How long can cooked beef sit out Reddit

For what it's worth: I signed up for a course to become a medical assistant and one of the assignments we had involved going around the school and taking cotton swab samples then look at it under a microscope. I had this bright idea of swabbing the microwave in the lunch room thinking there's lots of food and bacteria, and this being a low budget school it's doubtful that they clean it often.

I swabbed both the inside and outside of the microwaves and oddly enough, the inside was rather clean despite the splatters and stains etc. My teacher explained to me that the microwaves (as in the lasers shooting inside) play a big part in killing off micro-organisms. So if you were to reheat the chilli in a microwave it should be okay for consumption. I tend to rationalize that cooked meat stands a better chance left out in room temp than raw meat in the same condition.

Edit: also keep in mind that bacteria can exist in refrigerated foods too. You can cover it up, you can put it in the fridge, fact is bacteria will get to it. The point to take home though is, how long until it becomes rancid beyond safe consumption. I'm pretty sure your nose will inform you of that when the time comes.

I know this is long past when the answer was needed, but you should be fine. there could have been bacterial growth (or fungal) in that period of time, but the microwave would have handled the worst of it. as long as it was properly cooked the first time, the ones that would cause you serious trouble would be dead.

however, for the future a full minute or two at 150 degrees is going to kill the bacteria. but for the toxin producing ones, it'll take ten minutes minimum at near boiling temps you break down the bad stuff.

in general, if meat alone is cooked, then sealed in an airtight container you could let it cool to room temp and it will be safe for eight hours or so (the toxin producing ones take around that's long to set up shop and produce enough to make you sick). the actual recommendation is around two to three hours, but that's pretty conservative ss long as it was properly cooked. the big benefit for a sauce like that is the relatively high acidity. it gives a little extra buffer.

the thing is, airtight isn't usually guaranteed by our standard containers, and even when it is, there's air contact when it's filled. so you have to either fill it so full the amount of space is going to be negligible, or make sure it's still piping hot when it goes in. the ready to eat foods we buy (like spaghetti sauce) have a temperature and duration standard to be room temperature stored for any extended time (I want to say it's 180 F for fifteen minutes) and include a partial vacuum in the canning/jarring process.

personally, after food reaches room temp (under 130 and above 40) I won't touch it to my lips after six hours even if I prepared it myself and can assure zero cross contamination (which is next to impossible anyway). most foods are going to be just fine, but considering some of the stuff can actually kill you (botulism for example), and most of it can hospitalize you, it ain't worth the risk.

edit: a decent NYT article that gives the basics and why NYT article

The official rule is 4 hours in the danger zone temp of 150-40 before it is required to be thrown out. Assuming you got it bellow 40 within the last hour you are still coming real close. Bacteria doubles every 20 minutes and although bringing the beef back up to 165 kills the bacteria, it is the toxins they create that cause food poisoning. You wont be able to see the toxins nor smell them unlike fungus. So eat at your own risk but if you do be sure to at least heat back up to a sustained 165 for 5 seconds.

I'm ServSafe food manager certified and registered in CT, NY, RI, and MA

I messed up.

My wife made a barbecue pork shoulder in the slow cooker yesterday evening. It was too warm still to put in the fridge before she went to bed so she asked me to do it, since I still had to go walk the dog, get ready for bed, etc. Well, in my sleepiness I totally forgot to put it in the fridge, and we didn't discover it till this morning. It was sitting on the counter with the lid on it all night.

I've worked in food service so I know cooked meat sitting at room temperature for extended periods of time is just asking for bacteria, but I was wondering if we could put it in the oven long enough to bring the internal temp up high enough to kill off anything that would make us sick? We put it in the fridge until we can figure out what to do with it. It was a large pork shoulder and I don't want to see it go to waste. Plus, it was totally my fault so I feel like shit about it. Anyone know if it's salvageable?

The problem with leaving food out is that it reacts with the air and becomes disgusting. Bread and cookies become stale. Cream sauces get all crusty. If you want something to last, you need to wrap it up nicely so that it doesn't have too much air to make it bad.

But as for safety, that's a different situation. Bacteria will multiply, but not necessarily that fast. If a food has preservatives, that will hinder bacteria growth too. A lot of the ways of preserving meat were basically making it so that bacteria wouldn't want to grow in it -- so, for example, salting it, because the bacteria wouldn't like the salt. The fridge helps too, because bacteria don't multiply so well in the cold -- the freezer often kills them because they freeze to death! The oven actually kills them too because it's too hot. But generally, food won't go bad if you leave it out for several hours, so long as it's wrapped up.

Now, raw fish will go bad. Why? Because it was never cooked. When you cook something, you kill most of the bacteria in it. If you don't cook it, you don't kill the bacteria. A lot of the raw fish you get at sushi restaurants has actually been frozen, but really quickly, and the idea is that you can kill the bacteria without destroying the deliciousness of the fresh fish (even sushi chefs can't tell the difference if it's done correctly). So if you leave it out, the bacteria will multiply a lot. There are no preservatives and there are already lots of bacteria. It won't last very long in the fridge either, because there are so many bacteria and they just keep multiplying more and more.

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