Is this safe to eat?

[namechange977]

I cooked a bolognese last night. There was some left over which I left in the pan on the hob. I came downstairs at about 3am and stuck the pan in the fridge. Will it be safe to eat for lunch today, given it was left out for about seven hours?

Absolutely fine. I would eat it without a second thought.

So long as you boil it to death and make sure it’s properly boiled all the way through, it should be fine.

Absolutely fine to eat

It's fine

Saying it will be ok is incorrect. There’s a chance it might be ok but if food is left out too long (over 2 hours), some bacteria (E.g.) staphylococcus aureus, can form a heat-resistant toxin that can’t be destroyed by cooking.

You can take your chances on the say so of randoms on a chat thread, but you might get food poisoning.

Assuming there was bacteria in the red hot bolognaise, or it was somehow contaminated with bacteria after it had cooled down. If it was covered after it was cooked and no one put a dirty hand in it while it was cooling, I think it would be fine.

I forgot to add - it wasn’t covered when left out!

I'd eat it. Wouldn't even occur to me not to.

Of course it’s fine. Why wouldn’t it be?

Because bacteria might have started growing on it?

I’m going to risk it. It looks too yummy to throw away!

On second thoughts I’m throwing it out.

What a waste of food.

I put it into ChatGPT and it said bolognaise left out for more than two hours is dangerous!

ChatGPT says all sorts of bollocks.

Yep!

Oh well, if ChatGPT says so...

What does it say about UK levels of food waste?

Madness. Sheer madness
my kitchen is almost as cold as my fridge at night anyway, and I’m sure yours is cool too

Okay, I just remembered I actually ate a big spoonful at 3am just before shoving it in the fridge. And I’m fine today! Am reheating now.

I'm a level 2 hygiene trained former chef and also an expert on food waste and supply chain food redistribution.

Technically it's not classed as safe to eat if it's been out for over 2 hours but a lot depends on the temp of the room. The fact it was uncovered is better, it likely cooled to and stayed at a safe ish temp unless it was in a very warm room. If you'd covered following cooking I'd say chuck it as it might have cooled so slowly that it lingered in the danger zone a long time, enabling rapid bacterial growth.

Beef isnt a particularly risky meat and assuming it was was cooked through in the first place I'd have happily blasted and eaten it.

But all food carries some risk which lots of people aren't comfortable with. I eat all sorts of raw/room temp/past it's date food because I understand the risk pretty well and trust my senses, have a good sense of smell and taste.

Each to their own- no one should judge OP for being careful and following what a commercial kitchen would have to do legally.

How do you think people managed in the past without fridges? When I was a young child, all good was covered up and put in the pantry. We didn’t all get food poisoning from food that was cooked the previous day!

Cheers all. I’ll report back tomorrow.

I would eat food in that scenario without a second thought. I would only give it to DP if he knew the circumstances and was fine with it. He probably wouldn’t be. He refused to use a bottle of ketchup after DS1 had it in his room overnight.

I wouldn’t give any left out food to my teenagers though, as I wouldn’t want to make that risk assessment on their behalf.

Each to their own- no one should judge OP for being careful and following what a commercial kitchen would have to do legally.

I'm not sure I agree - commercial set-ups are not the same as domestic kitchens and none of us should be chucking away perfectly safe, edible food just because of a random rule that exists.

Yep same kitchen is freezing at night I don't put a heater on in there.