Ask Lemmy

South US, but in the mountains where it is much cooler. SO is vegetarian and I am an omnivore but skew vegetarian, especially at home. I leave heated things out to cool from hot to warm before putting in the fridge. About an hour, maybe 2 when I am being forgetful. Anything over that is taking risk. I’ve had a few nasty bouts of food poisoning before so I skew on the safe side.

My mom on the other hand grew up very differently. Lives by the beach in a much warmer more humid climate. She’ll leave moist dump cakes unrefrigerated for days. She’s more homeopathic than me, says the spices have been used for ages to preserve food. She’s not wrong, but you have to throw in a lot more cinnamon than what our Americanized palate is accustomed to. We are very careful about what we eat when we visit, and even then, small bites to try first.

Omnivore, southeast USA.

When I worked in food service, I was taught that it takes four hours at room temperature for bacteria to reach dangerous levels in food, so that's what I go with. I assume there's other factors at play, but four hours is easy to remember and apply and I don't like to take chances with that stuff.

Northern Europe. Omnomnomnivour.

Sometimes forget to put the lunch boxes in the fridge over night. No problem eating them the day after.

If I thaw meat I don't have an issue with it being room temperature for a few hours before I cook it. Better than somewhat frozen.

That being said if I ran a restaurant I'd be much more careful. Best way to scare off customers and get the food safety inspector to hit you with his clipboard.

I think context is also important. At home I eat all kinds of things that have been all kinds of places for various amounts of time. I grew up eating fruit straight off the vine after a quick shine with my shirt (and nectar in the case of honeysuckle).

When I'm handling food for my patients I take no chances. Even the ones without specific immune disorders are under high bodily stress while being exposed to shit that's basically been bred for resistance to antimicrobials. My husband has only had one hospital job but has been working in bulk production kitchens longer than my entire career in healthcare. If one item does go bad it can spread to the others pretty quickly. Another issue is that while I wash my hands plenty at home and also so compulsively at work that I have to use dimethicone lotion to keep my skin together, I can't actually guarantee that my coworkers do. Wish I could, but I'm not pressing my ears to the bathroom door in the breakroom to do it. I know I washed my hands before touching the patients' breakfasts but I'm too busy focusing on my own job to tell you for certain that anybody else did so yeah there really might be something growing on those trays an hour or two later.

So at home, no I don't really care. But in high volume kitchens and institutional environments it's important enough that my husband actually knows all the specific times and temperatures off the top of his head.

Omnivore/Central Europe:

I am pretty special in my needs because i hate eating leftovers when they were out "too long" (where "too long" is a very random amount of time), so i normally wait until the food is room temperature; if i don't plan to eat within the next few hours it goes into the fridge pretty much instantly. But i know that this is my personal spleen and that it would be fine much longer.

Bread, any fruit, onions, potatoes, garlic and so on stay outside tho.

It's more important to make sure that your kitchen and cooking utensils are clean, and anything that was used for preparing meat doesn't get reused; and the dishes must be heated properly - that alone would mean it's probably save to stay out overnight if it's not 30°C in the kitchen in the midst of summer.

From the CDC website:

“Bacteria can multiply rapidly if left at room temperature or in the "Danger Zone" between 40°F and 140°F. Never leave perishable food out for more than 2 hours (or 1 hour if exposed to temperatures above 90°F).”

https://www.cdc.gov/food-safety/prevention/index.html

France/omnivore (with a slight pref for veggies).

When the topic is food here or also on former similar platforms there is always this guy saying “omg you can’t leave your food for 30 minutes on the counter because bacteria you know” and I don’t get where that sentiment comes from. Many people agree and say you will get food poisoning from that.

To me it’s lack of education (fear of bacteria is not a bad thing, over-exaggerating it and forgetting or whole body is made to deal with them and some are even legit part of our body is… excessive), and a cultural thing.

I mean, in the US for example they will even shrink wrap individual fruits because ‘food exposed to the air is bad’ even though fruits have developed their skin just for that purpose, and even though most of the fruits sold over there have been so intensely chemically treated they could last for centuries before starting to decay (there may be hint of sarcasm here, just a hint).

Also, I wonder how many of those ‘worried persons’ systematically wash their hands before they grab any food? The same hands they grab their bacteria saturated phone with all day long, or pick their nose, or scratch their balls (or whatever part of the body they need to scratch), or shake hands with other people (whose personal hygiene and what they do with their hands they have no idea)… The risk is at the very least as high to grab some nasty thing just by not washing one’s hands before eating and preparing something to eat.

On the other, being French, I have no shame in admitting I appreciate some of our cheese that don’t fear being left to… age, attacked by bacteria ;)

My opinion is that food should not be left out in the air without any reason (it’s messy and risky) but depending the food it can. But it certainly is not a matter of leaving it 30 minutes, unless weather conditions are very specific. Never heard that 30 minutes remark, btw.

On the counter is fine for quite a while. I feel that putting warm food in the fridge will hurt the texture, so I always wait until it's room temperature and usually a few hours longer before storing it.

So for the remainder of the day on the counter is fine in my book. Overnight it goes in the fridge.

Special case: Taco meat. I usually put the pan back in the (now cold) oven mostly to save space, and leave it there overnight. When I reheat taco meat I use enough heat to probably kill any bacteria anyway.

Vegetarian (nearly vegan)/not doxxing myself because I piss many people off unintentionally. Flies are my most consistent concern. So long as the food was shielded from insects and extended temperatures above 25c/70f, I really don’t care to put it away urgently. Tupperware is just exhausting to use. Soup standing overnight isn’t a strange sight, but I eat my leftovers promptly

Vegetarian, Western Europe, very temperate.

I wouldn’t leave things out of the fridge past a couple of hours, a whole day is enough to get in trouble, even for non animal products. Pasta especially is susceptible to very fast acting bacteria that can literally kill you past a day out of the fridge.

Europe. Technically meat eater but not an "identity" and generally prefer veggie.

This rule makes no intuitive sense, or factual sense. It sounds like one of those US-specific things that have spread through "everyone knows" like the 3 second rule.

We have other nonsense rules here, basically.

Depends on the food but most goes in. In addition to cooling, the refrigerator is critter proof (ants, mice). Not bread not catsup but most all leftovers

Rural US, no dietary restrictions, 40, married with children

I have a degree in microbiology and I am not sure. I could look it up but im comfotable with my gut. Raw food that needs to be refrigerated we don't leave out for any longer than necessary and use cooler bags and such. Cooked food we won't put in the fridge till its almost room temp

Omnivore.

Bread cools overnight on the counter after cooking then wrapped and stays on the counter.

Butter in a closed container, for however long until it's all used.

Pizza overnight if it doesn't have meat

Cut onion, if I cut some for breakfast I will just turn it cut side down on the cutting board if I'm gonna use the rest soon, like at supper same day.

If beans are left out too long I do the "hard boil for 5 minutes".

I do make fermented beverages and pickles, those ferment at room temp for days to weeks.

Omnivore, Netherlands. Forty years ago my parents had only one small fridge, so most of our food was kept in the cupboard or in the cellar. The fridge was for open containers or jars, some meat, eggs and margarine. Meat was deli meat for sandwiches, meat for dinner usually came from the freezer in the morning and was thawing on the counter all day. So I'm with you on this I guess.

Omnivore, Northern Spain.

I don't worry too much but that depends mostly on the season because my main concern are usually house flies in the summer.
I don't usually let stuff sit uncovered for more than 1 hour but I've occasionally left some covered things sit for hours in winter.

Vegetarian. Northern Europe.

I’ll leave food on the counter until it cools down. Don’t want to bring the temperature up in the fridge too much, and if the food is hot you risk breaking the glass shelves in the fridge from the temperature shock.

Never had any problems. Generally food will get reheated so that kills bacteria. Obviously spoilage produces toxins over time but that doesn’t happen that fast.

I’m generally more casual with it in the winter than in the summer as things spoil faster when it’s warm.

Also central Europe, no special diet.

Really the fridge is only for ingredients. Only when I know that I won't eat the food that I prepared in the next two days does it go back in the fridge. But in practice most prepared food will sit on the counter for up to two days while I slowly whittle it down.

Another factor that hasn't been mentioned: I'm young and healthy, I don't want to have salmonella, but I'm pretty sure I'd probably be okay. If I am sick or cooking for people who have weak immune systems for whatever reasons, I do much stricter than for my lazy bachelor self.

Otherwise, I live by "if it smells and looks good, it's probably good". Obvious conditions apply of course, in hot, humid weather, I'm trying to leave nothing out, in cold weather, I'll happily eat cold pizza from the day before.

It would bother me at a restaurant or store, since that is proper, legal food safety shit. If it needs to be kept cold, it can't be out of cold for more than 30 minutes.

However, at home? I don't care too much. Unless it's been out all day, I'll just nuke it and that should kill anything.

Ants are everywhere in south east asia so I'd never or build a little tower with a water bowl underneath it.

I keep my lunch in my work bag all day, not in the fridge, unless it's salad where it should be crisp.

I did the European thing where I kept eggs on the counter. It's best that way. Real unwashed farm eggs, not shit from the grocery store.