To eat a roast chicken that's been left out at room temperate

[offthebeatentrack]

Basically I cooked a whole roast chicken at 8pm and forgot to put it in the fridge before bed, so it's been left at room temperature until 6am when I woke up.
Hubby insists that it will be absolutely fine but I'm not so sure....

Yeah fully cooked and well covered 👍🏻

Sorry, I quoted the wrong post there - that was meant for @BobbyBiscuits. I just can't believe that leaving a turkey out for days is a thing that people do in this day and age.

Happens here most weeks.

Sorry, I can't Mumsnet today. Quoted the wrong person yet again. I'm going back to bed.

There’s a lot of misinformation on this thread!

Covering food after it is cooked does not prevent bacterial growth. Bacteria like staph aureus are everywhere and can make you very unwell if given the opportunity to proliferate. Warm, moist chicken is a lovely medium for this. Reheating the food won’t kill the toxins the bacteria create, which are what make you ill.

Bacteria reproduce by binary fission, and staph aureus divides around once every 20-30 mins. So this means that over the course of 10 hours, one bacterium will become 1 million bacteria, which drastically increases the chances of the food making you ill.

Whether you become ill from eating it or not will depend on a number of factors, but they are outside of your control.

So, no, it’s not safe to eat. But you might be lucky.

Mumsnet would hate me.
But I don't ever refrigerate leftovers. Pizza, curry, Chinese, roast chicken, all get left in the microwave overnight.
I reheat throughly and consume within 24 hours.
Never had food poisoning 🤷🏻‍♀️

@AlbertaWildRose I've seen it happen quite a few times. I hope no-one died over it!?

After having food poisoning once it is a no from me. You will either be fine or or puking and shitting yourself for hours. Let us know which one.

As long as it been left covered, I'd eat it.

EDIT: this wasn't meant to be a quote, not sure what happened there 😂

Chicken that’s been left out for several hours is a huge no no! Apparently you know better than the experts though…..

BookishBabe I hope you don’t reheat rice. That can give you food poisoning.

Yes, I do, all the time.
First time I heard you wasn't supposed to was on here a few years ago. But I'd already been doing it for 10 years at that point and have always been fine.
So I've just carried in and still had no trouble.

I know I’m the same. I can’t believe folk would take the risk.

It’s one thing cutting of the end of a mouldy bit of fruit and eating the rest but chicken that’s been left out for about 10 hours in this weather, you’re asking for trouble 🤢

Someone that talks sense!!

I once got a very nasty dose of salmonella poisoning from chicken left out overnight (I was young and stupid). I was extremely ill for well over a week. Don't risk it.

@TwelveAngryWhiskers

Misinformation? Staph A is indeed a very common bacterium, but won’t give you “food poisoning”. It has to get inside your body and (little-known fun fact) stuff that’s in your digestive tract isn’t actually inside your body tissues.

S. aureus can cause a range of illnesses, from minor skin infections, such as pimples,[7] impetigo, boils, cellulitis, folliculitis, carbuncles, scalded skin syndrome, and abscesses, to life-threatening diseases such as pneumonia, meningitis, osteomyelitis, endocarditis, toxic shock syndrome, bacteremia, and sepsis. It is still one of the five most common causes of hospital-acquired infections and is often the cause of wound infections following surgery.

You are correct that it’s the toxins produced by bacteria that cause illness rather than the bacterial cells, and that these remain in the food even after the bacteria are killed.

Don't you put it in the fridge? I couldn't eat something that had been left out overnight, never mind for several days.

christmas turkey left out all day for everyone to “pick at”?

🤢

I would ask myself how devastating would it be if the whole family got food poisoning V's how devastating would it be to throw a chicken out .
Of course you would have to look up all the affects of food poisoning .Therefore you could work put whether the risks are worth it to your family .

No 🤮

I would, have and often do!

We have done this. Far more than once. Never been ill, so yes, we’d eat it without a qualm (Obviously it’s then put in the fridge)

Yes. Because it would probably not be fully cold before bed time and only a few hours later you put it away.

I regularly leave leftovers to cool overnight and then put them away, or lunchtime leftovers left until the evening to put away. Never had food poisoning yet.

I would.

Noooo if you've ever done a food hygiene course and seen how bacteria multiplies at room temp. No , there's a reason why restaurants have very strict standards for chilling stuff immediately