I made a lasagna Sunday. Had some for dinner, covered it up and put it in the refrigerator.
Monday morning I put a couple slices in a container and put that in a plastic bag to take for lunch, but I forgot it when I left and it sat on the kitchen counter for about 8 hours until my GF came home and stuck it back in the fridge. We keep the temp in the house pretty low; the thermostat is set at a shade under 50, let’s call it 48.
Today I brought it to work with me and now I’m staring at in the office fridge, debating whether I should eat it or not.
Now, had it been warm and sat out all day, I’d certainly just toss it out, but when I left it out it was refrigerator temperature, which is set at 35 degrees.
What do you think?
ETA: if it makes a difference, there’s no meat in it. I made it with vegetarian sausage.
According to the health department no, anything out more than an hour gets tossed. Doesn’t matter if it has meat, there is still plenty of food for pathogens to grow.
It’s probably fine, especially if you heat it up so it’s really super hot for a minute or two before you eat it.
But… the key word is “probably.” It did spend a lot of time in the low danger zone. Something could have grown, albeit slowly. As emacknight said, the health department would advise to throw it out. But these are the same people who think that all our eggs should be cooked until the yolk is hard and all meat should be well-done.
I guess it depends on how much of a risk-taker you are. Let us know how it goes!
I’d eat it. I have eaten it, or at least eaten food in very similar situations, and never gotten sick as a result. I personally believe FDA/health department warnings are for infants, the elderly and infirm, not for healthy adults.
Yeah, there is really two schools of thought on this. I have a friend who is far less cautious than me and he’d say eat it - chances are it’ll be fine. He thinks I’m ridiculously overcautious about refrigerating things promptly.
But as the above implies I’d toss it. Because if you crap out on those chances you’re going to have one miserable time of it later on.
It’ll be fine.
It’s cooked and tomato sauce is acid.
I would nuke it in the microwave to be sure (also, because I do not like cold lasagne) but I wouldn’t even think twice about that.
My rule is: If it doesn’t stink, it’s safe to eat. Sitting in the hot Sun all day, yeah, it might be spoiled. But on your kitchen counter at ~50 degrees for a few hours? Wouldn’t put me off, especially if it’s lasagna!
Well said. We also keep our house cool (not 48, that’s downright brisk!) and our habit is to leave leftover pizza in the box on the counter and eat it the next day. So far there has been no problem for either my son or myself but this IS the Dope and therefore YMMV.
I watched a reality show possibly called 1940s House or WWII House where a typical family lived in the manner a family in their neighborhood in London would have during WWII, and what the family chose to eat rather than discard in a climate of rationing was very different than it would have been with huge varieties of food abundantly available. I think about that sometimes when faced with an eat or don’t eat decision.
If it’s a recipe you make often and you have other options tossing it is probably the wiser course.
It was about 90 minutes ago. I was hungry and lazy so I didn’t feel like walking down to the cafeteria for something else. I’m generally pretty hardy when it comes to food. I nuked it good and it tasted fine. I feel normal.