Food left in lobby - should I throw it away?

moneyunwise

Hi
I got a food delivery yesterday around 8pm. The food bags were left in the lobby overnight and I forgot about them until today so that is about 18 hours in the lobby. One bag has food for the fridge so it includes pork chops, bacon and microwave meals. All of this food is suitable for the fridge and I have now put it in the coldest part of my fridge. My issue is whether it is ok to keep or should be thrown away. The food came from a supermarket so the pork chops and bacon are in those sealed plastic containers. The lobby doesn't have radiators or big clear windows so the room hasn't been hot. All of the food items are effectively in plastic containers and none of them are bulging. I am also concerned as one person in my house is diabetic and is therefore at risk (their condition severely affects their diet).
So does anyone have any advice for me? Should I keep the food or throw it away?
Thanks

joedenise

I'd be using the sniff test.  If it looks and smells OK I'd use it.  You might not want to use it for the diabetic if their diet affects their condition just to be on the safe side.

C_J

It would have stayed relatively cool between 8pm and 8am as the ambient temperature would have dipped overnight. The bacon and microwave meals contain lots of salt as a preservative, so would be fine. It's just the fresh meat I would be wary of, and I would do exactly what joedenise suggests and just open the pack - if the chops smell off, then bin them. Otherwise cook them or freeze them sooner rather than later.

GreyQueen

OP, although I hate waste, I would recommend binning the meat products. 18 hours is a lot of time for bacteria to grow inside the packaging, and pork is a potentially dodgy meat at the best of times. I would say that you risk making yourself very ill, should you consume the stuff which should have been refridgerated. Of course, your life, your risk, your business.

Some of the potential delights:

"Bacterial contamination of pork can occur during production, harvesting, processing, storing, shipping or preparation. Bacteria commonly associated with pork food poisoning include Campylobacter, Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes and Yersinia enterocolitica. Campylobacter is one of most common causes of diarrhea in the U.S. Other symptoms of Campylobacter food poisoning include nausea and vomiting. Yersinia enterocolitica is of special interest as it is a bacterium found in pig intestines and can cause yersiniosis in humans, typified by diarrhea and abdominal pain."

Apintplease

The Pork I too would dump. 

It is in all possibility still safe because of the gases they pump into prepacked meats, and whilst Im not squeamish as a rule, Im extremely careful around chicken and pork. As a child pork was only sold and bought in the months with an R in them because of the risk of food poisoning 

LadyDee

I'm very much in the "if looks & smells OK" camp.  Cook the pork if you are concerned, but 12 hours overnight out of the fridge wouldn't concern me at all.  There again, the first time we had a fridge I was 13 years old, and if I say I remember NH orange juice & castor oil ......

andyt999

Exactly the same thing happened to me a couple of months back, we were due to be going for a swim and I completely forgot what time it was. We ended up being late getting back to the car and as a result the car wheels were clamped. My colleague who was with me noticed that the clamp wasn't properly secured and we managed to jemmy it open using some sticks we gathered from a local field. Anyway turns out the field was private and the owner showed up demanding his sticks back but we managed to get away before he caught us. I dropped my colleague back at their house and when I got home there was a load of shopping had been delivered 18 hours previously, worst of all it was left on the doorstep and wasn't in carrier bags, some magpies had been pecking at the yoghurts. It didn't have any meat as I am strictly vegetarian but I ate the lot and I was fine. 

gwynlas

I was also brought up without a fridge and shopping was done twice a week. The Sunday roast was purchased on Friday, shopping left in packaging in a lobby overnight should be fine.