chop5 · 16/04/2017 13:24

I would NOT eat it and I say that as an ex chef. If I did that in a restaurant kitchen and people were ill it would be shut down

Igneococcus · 16/04/2017 13:46

howsmug all these strains are spore formers which slightly changes the situation, but both Clostridia species are anaerobes, so would be slow growers from spores under these conditions and their toxins are heat- labile, so reheating properly would deal with any produced toxin. It's different for B. cereus, which is an aerobe and its toxin survives heating but i just cant see how you'd get enough growth from the spores which survive the cooking process (which doesn't kill them all but reduces numbers depending on the time it is at 100 C) to yield significant amounts of toxin.
I'm basing this on something that has been cooked for a significant amount of time and then cooled down in a casserole dish (it would take a few hours in my fake Le Creuset dish to drop to a temperature where mesophiles can grow) and eaten within a day. Completely different if it were a stir fry or something like it.

ArriettyClock1 · 16/04/2017 13:54

It's going to be thoroughly warmed up - it will be fine. I'd eat it without a moment's worry.

People are too paranoid.

kingscrossnoodle · 16/04/2017 13:56

FFS, you have two microbiologists on the thread explaining how this is perfectly safe! oh that's it then, silly me for daring to suggest that the advice of the professionals should be taken over a couple of random MNers.

Consider my hand well and truly slapped

LettuceMash · 16/04/2017 13:58

Would be incredibly rude to refuse to eat it imo, as it will be absolutely fine.

Coffeetasteslikeshit · 16/04/2017 14:14

I'd eat it, and always leave stews out overnight. It's fine so long as it's covered.

HowSmug · 16/04/2017 14:14

Igneococcus Thanks for the explanation. I'm trying to remember everything from Uni and work a long, long time ago .

Out of interest, what would you consider a proper reheating? Is there a particular time/temp combo that would be recommended to best nuke the bad stuff.

Do you agree that even if it's ok to do this in your own house it would be completely unacceptable to do in a commercial kitchen. When I worked I dealt with hundreds of people who had suffered terribly with food poisoning including pregnant women. 🤢🤢🤢

Igneococcus · 16/04/2017 15:45

howsmug It depends on what temperature you heat up to and also on acidity of the food. If you reach 85 C and above 5-10 minutes (once all the food has reached temperature) should be sufficient, even less in something acidic.
I think restaurants and mass-catering are different as you need to have some rules for everyone to follow rather than make it up as they go along. People would probably have very different ideas about appropriate hygiene if there were no clear rules to follow. And i assume law suits in cases of alleged food poisonings are easier to fend off if you can show that all H&S procedures were followed to the letter.

Original poster

tumpymummy · 16/04/2017 22:59

Thanks all for your replies. We were all fine overnight and today. Phew! To clarify my reason for querying was because it wasn't just left out overnight, it was left out on the stove for 24 hours in a house that had the heating on. Thankfully we didn't suffer any ill effects and noone was offended. But it's not something I will be doing at home myself. I might leave something out overnight to cool down, but would put it in the fridge the next day. Thankyou all!

OP posts:

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