I woud eat any or all slices and not think twice.
As others have said, this just isn’t true. In fact, the reason marinara sauce is called ‘marinara’ is that it was discovered centuries ago that it was so acidic that barrels of it could go on sailing ships headed for long voyages, and not go bad.
My sister is almost phobic about things being properly and promptly put away (me? I figure, God gave me an immune system, I might as well use it), but the one thing she will eat that hasn’t been thoroughly wrapped and refrigerated is pizza. As long as it’s well-covered, it should be fine the next day. Like others, I’d be wary of toppings like chicken or seafood. But cured meats, cheese, tomato sauce should all be fine.
From the perspective of a restaurant industry professional, I wouldn’t recommend eating pizza that had been left out overnight. The meat on a pizza is potentially hazardous, and if it has cooked vegetables on it they’re potentially hazardous as well. It only takes 4 hours at room temperature for bacteria present on the food to multiply to potentially hazardous levels - even more so if an inattentive pizza cook didn’t cook the pie long enough to kill the bacteria present in the raw food.
That being said, I always stick my leftover pizza in the fridge when i’m done eating what I want to eat right away.
Seriously! It’s totally safe and totally delicious.
As a kid, we’d leave left over pizza in the (cold) oven, in the box. I nuked anything with toppings, but cold leftover cheese pizza is excellent!
Very good point (et all)!
I’m going to leave my next pizza out for a night and try it the next morning. Too many of you attesting to it’s deliciousness has convinced me.
Actually there was a thread on this very subject where the question was is pizza safe after four hours?
I can’t be arsed to search for it right now, but the consensus was: 4 hour old pizza is teh poison.
Which I found absurd, not just because I eat much older pizza all the time but because many buffets and cafes have similar things (e.g. cheesy croissant) that they may leave at room temperature for longer than that. Or maybe there are a lot of places that should be closed down…
My WAG is that it may have to do with moisture. That a fairly dry pizza will be fine for, say, 8 hours, but a hypothetical sloppy pizza could become putrid within that time.
It’s probably not something I’d recommend, but it hasn’t killed me. I heat it up because I don’t like cold pizza. Whether that kills the bugs or encourages them to multiply faster I don’t know.
Apparently the OP didn’t go to college.
I would probably eat them, except for the chicken. Many’s the time I’ve had leftover pizza for breakfast. I’m kind of a picky eater but I’m pretty much immune from food fears.
But then, I once ate a caramel that I’d left in my pocket for a wash cycle (and dry cycle). I basically had to gnaw it out of the seam in the lining. I doubt that anyone else would have eaten it.
My grandparents would always keep leftovers in the oven–usually from breakfast.
This is probably where my questioning came from. It’s been years since I worked in food service, but I remember being very careful with leaving things out.
Plain cheese and veggie-topped pies I would have thought would be fine. What gave me pause was the thought of eating meat that has sat out for more than a couple hours. Unrefrigerated meat? Why, next you’ll be trying to get me to eat salted, cured pork products!
Oh.
So, pepperoni can be cooked, then slowly cooled on a countertop for hours, and there will be little to no (additional) bacteria growing on it? No more than would be on a stick of pepperoni that sits on the counter?
But sausage? Dried meats are one thing, but don’t sausages have to be kept refrigerated to retard bacterial growth? Meatballs?
Eh, I can’t say that any of this pizza is safe to eat.
That said, I’ve been in that situation several times. Every time I ate the pizza. Probably luck, but I never got sick.
Of course, they’re now almost 30 hours old. Come on, EAT THEM!
Might kill the germs, but it wouldn’t neutralize any toxins they might have produced. Having said that, yes, I’ve eaten plenty of leftover pizza in my life and wouldn’t hesitate to eat day-old pizza. Although maybe not the one with chicken.
I don’t think I have ever refrigerated left over pizza. We usually stick it in the oven over night, but that is to keep the cats from eating the cheese off. Sometimes I wrap the left over slices in foil so the Kid and Suburban Plankton can grab the in the morning and take them to school or work for lunch.