# If it smells good and tastes good, it's good. Agree? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [January 21, 2021, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-it-smells-good-and-tastes-good-its-good-agree/931111 "2021-01-21T16:22:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-it-smells-good-and-tastes-good-its-good-agree/931111/21 "2021-01-25T13:55:42Z")
Lead acetate doesn’t have a smell, to my knowledge, but it reportedly has a nice sweet taste to it. That’s why it’s called “sugar of lead”. Eat it and you’ll get toxic lead accumulating in your body. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-it-smells-good-and-tastes-good-its-good-agree/931111/22 "2021-01-25T14:18:15Z")
If every good-smelling and good-tasting food were safe, then nobody would ever get food poisoning. In my kitchen, I don’t use raw meat over 4 days old, or eat leftovers older than a week. Less than that if it’s something soupy or creamy. ---
**Author:** ![Strassia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@Strassia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strassia)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-it-smells-good-and-tastes-good-its-good-agree/931111/23 "2021-01-25T18:13:37Z")
For most pathogens, it does reset it. For some, like botulism, it may kill the pathogen, but it does not remove the toxin the pathogen creates. In theory, if you kept food at 180F permanently, it would never go bad, in the bacterial sense. I would not vouch for how good it would be to eat after that. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-it-smells-good-and-tastes-good-its-good-agree/931111/24 "2021-01-25T18:24:05Z")
Just a note on dogs: they have evolved specific digestive mechanisms that allow them to eat carrion. Including a ready inclination to puke something up that doesn’t feel right. Whoops, changed my mind about that one! We don’t have those mechanisms. So, not a good comparison. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-it-smells-good-and-tastes-good-its-good-agree/931111/25 "2021-01-25T22:12:11Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Just a note on dogs: they have evolved specific digestive mechanisms that allow them to eat carrion. Including a ready inclination to puke something up that doesn’t feel right. Whoops, changed my mind about that one! Dave Barry said of his dogs that their policy was to eat everything, because if it turned out not to be food,m they could always throw it up later. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-it-smells-good-and-tastes-good-its-good-agree/931111/26 "2021-01-25T23:34:27Z")
I’m in the 5-6 day group myself, so I’d probably worry at a week, and that’s with the high acidity foods I normally make in large enough quantities to have leftovers that long. Since my spousal unit went vegetarian, I’ve stopped really making more than 1+1 dishes at most (One meal plus one meal of leftovers), so in general it’s 72 hours at most for me. One point that the OP didn’t bring up, which I _do_ factor into my equations is how long did you have the raw ingredients sitting in the fridge? I normally do groceries once or twice a week, which means sometimes the food has been sitting 2-3 days in the fridge before cooking. If it’s a cryovac’d pork loin in saline solution, less worries. If it’s ‘fresh’ meat from the case, then you’re talking about however long the store had it out, however long you had it in the fridge before cooking the first time, and then however long you let the leftovers sit. Things to keep in mind! ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-it-smells-good-and-tastes-good-its-good-agree/931111/27 "2021-01-26T00:24:36Z")
I’d probably eat the week old pasta sauce (provided it hasn’t been mixed with the pasta) but I’d share OP’s apprehension. I’m fairly liberal with food safety stuff for myself, though I did toss what was left of a pot of rice I’d accidentally left out overnight this past weekend. > [@Strassia](#): > > For most pathogens, it does reset it. For some, like botulism, it may kill the pathogen, but it does not remove the toxin the pathogen creates. Botulism toxin is indeed destroyed by relatively low temperatures. It’s the spores that can withstand periods of high heat. > - Despite its extreme potency, botulinum toxin is easily destroyed. Heating to an internal temperature of 85°C for at least 5 minutes will decontaminate affected food or drink. From [https://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/Botulism/clinicians/control.asp](https://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/Botulism/clinicians/control.asp) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-it-smells-good-and-tastes-good-its-good-agree/931111.md?page=1)