Food left out for ten hours. :( What can I salvage?

OK, well, I ate a serving. Almost 12 hours later, I’m feeling fine. However, the sauce tasted a little sharper, spice-wise, than I thought it should (among other things that may or may not be my imagination, or perhaps due to the simmering and not adding enough water), so I may not eat the rest of the sauce for quality reasons.

But there’s still the plain pasta. That has to be pretty safe, right?

In my days as a microbiologist, I once applied for a QC job at a tomato paste factory in the Central Valley.

Would have been very boring, generally only two contaminants would grow because of the acidity, grew very slowly and were not disease producing.

I have left tomato-based sauce out overnight many times with no issues - so bottom line is enjoy…

Reminds me of my days testing nutritional supplements, including cranberry capsules. Cranberry, for those who don’t know, is so acidic that it’s a fairly effective antimicrobial. My boss got bored one time and spiked a cranberry solution with tons of E. coli, and still couldn’t get anything to grow.

Pasta is FLOUR and WATER. Like BREAD.

Ever since we were kids how many times have we eaten things we left out overnight, pizza, sandwiches, etc? Many times without ever getting sick.

OP? I probably wouldn’t eat it now.

By now, it would probably be long time, destroyed by bacteria and mold if it hadn’t already been consumed. :smiley:

I don’t roll the dice on spoiled food. One bathroom, three people and a round of food poisoning would go incredibly poorly.

If the pasta feels slippery, toss it back in boiling water for a few seconds and re-drain. In fact, that’s all you need to do anyway, to reheat it.

Eat everything until your senses tell you it’s bad – sight, smell, taste, common.

Ah, memories of one of my earlier posts in the post Quantum Link era.