The breaker connected to my refrigerator popped sometime yesterday morning without my knowledge and I had some steaks in it I was going to cook this evening. The refrigerator had been opened/closed numerous times over the last 24 hours.
I just flipped the breaker back, checked the steaks temperature, and they’re hovering right above 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Anything I’ve read says anything below 40 degrees is the danger zone.
Am I in the clear or should I just throw them out?
by Whiskey615
25 Comments
I’d say you’re totally fine. They haven’t been at that temp for long and besides you can leave them out till they get to room temp to cook right? Hell I leave chunks of meat on the counter for hours to make beef bourguignon.
Good to go!
[deleted]
You should be good to go
Addition: The plan was to serve them to my wife, who is nursing our newborn, our 2 year old, and my father in law.
If it smells right and not slime your good. I’ve had my freezer 2 times. Once by me and once by my son. I thought everything went ba d. The last time the temp was 55 in the middle of a deer roast. I didn’t have anytime to mess with it so I turned it back on. After all was frozen I told my friend about it and gave him a back strap to try and he said it was good. Come to find out everything is perfectly fine.
I would think that anything above 40 degrees is the danger zone, not below.
No. You need to cook them first.
Nah, says right on the package not for sale. Can’t buy em, can’t cook em. Those the rules pal
I let my beef get damn near room temp before I grill it. Always turns out fine.
I’d personally toss them. Why risk it?
Meat can be in the danger zone for a few hours and still be safe. The anaerobic package helps big time!
You’re fine. The old Italians would eat steak raw with some salt spread over to kill any germs
Does it pass the sniff test? It it does I eat it. If it doesn’t I bin it
Generally speaking, you want to seek advice from other places than Reddit.
If it were a restaurant, you’d have to throw them out. At home, personally I’d still cook them, up to you though
Steaks are best cooked when they are at room temperature. High end restaurants do the same.
And yours was still wrapped. No worries there.
They are fine eat away
It is safe to eat most raw meat just be careful about it and no ground meats god only knows what’s in those
How long were they at that temp? Over 2 hours then no.
Health inspector here. Per my states regulations, temperature controlled foods that have been above 41 degrees for more than 4 hours should be discarded.
That being said, if the highest temperature it reached was 55 degrees Fahrenheit, then you have roughly 7 hours according to emergency SOP. Just keep in mind that bacteria growth is logarithmic. So while it will hit the 4 hour mark of temp, it doesn’t mean that you WILL get sick, it just means your chances are higher. Which is why in a commercial setting, they are discarded.
TDLR: Your risk for fordborne illness is higher, but not a certainty.
When in doubt throw it out.
Anything between 40 and 140°F is the danger zone, some would even go between 35 and 145°. If you don’t want any risks, then you’re gonna have to cook those steaks well done considering the fact you’re feeding a kid under 5, nursing mother, and I’m assuming over 50 adult. Unless you got a sous vide, or immersion circulator, but that’s a whole different story.
Yippee
I’m sure you’re fine. They’re in airtight packaging and the fridge wouldn’t have cooled down immediately.
I go by smell. If it smells off then I toss it. You’ll know if your meat is bad pretty easily with your nose
The FDA and USDA will tell you no, because those steaks are no longer safe to eat under their very strict guidelines. Especially since you have also gone and poked a hole in one of them, meaning that if you don’t cook that steak well-done then that’s even further from official guidelines.
But the guidelines aren’t a thing where if you adhere to them you are 100% safe, and if you don’t then you will 100% get sick. So it is probably fine for you to eat the steaks. Probably okay for your FIL too if he is in good health.
Dealing with a sick toddler is a pain in the ass so I would cook ’em well done for the 2yo. And I wouldn’t feed them to your wife just on the very, very small chance that she gets sick. She can still nurse while sick, but like with the 2yo it is just more trouble than it is worth. Do you want to be the one in the same household as a mother who has to nurse a newborn while she is also throwing up and/or shitting her guts out?