Okay guys, not your normal post, went to Sam's last night to purchase brats and ground beef, put them in the cold bag around 7:00 p.m. when we left, brought them home by about 8:00 and left it on the counter in my 68° house.
Woke up this morning at 6:00 and realized that they've been on the counter all night In the cold bag, wrapped a meat thermometer in the ground beef through the packaging and after stabilizing only came off the 54° so it's only been 14° in the danger zone all night, packaging isn't puffy, no discoloration, so my question for all you carnivorous folks out there:
Would you trust it to cook for your family?
I understand refrigeration is new in respect to the length of humans being on earth, but this is also processed meat.
by Iowa-James
3 Comments
If it smells fine, it’s probably fine. I hope you put it right in the freezer. I recommend not thawing anything but rather cooking from frozen.
If you want the scientifically safe answer, it’s been in the danger zone more than 2 hours, toss it. A restaurant would never serve that product after sitting like that.
If you want an excuse to not waste it, you’re probably fine as long as it smells fine, it’s not like it was at 54 the whole time, presumably the “on the counter” time started at a below-40 temperature so the time in the danger zone wasn’t by much or for very long.
It’s your money and your health, and we know nothing about either, so risk it or don’t just don’t pretend the second answer is the first.
if you want anything like me, the question I want is worth not eating it. Every time I have tried to go for it, I ended up safe. With that being said, I learned that the 48 hours of waiting to find out if food poisoning is a brewin’ is not worth it. I had no idea that it could take that long before it hit. But it’s probably fine lol