i got a burger from BK five and a half hours ago and left it in the car. and i just started to eat it and then i stopped. i only took 3 bites. it was pretty cold in the car. will i be ok?
You’ll be fine. Don’t make it a habit.
You should be fine. Millions of people pack a sandwich for school/work lunch without refrigeration every day. As long as it wasn’t boiling in the car…
I admit to being slightly cavalier about such things, however.
Probably OK. Although BK’s typical burger presentation is on the moist side (which could promote the proliferation of pathogens), their sauces are usually a little acidic, which will tend to retard bacteria.
Before anyone says it, the ‘if it smells OK, it’s safe’ thing is not reliable.
I would skip it as a matter of pride and culinary taste.
Please post back tomorrow so we know you haven’t turned into Dcorpse.
Medical advice is best suited to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
First, think about all the time you’ve said “oh I’ve got the flu” or you’ve heard someone else around you say they have the flu. Now realize that the actual number of people who catch the Influenza virus is much much lower. The straight dope is that 9 out of 10 times someone says they have the flu (nausea, diarrhea, vomiting) they actually have food poisoning.
Which is good news for you, because it just goes to show you that food poisoning is a lot more common than most people think and it’s also extremely unlikely to kill you. If you get sick at all, it will likely just make you feel bad for a couple days.
You may remember the old wives tales about never eating a sandwich that’s been sitting out for several hours. The grain of truth behind this is that mayonnaise would occasionally have tiny traces of Salmonella bacteria in it, which multiply rapidly in warm temperatures, leading to food poisoning. But modern mayonnaise is pasteurized, so there’s no live Salmonella in it. You’re safe unless you made your own mayonnaise at home.
Recent stories about people getting sick from e. coli bacteria usually involve the meat not being cooked at a high enough temperature, or the bacteria being found on something which usually isn’t cooked at all, like lettuce.
If your burger was cooked properly and the mayonnaise was pasteurized, there’s very little chance that you’ll get sick from eating it several hours later. And even if you do get sick, you’ll get over it.
I’d say that it’s likely you’ll feel no ill effects at all.
If you do, you’ll probably just have the shits a little bit. You’d have hurled by now if you were going to.
It’s unlikely, but not impossible that you got Salmonella or some other serious food borne bacteria.
Salmonella and other food poisoning bacteria are everywhere in our environments and on our bodies - even the cleanest kitchen is not sterile for long.
Even if no salmonella was present in the eggs, or even if present and killed by pasteurisation, it’s highly likely that live bacteria would have been reintroduced in the process of preparation.
So you typically have to control time and temperature, or the bacteria will build back up to a big enough dose to make you ill.
I’ve eaten 24+ hours old pizza, 24+ hours old burgers and fries, and more without a hitch. (I’m talking simply sitting in a covered container, but without refrigeration)
While it’s possible you may have eaten something bad and will find out tomorrow, I find the possibility is usually exaggerated. I’ve only had food poisoning twice in my life, and it came from stuff like, “Shit, this chinese place didn’t cook their dumplings all the way”
Hell, I ate 28 year old cheddar once. Not only did I not get sick, it was delicious! And sharp enough to shave with.
Where did you get that? I want some.
40 and 28 year old cheddars found.
Doubt you can find any now. I still have a sliver of the 28 year old stuff (now 30), but we’ll be polishing that off this year when we have a Mercotan clan gathering, to celebrate elfbabe’s 30th birthday and her younger sister’s impending nuptuals.
When I cook up a pot of something, I make enough for about 4 days. Often, I don’t even bother to put it in the fridge, I just leave it out and keep reheating it every day. Never had a problem. In summer, I might put it in the fridge after a couple of days, out of my unreasonable phobia that it might go bad or something.
My daughter once said “Dad I think you should throw this cheese out, it crunchy!”
I told her “No, it’s just gettin’ good!”
That’s amazing. Frankly, $10 an ounce for 40YO vintage cheese is a bargain.
The 40 year old stuff sold out too fast for us to get any. We were lucky to snag two hunks of the 28 year old stuff.
At least the reviewers described the 28 year old stuff to be the better of the two.
OP…if you are able to type out a question asking if you’ll be OK, then the answer is probably “YES.” In the future however, it would be advisable to simply throw out food when in doubt as food poisoning can be serious matter if you already have underlying medical issues.
Well, are you dead yet? If not, then you’re in the clear.