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....

Err, not sure which university you studied microbiology in but S. aureus absolutely can give you food poisoning:

Staphylococcal food poisoning (SFP) is one of the most common food-borne diseases and results from the ingestion of staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs) preformed in food by enterotoxigenic strains of Staphylococcus aureus.

https://academic.oup.com/femsre/article/36/4/815/520403

Food hygiene courses are designed to scare the shit out of the kind of idiots you see on Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares.

I would probably eat it, and agree that it's a similar situation to the Christmas turkey. Ours is always too big to fit into the fridge until it's been stripped, so it lives in the oven for a day or two.

My daughter and son in law moved in with us a couple of months ago and I've been constantly horrified by their food hygiene standards. The first time she left a pan of cooked rice out on the hob overnight I threw it away, and she went mad at me. They have been reheating cooked rice that has been in the fridge for four or five days, and have eaten rice that has been left out on the worktop for 24 hours, and have never had the slightest stomach upset. Maybe we do worry a bit too much nowadays.

@ArmchairPhycologist I highly doubt your kitchen is below the 5 degrees of a fridge.

Yup I'd eat it definitely - I have very lax food safety standards and only time I've ever been ill was when I was away on a work trip for a week and was eating out every night!

Thank you, that’s interesting, and I stand corrected.

(I’d still eat the chicken though.)

A small amount of rice that has been cooked, cooled rapidly, stored in fridge, then thoroughly heated until its piping hot should be fine the next day. I’ve done that lots of times when I wasn’t off carbs! The problems with rice usually occur in restaurant or industrial settings where large amounts are cooked and it takes ages to cool down, so it sits warm for a long time.

No but I don't recall saying it was 🤷🏼‍♀️

I always find discussions around food safety interesting. Seems there are many people who do understand the science but for whatever reason think it doesn't apply to them? Another example of the exceptionalism that has infected our society. If you want to chance getting really sick, sure, go for it.

Thanks all.

I have just enjoyed some of the chicken for dinner, and very tasty it was too.

Will report back in a few days 🤣

Crossing my fingers for you

Choosing to eat it yourself is one thing, but please don’t serve it up to other people without letting them decide first.

I'd make stock out of it. Yum!

I can see you've already eaten it now, but no IMO not worth the risk. I've studied food hygiene standard courses as I used to work in the industry and that would be a big no no. Lots of people do take the risk and ignore the advice, and are fine, but others do get ill and for me it's not worth that risk of exposing myself to food poisoning. There are other factors, how hot is your kitchen for example, mine has been over 20 deg room temperature recently so definitely too warm, in winter however, not so much of an issue.

No one would be eating it because the cats would have had an absolute feast overnight 🤣

Or they're weighing up the risk and making a decision. Everybody takes small risks everyday.

If you've ever seen someone in the throes of shitting their insides out due to salmonella poisoning ( it was undercooked chicken) you might think twice about the risks x😁 I have and twas very unpleasant, and it was a young man god knows what it would have done to someone vulnerable. But hey each to their own lol.

Erm... ok I was not intending to do this...

yea no different to leaving out on the table at xmas

Only on Mumsnet are people particularly fussy about stuff like this.
In the real world most people leave food out for hours or reheat rice, and are absolutely fine.

Yes you're at a higher risk, but it's still a very low risk.

I think in situations like this the “no I would never” and the “oh it’s fine” people are really the “have had food poisoning” and “have not had food poisoning” people. Or “myself” and “DH” if you rather. 😂 would just about rather die than risk that again so I am quite uptight about leftovers and would certainly not eat it.

No they aren't designed to scare the shit out of people, they are to educate people who work in the food industry of how to safely prepare, handle and store foods.

My mum got a nasty case of food poisoning last year from chicken wrap sandwiches on a buffet that had been left out at room temp on a hot summers day. She , like most people thought it would be fine, well those who ate the chicken wraps came down with it .I opted not to eat them!

Oh I can remember years ago having to look after friend and her children when she gave herself food poisoning . We were armed forces and all the husbands were away . Sunday morning began with a knock at the door , her daughter , can I phone a doctor her mum is sick .Ok doctor turned up gave her something to sleep , can you go the chemist and look after the children until she recovers
?
Didn't have much of a choice , who was going to look after the children and mine ? That was a hard day .

wow I didn't realise we had bacteria specialists here! giving your specialist advice for free! no problem with eating the chicken, it comes down to how strong your stomach is. if you've lived a life of BORING, never had last nights Chinese for breakfast ETC you probably will have a reaction, so those of you so uptight - best you do stick to your Bernard Matthews sandwiches and your yoghurt with granola! otherwise eat the sodding chicken and relax

As long as it didn’t smell bad and the house wasn’t steaming hot I definitely would. And have.