Archive:Quick Questions on food safety / sell by / use by dates

wigwam

I ALWAYS throw food away if I've forgotten and left it out overnight!! Wow I'm surely going to meet the grocery challenge now I know I can eat food and won't be dying of food poisoning. Another great thread from the OS :j

Been much better since finding this forum - generally packing up leftover portions for the freezer I may not post much but am taking heed of all your wonderful advice.

:beer:Thank you all :beer:

tigerlily

When I cook stew spag-bol sauce etc I leave it out overnight as a matter of course. The flavour really does improve, common sense says make sure the lid is on securely and if your kitchen resembles a sauna dont do it! I can honestly say I or anyone else I have fed have never been ill as a result of doing this.......we have just enjoyed very tasty food!

Sublime_2

If food is cooked properly, it will be fine. I often find food too hot to be put in the fridge/freezer after making a pie/casserole/chilli etc, and have to leave it overnight. As long as you put it in the refridgerator or freeze it as soon as possible, and reheat it properly, you will be fine. As other people have said, unless your kitchen was extraordinarily hot, you will have no problem. I have never suffered food poisoning from eating food left overnight.

Patchwork_Quilt

I do think you have to be careful, though, if you freeze something that you left out overnight because you might then leave it hanging around again when you defrost it.

greenbee

I recently made some sausage casserole in the SC - it cooked overnight on Monday and I left it to cool while I was at work on Tuesday, forgetting that I was going out after work. I finally dealt with it on Thursday evening, and I have been fine... not that I'd recommend this, but if the room is cool, you shouldn't have a problem.

You need to make sure food is cooled before putting it in the fridge/freezer anyway, and if you're cooking in bulk quantities, then cooling times increase too.

geordie_joe

kittyscarlett wrote: »

We might not have had freezers or fridges 50 year ago but then we didn't have centrally heated/insulated houses either...

No but back then the kitchen was usually the hottest room in the house. The arger/range was kept on 24/7, as it took so long to heat up. This meant most people "lived" in the kitchen, as it was the only room with heat in it, and kept the front/living room for special occasions.

Sublime_2

greenbee wrote: »

I recently made some sausage casserole in the SC - it cooked overnight on Monday and I left it to cool while I was at work on Tuesday, forgetting that I was going out after work. I finally dealt with it on Thursday evening, and I have been fine... not that I'd recommend this, but if the room is cool, you shouldn't have a problem.

You need to make sure food is cooled before putting it in the fridge/freezer anyway, and if you're cooking in bulk quantities, then cooling times increase too.

You were fine as your room was cool. I often leave mine to cool down overnight, and store it the next day. Once I left something I'd cooked out, forgot about it and went away for 3 days, when I got home it had grown a lovely green beard. I binned it.

Snowy_Owl

I've done that several times - leaving it out all night to cool down before portioning it up for the freezer. Have found that even if it is slightly warm when you put in the freezer, it can stick to the freezer which can be a right pain!!:eek: If you do worry abut leaving it out all night, what about putting it in the fridge?

Snowy

Justcoll

kittyscarlett wrote: »

We might not have had freezers or fridges 50 year ago but then we didn't have centrally heated/insulated houses either... or quite as much knowledge about food related illnesses. I would go with the being sensible and reheating thoroughly school of thought, but keeping in mind that a cool kitchen does not necessarily mean a cold enough kitchen to keep food, especially if the rest of the house is warm. As has been stated, when people did not have fridges to keep food in we did have larders and pantries - deliberately built with materials and methods for keeping the area cool and safe, not like your average kitchen cupboard.

I know I worry far too much about food left out overnight and that my grandma's generation had never heard of domestic fridges. That said, fifty years ago meat etc was very differently reared and a lot less processed. So surely less hazardous?

kittyscarlett wrote: »

I can't quite remember the science behind it but apparently it is a bit safer to leave food in a pan/oven to cool down because its sealed away from possible contamination/temperature differences ?

I believe it's because putting very warm food in the fridge raises the temperature thus putting food already stored food at risk.

Debt_Free_Dreamer

I'd eat it (and feed it to the OH). Just would not tell him it had been out all night. :rotfl::rotfl: