To eat this pasta bake tonight?

[BlueBoatVillage]

Argh, made a lovely pasta bake last night and did enough for tonight as well as today is going to be manic so won’t really have much time to cook.

We ate half of it and it was on the side, cooling down. I put cling film over it, with the intention of putting it in the fridge once cooled (as I usually do)

Came down this morning and realised I’d forgotten to put it in the fridge I did so straight away when I realised.

Do you think it would be okay to eat tonight or should I bin it?

Yes I would eat it. Bacon is cured so that makes it safe in my mind 😂. Chicken or fish maybe not but cured meat and cheese I would risk. But I’d heat it up really really hot!

My partner does this it causes a lot of arguments. Even things that are just on the date today, he wouldnt eat it.

Wouldn't hesitate to eat this. It's only been overnight in an unheated room in October in the UK. Yes pasta can be a problem (bacillus cereus toxin) but it'd need to either be significantly warmer, for a longer time or both to make me throw it away.

I'd be telling him buy all his own food if he's going to be so wasteful.

That isn’t how it works. Bacteria produce toxins and those toxins are very often not destroyed by heat and can make you very unwell. It’s the cooling and storing that are more important than the reheating.

The lack of food safety understanding on this thread is shocking. I hate food waste as much as the next person but chicken soup left festering for days with a quick simmer before eating, grim. 🤢

I'd eat it.

As long as you heat it till it's piping hot it will be fine.

Bacon is full of preservatives anyway.

Oh gosh yes I would eat it. How hot is it in your house anyway? Unless you have the heating on, overnight it is going to have been pretty cool.
You heat it in the oven till bubbling. All good.

Yes, I'd eat it and I certainly wouldn't need a threat on MN to help me decide.

Pasta is fine, it’s mainly just wheat and water. Rice is a risk because it has a specific bacteria that can survive cooking so needs to be cooled quickly. But it’s not really as much of a risk as it’s made out to be, think of the millions in China eating leftover rice or the sushi on a belt in a Japanese restaurant

I’d definitely eat this. I leftover food out to cool for my lunch the next day and routinely forget to put it in the fridge before bed. I barely heat it at work because I’m impatient and want/need to eat it quickly. With regards to shelf lives, I used to be so particular about dates, but now I eyeball it, sniff it, tentatively taste it and if it seems ok, just go for it.

I’ve never, ever had food poisoning. Maybe I’d be less blasé if I’d had it before. But then, maybe I’ve never had it because I regularly choke down badly stored, lukewarm warm leftovers and thus have the constitution of a hyena. 😂

There are only toxins from some sorts of food. Rice is the main one that you should never heat up. BUT even then you can reheat rice if it's cooled the minute it's cooked (kept in the fridge) and reheated thoroughly within a few hours.

Ingredients like pasta (basically wheat) are like bread- they can be kept at room temp.

Same for cheese- in the old days it was kept in a cool larder.

Bacon is full of nitrites to preserve it anyway.

yes, food safety understanding is poor here at times :)

What do people think happened before fridges?

I'd eat it it's all cooked 😊 it's only really seafood you need to worry about what do you think people did before fridges? 😂

Id eat it. Bacon is preserved and its getting cold so likely kitchen was cool overnight

It'll be completely fine. Assuming your kitchen isn't some time of sauna overnight.

I accidentally made far too much pasta for my son when making him his tea on Thursday night. The cat nudged me and half the bloody bag went in.

I ran some pesto through it, intending for us all to have it cold for lunches the next day. Put it on the side to cool. Left it there. Found it at lunchtime the next day. Ate it.

Didn't die.

If there was no meat in it, I'd be risking it.

Exactly.
My gran had a cooling cupboard in her kitchen where everything was kept= meat, cheese, milk, etc.

She was born before fridges existed.

Cheese and bacon I would eat without concern, just make sure it’s reheated well.

I must just be exceptionally lucky judging by some of these comments as I've never been ill from eating food that's been left out. I'll continue to do so!

Yeah. I’d eat it. I’d eat it cold straight from the dish.

My dad talks about how things were kept on the window sill (they had a one room accommodation, shared bathroom type of arrnagements) and his mum did used to drink lumpy milk, I suppose its only the same as yoghurt.

I’ve just done the same last night with batch cook stew. I’ll still use it !

We have a wiser heating system and I’ve just looked at the kitchen temp overnight (kitchen is one of the warmest rooms in the house due to being south facing) it didn’t get below 19 all night last night, not sure I should risk it now 😕 it was cool when I came down here this morning, felt the radiators and they were stone cold, but I think it probably stayed at a good 19 degrees all night so not exactly a cool 13 degrees or whatever!

I do this all the time; leave cooked food out to chill before placing it in the fridge, then I find it still on the kitchen counter the following morning.

I check it to ensure it still seems fine before reheating it, but unless it was in the height of Summer heat and it was chicken or seafood, I wouldn’t hesitate to eat this at all.

Exactly. When our fridge broke a few years ago we stored food outside for a couple of days while waiting for a replacement - it was fine.