Stew meat was left out all night

[BeLoftyTurtle]

At relatives house and they have stew..... However they did the first phase of the stew last night by boiling the meat last night and left it on the stove. Today they added veggies and reheated/cooked veg in the stew.

Aibu in not eating it

No, it isn't safe, you've just been lucky enough to avoid illness.

Cooked meat comes under 'high-risk' (ready to eat) foods. It absolutely needs to be temperature controlled. Pasteurised milk has only been heat treated to kill 'most' bacteria to a safe level, so leaving it out will give any surviving bacteria time to start multiplying to unsafe levels and release toxins.

Pre fridges my parents had a pantry with a marble slab shelf which helped keep things cool. And no central heating.

Reading this thread, not surprising there’s so much food waste.

Seriously, can’t eat a pie after two hours at room temperature?

I’m 60, ate many pies and so much more dubious stuff over 4 continents during a so far glorious lifetime, insects included. My mum is 85, her hygiene standards freak even me out but she has absolutely no physical or intestinal issues whatsoever (mentally, not so sadly).

You can eat the pie after 2 weeks if that floats your boat, the 2 hour rule is for the catering industry because they have a legal and moral duty to sell food that is deemed safe to eat.

Food poisoning bacteria needs 4 things to start multiplying; food, moisture, time, and temperature. A pie that's been cooked and on display at room temperature has 3 of those things, food, moisture, and temperature. Any bacteria that wasn't killed during cooking will be multiplying during those 2 hours but not to unsafe levels yet, but add the fourth element; time (by going over 2 hours) the bacteria could now be multiplying to unsafe levels into the thousands and cause illness hence why it's taken off the shelf.

Yes but as long as you heat it through to piping hot it will be fine.
Different if you leave it out and then don't heat it up again, that would be odd.

If you think they're wrong, take it up with the scientists who have researched this, in depth, over many decades and the various governments worldwide that have introduced minimum food hygiene standards as a result.

Just because you and your mum have been fine doesn't make it safe
Your personal history is no more persuasive than someone saying "I've smoked 40 cigarettes a day for 60 years and am perfectly fine" in response to the health risks of smoking.

Bacteria has a better chance at growing in moist warm conditions, the fridge keeps a cool environment so bacteria can't multiply as easy

@Bringautumnnights And you're a bit too ignorant. By your logic we might as well give up seatbelts because people get hurt anyway in other ways. Why on earth would you knowingly expose a baby to pathogens that cannot be killed with reheating?

But thousands of people have been reheating casseroles kept on stove tops for days and never died.
I make a huge pot of soup on a sunday in the winter and am constantly reheating it and eating it. I may not be a scientist but I cannot see where these bacteria are coming from. It is covered and heated till piping hot every time.

Are you quite sure that nobody has ever died (or otherwise had food poisoning) from eating a casserole stored at room temperature for multiple days?

There was a story just last year about a young man who died after eating reheated pasta, that had been cooked 5 days previously and kept at room temperature.

I wouldn’t reheat pasta or rice to be clear

Reheating rice is perfectly fine as long as it's cooled rapidly after cooking and stored correctly in refrigeration then reheated thoroughly. The issue with rice is the common bacteria associated with it is a spore former. Stews, soups and casseroles are also associated with a spore forming bacteria called clostridium perfrigens, so it's funny you'd be happy to risk that and not rice when the risks are the same if temperature abused.

Oh well I guess it’s just what I have done my whole life and I was attempting to reassure the OP.

This doesn’t apply to rice that is washed before you use it (ie cooked properly as per Asian methods not white western ones) and cooked in plenty of water that is drained afterwards.

And that's fine, but just because risking something your whole life hasn't hurt you in anyway, it's doesn't mean it's not a risk (and food safety is backed up by science.)

If the op said "my family drove on the motorway with my 9 month old in the car doing 80mph" and people said "oh don't worry it's perfectly fine, I've been driving on the motorway at 80mph for decades and never had an accident it might be anecdotely true but factually it's incorrect that it's not dangerous and they've just been lucky.

That's just not how spores work, they are microscopic for a start. Tbh your food safety advice on this thread is worrying!

I’m with you OP. I would be reluctant to eat unrefrigerated meat. I’m astonished how many posters think that this is absolutely fine.

It'll be fine.

I haven’t read the whole thread, but surely it depends on the temperature of your kitchen? I wouldn’t eat meat that had been left out on 20 degree heat overnight but for the majority of the year my kitchen is cold!!

thats not the same and a poor argument

Ok maybe I’ve been wrong my whole life but I’m not driving along the motorway at 80 and I don’t feel it’s a huge risk. But if we have eaten say chilli at 9 pm on Friday and it’s still hot when going to bed I have no problem putting it in the fridge on Saturday morning and then reheating again on Sunday or Monday. If it’s 40 degrees maybe I wouldn’t but generally speaking ambient temp is not that high overnight and the food is covered.

I sometimes leave Bolognese out or other cooked meat. I thought it was normal

I feel like @Healingsfall actually knows something about this and many other people are posting in a tone of dead certainty without knowing anything about it at all...

Personally I know nothing about it. I was interested to hear about the spores and the 121 degrees (though would probably be happier not knowing 🤣)

My gut instinct has always been that it isn't great to eat beef stew that's been left out all night. A couple times when I forgot to put it in the fridge I ate it anyway and was fine.

I suppose as with all such things to make sense of it you need to know the level of risk. If I had a 1/1000 chance per time of getting food poisoning from leaving something out, I would probably eat it knowing that. If it was 1/2, probably not.

From a strict food safety standpoint, @SelMarin and @QuestionableMouse are correct. They adhere to established guidelines, which recommend against leaving perishable food out at room temperature for extended periods due to the risk of bacterial growth and foodborne illness.

However, if you consider traditional practices and personal experiences, @HotCrossBunplease , @FranticHare , and @RogueFemale present valid arguments based on historical practices and personal tolerance.
They believe that such practices can be safe if food is properly reheated.

Ultimately, the safest approach is to follow food safety guidelines to minimize health risks, especially for at-risk groups. If personal tolerance and traditional practices are considered, it's important to weigh these against established safety standards.

@BeLoftyTurtle