Forgot to put shopping away. AIBU to ask does it need to be thrown out?

[useorbin]

We went shopping this afternoon and called into M&S for things for a quick dinner this evening. Totally forgot to put the shopping away so it’s all been inside a bag on the counter. Items taken out of the supermarket fridge at about 3pm and only just realised about the bag, so circa 3.5hrs out the fridge/freezer.

Some frozen oven chips, and DH got himself some chilled breaded chicken type strips. Rest of us are having veggie stuff from the freezer.

It feels like the chips have kept everything feeling quite cool, but are completely defrosted themselves.

From a food hygiene standpoint, are they still ok to eat? We’d be cooking soon. Mainly thinking of DHs chicken but also the chips that were next to it, whether they could be unsafe to eat having shared a bag with chicken getting warmer

Sorry if it’s rambly - rushing about! But WWYD mumsnetters?

I wouldn't eat the chicken after it had been out of the fridge more than a couple of hours.

Even if it had been sitting right next to a bag of thawing frozen chips?

I’d eat it - especially as the chicken would have been made cooler by the chips.

It'll be fine. Please don't waste good food.

I genuinely think all of it is perfectly fine and I wouldn't hesitate to eat it.

Thanks everyone. Cooking and eating.

DH didn't put HIS food away?

No. DH was carrying the other shopping bags from the car then got busy with housework when he got in, I was carrying the one bag- food shopping, went to put it away but put it down and got sidetracked by a phone call and never went back to it. Don’t be rude

Cook it following the instructions on the packaging and it will be fine. If worried, use a meat thermometer and make sure the internal temperature is over 75c when cooked.

We drove to Wales from Cornwall on Thursday and had a bag of food in the boot that went into the freezer on arrival and has been fine to use since arriving.

It isn't actually true that you can't refreeze defrosted food. The supposed health risks are a myth, and the cause of a lot of food waste. Most defrosted food can be refrozen, but can lose flavour or texture. As a rule of thumb I wouldn't refreeze meat or fish, but I'd refreeze bread and oven chips without a second thought. Refrozen ice cream would be perfectly safe to eat too, but if melted can split, and therefore isn't as nice.

@HelenaWaiting , you probably can, but not meat products.

Chips are potatoes. Potatoes don't just go off like that. If you had prepped potatoes to make chips or wedges or mash from scratch and left them out for 3 hours would you be worried? What do you think will have happened in 3 hours to some potatoes with probably oil and seasoning?

I wouldn’t worry - as long as it’s all thoroughly cooked it will be fine.

I would eat them all, it will be fine.

You are making yourself look daft.

No issue at all. Cook and eat.

It’s been kept cool by the defrosting chips though. If it had been in a hot car for a couple of hours, no.

It will be fine. Cook it and eat it!

As long as you are eating it tonight it’ll be fine! If you look at the instructions it will say ‘best cooked from frozen’ not that it definitely needs to be!

A friend of mine in the food industry told me that supermarkets factor this sort of thing in. You'll be fine.

It'll be absolutely fine.

When I was growing up in the 50s the majority of homes didn't have fridges and few people had cars, so mum would go food shopping, carry it home from the shops, or on the bus, then store it in the cool part of the larder, often overnight.

Amazingly, I'm still here to tell the tale.

People have lost all common sense when it comes to food hygiene.

I agree with this.

I'd eat it, and wouldn't give it a second thought I wouldn't reheat leftovers tomorrow though.

I would eat it