How long is too long...

MattT

MattT

Location
California
how long is too long to eat food that has been left out. I ate pasta that was left out for 36 hours today for lunch and feel ok... Wondering if I am pushing the limit or wasting electricity running a refrigerator.
 
I thought that's how it's done. Cook a massive pot of pasta Sunday night and pick at it for lunch and dinner throughout the week?
 
oldtimefiddler said:
I'm bad about that with pizza.. Awww
Click to expand...
Got a story about pizza....

I once was unloading a yard of top soil out of my truck with the help of a buddy, and at the bottom of the top soil sitting in my truck bed was a pizza box, I must of thrown it in the truck bed a week earlier. So I said "you wont eat the last slice." It was a Hawaiian Pizza. And he wiped the dirt off the box, opened it up and ate the last slice. He was ok. I think the pineapple pieces must of preserved it a bit, but hes got an iron stomach (raised on a farm, 20+ years experience eating mildly spoiled food).

I guess the positive thing I can take away from eating that old pasta is that I know my stomach is good for 36 hour old food.
 
I can't eat a slice of Hawaiian pizza when it's hot, let alone after a week of rotting under a pile of dirt. Putting pineapple on pizza is a crime against good taste.
 
tomato sauce is very acidic, acts as a very effective preservative... Also one man's spoiled is another man's "fermented"..
I leave cauliflower soup out for three weeks, after adding pharmaceutical grade pro-biotic.. No different than sour kraut ... just a lot easier and faster to make...
We evolved before the advent of the refrigerator... do you think cave men turned their nose at day old soup and tossed it ??? Just like trees and plants need soil microorganisms... we need intestinal flora.. lots of science to back that up.. burp! LOL
 
I've eaten things left out for days before, but it really depends on what it is. I have eaten shrimp left out for 12 hours but I was nervous.....I've eaten beef left out for 36 and didn't sweat a drop.
 
Most people (and news agencies) make SUCH a big deal about food safety and how you'll catch E. coli or salmonella or similar and DIE, and that's just not true. In most cases, you'll have a mildly upset stomach, not think much about it, and life will go on. In worse cases, yeah, you'll be feeling sick and hanging around the toilet for a few days. You'll figure you caught the flu, it'll pass in a couple of days and life will once again go on. The problem arises when you get sick, have horrible vomiting/diarrhea for 5 days and don't do anything about it. If you're a healthy adult and can't keep water down for 3 days, you need to see a doctor! If you are already sickly, elderly or an infant and can't keep water in you for 24 hours, then you need to seek help! It's the dehydration from the vomiting/diarrhea that does you in.

So eat that 36 hour pasta! Enjoy Aunt Sally's mayonnaise potato salad that's been sitting in the sun all day at the picnic! Catch and finish off that leftover hamburger from last week that's trying to crawl out of the fridge on its own! But if you get sick, just use common sense and make sure you're either getting better or getting treatment within several days.
 
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