Maybe a really dumb meat safety question

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #1

My housemate made a stew in the crock pot yesterday. He went out and left it on the counter and is reheating it in the crock pot tonight and eating it. Is this safe?

I ask because two weeks ago he made chili in the crock pot but was too lazy to fully brown the ground beef before putting on low in the crock pot for 8 hours and made himself violently ill. I personally think he incubated whatever bacteria was on the ground beef all day, not ever killing it because it never got hot enough.

Now I’m sitting here wondering how cooking meat on low for 8 hours isn’t like putting a pot of meat on the deck on the hottest day of summer and coming home and eating it. Am I being ridiculous?

(Carl Keller) #2

It’s a big maybe. It’s more than likely grown some bacteria. The question is: “will it make him sick?”. It’s all about the danger zone (*cue TopGun music) and how long the food was in it.

Leaving food out too long at room temperature can cause bacteria (such as Staphylococcus aureus , Salmonella Enteritidis, Escherichia coli O157:H7, and Campylobacter ) to grow to dangerous levels that can cause illness. Bacteria grow most rapidly in the range of temperatures between 40 °F and 140 °F, doubling in number in as little as 20 minutes. This range of temperatures is often called the "Danger Zone."

https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets/safe-food-handling/danger-zone-40-f-140-f/CT_Index

That’s probably ok as long as it gets over 140 degrees in a short amount of time and stays over 140 during the cooking process.

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #3

Ok, thanks for the link!!

(John L) #4

See this type of food handling would make me wonder about their hand washing habits.:face_vomiting:

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #5

Let’s just say he’s barely meeting the cleanliness standards of the general public. It’s my lot in life to disinfect the kitchen and wash anything I want to use for cooking (even if it’s “clean”) because I’ve seen him be gross. He also sweeps crumbs onto the floor which I wish was a legal reason to kill someone because he’d already be dead. (He is my brother so it’s amazing we haven’t killed one another yet anyway)

(Empress of the Unexpected) #6

My husband leaves food out all day then eats it at night. He never gets sick but it gives me the creeps.

(Todd Allen) #7

I’ve been doing a lot of sous vide at 135F with no trouble so far…

#8

Same here, I’ve been doing steaks the last couple days at 125 and feel they’re still too cooked, granted steaks are a different world than ground beef when it comes to that kinda stuff.

(Carl Keller) #9

It’s a Pittsbugh thing to leave leftover pizza out (on the stove top or table) and eat it the next day… I was appauled by this and wouldn’t do it for many years. But I have done it and it didn’t make me sick nor has it made anyone sick that I know of. Make me wonder what’s in our pizza that bacteria doesn’t want any part of it…

I’m pretty sure bacteria starts dying at temps lower than 140. 140 is just a public health department guideline. Not even sure how sous vide applies to bacteria growth TBH.

(Steve) #10

Hmm. I thought the official guidelines were actually 130F (there’s a lot of studies that actually indicate that 127F is where pathogens start dying off).

If it wasn’t 130F, none of us would be able to cook roasts for 3 days in our Sous Vide at that temperature. :slight_smile:

The duration recommendations vary. Ground beef is especially prone to have e-coli if it’s from the mass-producers. Many meats left at room temp should likely be tossed after a couple of hours…but beyond a doubt after 4.

Edit: Oh…and back to the original posting on the thread - the low setting on slow cookers is definitely above the danger zone…otherwise they never would have passed safety standards. :slight_smile:

(Mike W.) #11

Sous vide is often cooked long enough to pasteurize which is why you can cook things to a lower final temp.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #12

Don’t you have to seal the meat airtight before putting it in the sous vide? That might be protecting you from aerobic bacteria.

#13

Meat has to be below 5 degrees Celcilus or above 68C otherwise it will accumulate bacteria best not eaten! (Or below 41F and above 155F)

I’m generally regarded as Mr Iron Guts but our fridge was running at 7C, I ate some leftover Salmon … BAM food poisoning. Sick as a dog for 2 weeks.

Salmon will smell either fishy or fishy, either way I didn’t get a hint. At least when beef or pork goes off you have a clue of impending danger via the smell (unless heavily masked within a stew).

If it’s a cooler season and 33F or 1C then yeah that’s fine.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #14

I have to say that refrigeration is a modern phenomenon. People in most of the world still don’t have that luxury. I spent much time in Indonesia and China in the 80’s and most people didn’t have them. Reboiling the food will always kill the bit of bacteria that starts growing unless it went sour and then it will not taste good. Especially I would not worry about cooked beef or pork going bad overnight unless it was in the sun all day. I’ve done this many times and never gotten sick, even with chicken soup.

(Todd Allen) #15

I doubt that has much to do with it. There are nasty anaerobic bacteria too. And I’m not vacuum sealing meat, mostly I put it in reusable silicone bags and squeeze some but not all of the air out.

For Christmas I baked a 12 lb prime rib roast that was too big for my sous vide. I put it into an oven pre-warmed to 200 F to hopefully quick kill any surface microbes. My oven’s minimum temperature is 170 F, but I’ve been doing low temperature baking in our oven using an electronic thermostat controlling an electric hot plate for a heating element. I baked the roast for 8 hours at 135 F followed by 30 minutes at 375 F to lightly brown the exterior and perhaps kill any surface growth that may have survived the slow bake. Everyone loved it and no one died or showed any signs of food poisoning.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #16

Ah. I don’t know anything about sous vide cooking, though not because Mic hasn’t tried to explain it, lol! :grin:

(Full Metal KETO AF) #17

Crock pots cook at safe cooking temperatures to kill germs on low or high if left for enough time. But briefly reheating something at low temperature until it’s hot enough to eat again after sitting out all night not so safe, 50/50.

(Steve) #18

+1 - Pasteurization kills pathogens, but not the toxins that they can produce. Once something is unsafe, people really shouldn’t think that they can just “make it clean again”. May work for sterilizing medical equipment…but not for food. :slight_smile:

(Full Metal KETO AF) #19

As I said if it went sour no good. You’re right about the toxins. However people have been eating meat for days without refrigerators for 1000’s of years so there’s common sense safety involved there.

(Steve) #20

People actually build up immunity to a lot of these toxins as well. Those with healthy immune systems are often fine…tends to be the elderly and ill that are more susceptible (and prone to getting REALLY sick).

Mind you, I’ve had food poisoning twice…