Do You Refrigerate? Settle Our Debate!

In My Humble Opinion
1

OK.

So my boyfriend and I moved in together a couple of months ago, and that’s when I noticed two things.

a.) He removes take-out, even fast food, out of its wrappings/containers and onto dinner plates.

b.) He leaves it out til he finishes it later.

I have no problem at all with a.), I just find it amusing. I’m the girl who believes plastic, paper, and styrofoam were invented to prevent doing dishes, so I don’t really understand the need to remove your Chili’s burger from its styrofoam box and paper wrapping and put it on ceramic dinnerware, but hey. That’s what the dishwasher is for.

b.), however, freaks me out.

Regardless of what dinner is–and we eat a LOT of takeout and fast food–he’ll serve himself a portion, usually half, and then leave the rest covered on the counter. Chinese food, chicken, barbecue, mashed potatoes, sandwiches, potato salad, hot wings…you name it, he leaves it out on the counter. For hours.

Before he goes to bed, he will usually polish off the other half.

I always put food in the fridge if I’m not going to eat it immediately. I don’t care what it is. Back in my waitressing days, I had to have a Food Handler’s Permit, and there’s this whole spiel (dunno how to spell that word!) about the “danger zone” for food. Keep hot food above 140 degrees, keep cold food below 40. Otherwise it breeds bacteria and you could get sick.

I’ve spent twelve hours in the bathroom, praying for death, because of church-supper potato salad.

I’m paranoid about food in general and about anything with mayo in particular…obviously as a result of this experience. That and working in restaurants, where you see the ranch dressing with that icky brown congealed layer on top that means it’s about 80 degrees and could send someone else to the bathroom for many miserable hours.

Thus the question:

Is he the exception or am I?

I’ve seen him eat something at four o’clock and then eat the other half of it at ten or eleven o’clock at night. Even stuff that frightens me. Stuff with eggs and mayo and what-not. He says he sees no point in chilling something that he’s going to re-heat in a few hours.

He’s never gotten food-poisoning, FTR. He says if he’s going to eat it “the next day,” i.e., go to sleep and wake up to it, that he’ll throw it in the fridge. Otherwise, it sits on the counter. That fried chicken sandwich with mayo all over it that ooooogs me out.

So am I crazy? Or is he just really lucky?

And as for point a.), it’s a minor one, but if you have any experience on that I’d be amused to hear it, just because I’ve never met anyone who puts a McRib onto a dinner plate.

2

Oh, and when I mentioned “re-heating,” that only occurs if it did wind up in the fridge.

He doesn’t re-heat any of those left-out leftovers. He eats them at room-temperature. (Thus there’s no dice in the theory that he re-heats them to the point that he kills all that theoretical bacteria.)

:confused:

3

I do a.). Maybe something to do grease that seeps through the wrapper and on to the surface/or lap. Or pieces of food falling off the wrapper easily onto your lap if you eat it that way (especially taco toppings). What were his reasons for a.)? This could be like the Seinfeld snickers and a fork thing, YMMV.

ETA: the only thing I leave out for that kind of duration is pizza. Hours old pizza is the best, next to cold pizza.

4

I do like your bf. I even put takeout pizza on a pizza board, and decant Chinese food into Chinese bowls we have.

While it might not favour litigation-minded restaurants and health authorities, in my opinion there’s no big deal with leaving stuff out for a few hours. I’ll leave pizza out all night and eat it cold the next day. Maybe I’ll refrigerate Indian food, just to get it out of the way. Other stuff I’d reheat, but that’s just for aesthetic reasons. I don’t get food poisoning from this habit.

It’s not just me and your bf either: all the leftover food from my in-laws’ vast Christmas dinner in Ireland this year was left out in the kitchen for a day, covered in foil, in the kitchen. Everyone made sandwiches with it the next day. Nobody got sick. IMO, food poisoning is of course a danger, and it’s nasty, but it’s actually quite rare.

5

a) Seems a bit anal to me, I always eat take-out right from the containers they came in. Especially Chinese.

b) I don’t think several hours is long enough to worry about. I’d be concerned with overnight, though.

6

It is hard to believe you did not notice either of these things before you moved in together. Did you never eat take out food in front of each other? Did he not save food on a plate for later?

I don’t think either are reasons to debate anything. We all have our own quirks. If leaving some food on dish for several hours “freaks you out” I hope he does not have other quirks that are going to shock you even more.

Living together brings up lots of compromises. I think you may want to wait a bit longer and pick your battles better.

All in all I think “meh”. Not a big deal on either issue. Let him do what he wants and what he has always done in this case. You will find bigger and more important issues down the road that may require a serious debate to change a behavior and remember it might be him asking you to change.

7

I’m personally like your boyfriend. I have no problem eating food that has been left out overnight let alone a few hours, with exceptions being made for things that would go bad in a very obvious way (such as milk).
Actually, I do lots of food-related things that most other people would find gross or a bad idea. Dropped it on the floor? Just wipe any visible crud off. Fly in your glass? Fish it out and continue drinking. Yeah, I’m weird, but it just doesn’t bother me.
Anyway, I’ve never had food poisoning either.

As far as your actual question goes, if I had to guess, I’d say people who eat food that’s been left out for a few hours are the minority, but nowhere near uncommon. Nothing to really support this, but I’d think people who are older are especially likely to not think it’s a big deal.

Of course, it’s worth pointing out that this only goes for the culture I’m familiar with. Things may be different in other cultures, and obviously there are other places where there is no real refrigeration and it’s the norm to leave the soup out for a day or three.

8

I do a), because if I eat from the carton I’ll eat the whole thing. Also, as ParentalAdvisory said, it’s neater to eat off a plate for some foods.

I leave food out if I’m going back for seconds, otherwise it goes in the fridge. Pizza being the exception, that can sit out all night so I can wander by and grab a slice.

9

I do (a) because it’s just nicer to eat off a plate (or whatever).

I do (b) too, unless it’s for overnight. Part of the reason for that is that I don’t want to put hot food in the fridge - it strikes me that it’ll significantly raise the temperature in there, and not be good for the other contents.

10

We get take-out because we don’t want to cook, not because we don’t want to do dishes, so it usually goes on dishes.

Plus, it’s usually Chinese or Indian so if we get the rice, entree, etc. in separate containers we like to assemble it nicely.

The Italian places usually do a good job of putting the meal together in a container so you can just eat out of the container.

Then there’s the issue of forks or knives poking through the container if it happens to be aluminum (rare these days) or styrofoam.

My wife’s a leaver-outer. Never for more than 2 or 3 hours, though. I’m a putter-inner.

The one peeve I had is that I like my food as hot as it can be but she would set it down and putter or if we’re with her family they’ll have this big conversation while the food gets cold. We’ve adjusted, though.

11

Although I rarely do take out, when I do, I do both (a) and (b).

12

a) is fine, even a way to make the food more pleasant.

b) … well, if that doesn’t bite him in the ass, and sooner rather than later, I’ll be surprised. People can be really stubborn about what they think is OK to eat, though, so I don’t know if you’ll manage to change his mind. My father-in-law ate meat from his chest freezer that had lost power and defrosted partway through a week-long vacation. He was violently ill for a few days but still denied there was a cause-and-effect going on. I’d usually risk 2-3 hours unless it was brutally hot in the conditions I left the food in, but any more of that and you have to think if it’s worth saving that little amount of food in exchange for a day or so of vomiting and pain.

13

I do a) because the only take out we ever get is Chinese and Japanese, and we like to eat out of the nice bowls and use the pretty chopsticks.

I do b) because I love the taste of room temperature shrimp egg foo young.

14

Different people also have naturally different levels of susceptibility to food poisoning. My brothers and I are all fairly robust; but my one sister in law has gotten sick over food that has not made either my bro or myself sick.

As for a), I routinely use real dishes if I have the option. Less mess. (No grease dripping through, etc.)

As for b), my general rule is let the food sit out while I’m eating, or even watching a movie, then go back for seconds. (I may reheat, but that’s usually for taste.) As far as immediate refrigeration, it won’t cool the food down below the danger zone for a couple of hours in the fridge, anyway. (If you really wanted to test this, you could, I suppose, use a probe thermometer and a batch of left-overs to test just how long it takes.) Immediate refrigeration is not immediate removal of the food from the danger zone. (Granted, it does reduce the overall time the food stays in the danger zone, but I’m not sure how much that really helps to preserve food that will most likely be gone in 24 hours or so.)

(Boy, I’ve used a lot of (parentheses) in this post.)

15

Y’all had aluminum take-out containers? (no snark intended).

We do both. I like to do a. because it’s more pleasant to eat off of “real” dishes and for portion control. Also, if we are having four different kinds of Chinese, then everyone can get a sample of each kind.

We do b. out of convenience, I suppose - why refrigerate something just to heat it back up, and all that. Max time probably 4 to 6 hours, though - if it accidentally gets left out overnight, it goes to the dogs.

16

I don’t think food will become dangerous to eat if left out just a few hours. Disgusting, maybe. For 3 days, not so good.

I certainly am guilty of leaving half-eaten food lying around for short times, but I live alone most of the time and the only one it might affect is me. If I have house guests, I certainly don’t subject them to my bad habits, and I hope they extend the same courtesy to me.

But a live-in “guest” and/or spouse, that’s a little different. Still, if it bothers you this much this soon in the relationship, it’s bound to be a bigger problem later. Why don’t you sit down with him, talk about it, and reach a mutually-acceptable compromise?

You’ll thank me when he puts away the rest of the wedding cake instead of leaving it out for the mice. :slight_smile:

BTW, what’s his rule about food dropped on the floor? 3 second limit?

17

Audrey Levins, the title of this thread is a bit too vague. Could you please come up with one that is more descriptive?

18

When we do take out it usually ends up on a plate. It’s just easier to manage that way. Fast food ends up being devoured in the living room and plates catch the mess better than styrofoam boxes or paper wraps.

That said, takeout food doesn’t usually last long enough to be saved for later, except pizza. Now when I have pizza for dinner I will leave the boxes on the counter until I want more. No biggie, no stomach problems. I have also left half Subway sandwiches out until I want the other portion, again no big deal. It’s fast food, preservatives, gamma globulin and all that shit. It ain’t gonna grow wings for a few decades.

I will draw the line at foods I make at home. A potato or macaroni salad goes straight into the fridge until someone wants it. Mayo is nothing to fool around with, child.

19

I do a). Eating off styro is just low rent & unpleasant. Fine if that’s what the circumstances require, but easy enough to avoid if not.

I mostly don’t do b). Not because I’m squeamish, but because I almost never have leftovers. Doesn’t matter how huge a bucket of fried rice I get, the whole thing gets chomped down. Eating half of a fast-food fried chicken sandwich is just weird.

Leftovers from a real cooked meal, or a big pizza or such usually go in the fridge pretty promptly. But if somthing is left out for 4 hours indoors it’s no big deal. Put it away & expect it will keep a few less days than otherwise.

But stuff left out overnight, or 4-hours-in-the-July-sun potato salad goes in the trash (no dogs to feed).
IMHO a lot of the restaurant-level precautions are based on food being replenished in partly used containers. Consider a quart bucket of salad dressing at a salad bar. If left to room temperature with new dressing poured on top whenever the bucket gets low, after 16 hours you’d have a biohazard in the bottom. To avoid that, you’re required to keep the whole thing cold & pitch it all if the top part gets warm.

20

I do a) because it’s easier and nicer to eat off a plate than off a thin layer of tinfoil or a styrofoam container.

I’ll leave food out for a few hours, but generally that’s stuff I’ve cooked myself which I’m going to put in the fridge and eat later. I wouldn’t leave an egg salad sandwich out for hours on end and then eat it, but then I don’t really eat mayonnaise anyhow.