Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - How long are leftovers good for sitting out at room temperture?

sadora · 10-23-2008, 07:58 PM

You can leave food out no longer than two hours before bacteria begins to multiply, you can even push it up to 4 hours, depending on how hot food is to begin with, but I wouldn't recommend it. 2 hours max. What you should concentrate on, if you have a thermometer, is keeping food out of the danger zone which is between 4C to 60C. The longer you let your food out of the fridge it's going to drop to about 37C which is the optimal temperature for microbial growth. So, if you have hot food you should ideally let it cool anywhere between 80C to 60C before putting it in the fridge.

You should note, what everyone should note actually because it seems like threads like this keep popping up every so often, that after the 3rd hour of letting food sit out bacteria doubles about every 20 minutes.

10-23-2008, 07:58 PM	#5
sadora First Line Centre Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Calgary Exp:	You can leave food out no longer than two hours before bacteria begins to multiply, you can even push it up to 4 hours, depending on how hot food is to begin with, but I wouldn't recommend it. 2 hours max. What you should concentrate on, if you have a thermometer, is keeping food out of the danger zone which is between 4C to 60C. The longer you let your food out of the fridge it's going to drop to about 37C which is the optimal temperature for microbial growth. So, if you have hot food you should ideally let it cool anywhere between 80C to 60C before putting it in the fridge. You should note, what everyone should note actually because it seems like threads like this keep popping up every so often, that after the 3rd hour of letting food sit out bacteria doubles about every 20 minutes.