I understand that these threads usually go thusly, “If you have to ask, the answer is probably yes.” But, what the hell, I’ll ask anyway.
Sunday, I went to the grocery store and picked up some greek Yogurt, some regular yogurt, and some sour cream. When I got home, I promptly forgot about these things and left them out on my counter for 7 or so hours. When I discovered these items before bed, I cursed myself and then picked them up. All the containers were physically cold to the touch (not cool, actually cold). I basically don’t run my heater, so it was anywhere from 50-55 in my house. I threw everything in the 'fridge where it has since been.
So, riddle me this: what’s the likelihood of me dying if I eat these items? Should I just toss them and consider it $3.75 lost to stupid?
They’re absolutely fine. ETA: I mean, that’s how you make yogurt. You take some live cultures (say, already existing yogurt), add it to milk, and put it in a warm place (around 100F) for several hours for it to incubate.
You should be fine. I only dump yogurt or sour cream if I see that lovely fuzzy blue/green (or the odd pink) or I guess if it smelled not right (has never happened yet).
I’ve put a yogurt in my bag for a meal, forgot about it that day and overnight and then eaten it the next day. And these weren’t even cool, but solidly room temperature. If you check and the container is still completely sealed (like the foil that’s glued to the top), I’d say go ahead and use them.
Nothing goes bad in 7 hours. At least I refuse to believe it. I have a habit of leaving leftover lunch in my car until I go home at 5pm. Whatever it is, sushi, bbq beef, rice and stuff. Still alive
Just yesterday morning I found yogurt on the counter that my husband had left out the night before. Eh. Threw it into the fridge, opened it for supper, and ate it on quesadillas.
I am here to report that not only am I alive, but indeed, I am well.
Not a problem, since the plastic seals were still in place and it was still cool to touch. If they had been opened, I would probably suggest consuming them within the next few days, but that wasn’t the case.
heh The yogurt and sour cream are at home, but I am at work. I’ll try some of the sour cream tonight and report back with my findings. . .or perhaps I won’t. :eek:
It’s funny, I keep pretty close track of these types of threads, and my experience is the exact opposite of yours: for every person with a food item that actually might pose some risk, there are about a hundred for whom the answer is a resounding “No, eating pizza that has been sitting out for 15 minutes will not kill you,” or “A jar of jelly one day past it’s expiration date will be fine.”
Based on the description of your house, you could leave those items unopened on the counter for a fortnight and you’d be fine. Opened, I’d give them about a week.
What’s the sour cream gonna do, go bad? It’s already sour!
Heh. No, you’ll be fine. I mean, you’ll die eventually, as will we all, but it won’t be from the sour cream or yogurt. Why, I left out some real cream (with a tablespoon of buttermilk) overnight in the microwave (to keep it from the cats) earlier this week to make some creme fraiche.
Coliform bacteria (which except for some strains of Escherichia coli do not cause food-borne illnesses themselves but are a good indicator of the ability of toxic organisms to reproduce) can rapidly colonize some foods and reach significant levels in as little as 20 minutes. This is why uncooked meats (which all carry some level of pathogenic bacteria) and utensils and surfaces in which they come to contact must be kept separated from culture environments that provide nutrients and conditions for growth. So, if you have any food with, say mayonnaise or Hollandaise sauce (which, at room or elevated temperature are nearly ideal growth media for most bacteria), it definitely shouldn’t be left out for hours without refrigeration, and should probably be consumed within a day after preparation.
However, growth factors in cultured (i.e. fermented) dairy products are limited because so much of the sugars in the raw milk have been converted to lactic acid. Therefore, without another source of sugars, the growth rate of any nascent pathologic organisms is slow. Add to that the near-refrigeration temperature environment, and you could probably leave out the sour cream and yoghurt (assuming that it is not flavored with extra sugar) almost indefinitely compared to refrigerated storage.
In general, if you have a healthy immune system you can tolerate a fair amount of pathologic contamination with little or no ill effects. However, there have been studies that have suggested that there may be long term ill effects resulting from short duration response to food poisoning, so I wouldn’t be too cavalier about food poisoning, especially in the case of mammalian meat and organs which carry bacteria that is well-adapted to set up long term colonization in your intestinal tract and may compete with indigenous strains.
