# Does re-heating food prolong its edibility? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 23, 2006, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-re-heating-food-prolong-its-edibility/341236 "2006-01-23T12:09:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![athelas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-re-heating-food-prolong-its-edibility/341236/21 "2006-01-24T21:59:51Z")
Yeah - when you “ripen” meat that was just killed, you’re still going to cook it before eating. Now, eating it raw could create problems. ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-re-heating-food-prolong-its-edibility/341236/22 "2006-01-24T22:44:38Z")
> [@groman](#): > > If it’s only good for 4 hours, how are europeans not extict then? Are you sure it’s not just individual sensitivities? It’s not my sensitivities, it’s health codes. IIRC, Europeans also salted their meats. ---
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-re-heating-food-prolong-its-edibility/341236/23 "2006-01-24T22:51:16Z")
> [@CynicalGabe](#): > > It’s not my sensitivities, it’s health codes. I can understand why the health codes are the way they are, but the distinction has to be made between: Health code says cooked food has 4 hours of safety. and Cooked food that was out for more than 4 hours has a substantial chance of being unsafe. The former depends on the lowest common denominator, the latter on your individual stomach, the food, the air temperature and about gazillion other things. There’s plenty of people who eat raw aged meat or two-day leftovers without getting food poisoning. There’s plenty of people who will be trapped in the toilet for two days because of reheated thanksgiving turkey that didn’t agree with them. I mean, I don’t know, I’m trying to find out. Have there been made studies about individual susceptibility and resistance to various food borne bacteria and toxins, and what affects it? Genetics? Habits? Alcohol consumption 🙂 ? ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-re-heating-food-prolong-its-edibility/341236/24 "2006-01-24T23:17:10Z")
One more point about repetitive reheating of foods. With every time that one heats food certain fractions, especially vitamins, are susceptible to heat damage and volatility - where they go off airborne in those lovely smells of cooking food. That’s another reason I’ve heard to avoid reheating food too much. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-re-heating-food-prolong-its-edibility/341236/25 "2006-01-25T00:30:57Z")
When you hang meat, you would usually do it in a fairly cool place and as a whole carcass (unless your specific purpose was to create jerky/biltong); the processes of ‘ripening’ here are probably at least as much enzymatic as they are bacterial, and most of the bacterial action is going to be on the surface of the meat, which is the bit most likely to get hottest for longest when you cook it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-re-heating-food-prolong-its-edibility/341236.md?page=1)