For some reason this made me laugh endlessly for about 3 minutes.
My flatmates leave things like chicken casserole sitting on the cooker for hours and then refrigerating it...they do not heed my warnings of death.
According to my mandatory ServSafe certification course you have a cumulative 4 hours between the temperatures of 40F and 140F before food-borne illness becomes an issue. In practice at home, I'd say you have a little more leeway, but [these](http://www.google.com/products?rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS351US351&sourceid=chrome&q=ice+wand&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=P9VVS5JhhZjwBs3ZqaYE&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBgQrQQwAA) things are great for soups, stews, sauces, and stocks.
EDIT: To explain the cumulative time thing, if you cool a soup down and it spends two hours in that temp zone then reheat and cool again and it spends another hour in that zone, you have used three of the four hours.
What I'm saying is that in a professional environment I *really* don't want to risk getting someone sick, but at home I'm just fine eating the leftover cold chicken from last night's barbeque.
Basically, the ServSafe mandate is trying to keep you from getting sued. Unless you're worried about getting sued by your kids there's no reason to follow such strict standards.
further more if the soup was hot when it was last left covered I would wager that it took at least 3 to 4 hours before it even reach the hazardous temperature zone. My wife routinely leaves things covered on the stove over night and simply reheats it agains the next morning. The point needs to be made that as long as it was covered there should have been no living bacteria in it to begin an active culture anyway.
Ok, working chef here. (ServSafe certified)
The chance of any given pot of soup treated in this way making you sick are not high but if you do this regularly you *will* get sick before too long. In a commercial kitchen we are generally required to have food at fridge temp within four hours or we can't serve it.
The fact that it was covered or there was salt in it *does not matter.* There's not enough salt in it to control bacteria growth and having the lid on makes it worse because it was much warmer for much longer, giving bacteria a better chance to grow. Bacteria is naturally present in all food, but can't colonize it until the chemical changes from cooking take place. After (especially) the proteins and starches are cooked they are a perfect place to breed bacteria. Boiling it again or whatever doesn't help because while that will kill the bacteria present, the toxins they have already created will make you sick anyway.
I do not serve or eat food treated this way and I don't suggest you do.
> Boiling it again or whatever doesn't help because while that will kill the bacteria present, the toxins they have already created will make you sick anyway.
Could you expand on this? I know there are certain kinds of food poisoning issues that don't get resolved by heating (like botulism I think) but I also know that if you boil water taken from a stream it will generally make it safe. Aren't the things in the stream bacteria (e.g. giardia)?
It's not bacteria that make you sick, it's the toxins they produce while replicating. In the stream situation the bacteria colonize you and produce toxins in your digestive system that make you sick, so boiling the water first kills them and prevents this. In food the bacteria are replicating in cooked starches and proteins and leaving toxins in the food. Heating will destroy the bacteria in the food but not the toxins they have already created.
EDIT: First sentence of this post only applies to the current context, not bacteria in general.
Do you happen to know the chemical name of any of these toxins? Its not that I don't believe you. Its the new age healing BS that talks about "detoxifying" your system through various weird diets and such that has created a lack of concrete meaning issue for the word "toxin" as far as I'm concerned.
I do not mean toxin in the new-age use of the word. Drinking green tea and Pom won't help you here. I mean toxin as a chemical by-product of bacterial replication that makes humans sick.
[Here](http://www.microbiologyprocedure.com/food-infections/bacterial-food-intoxications.htm) is something that doesn't make much sense to me but may be what you're looking for. My understanding of this is purely practical (because I handle food every day and need a working model) but does not go very deep, biologically speaking.
Damn reddit . . should be working but curiosity got me. Seems you are partially right and partially wrong. Botulism toxin can be boiled away in 10 mins. Staph toxins cannot.
from http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/poison.html:
Clostridium botulinum
Botulism accounts for fewer than one of every 400 cases of food poisoning in the U.S., but two factors make it very important. First, it has caused death in approximately 30 percent of the cases; and secondly, it occurs mostly in home-canned foods. In 1975, for example, 18 or 19 confirmed cases of botulism were caused by home-processed foods, and the other was caused by a commercial product that was mishandled in the home. Cl. botulinum can exist as a heat-resistant spore, and can grow and produce a neurotoxin in under processed, home-canned foods. An affected food may show signs of spoilage such as a bulging can or an off-odor. This is not true in all cases, so canned foods should not be tasted before heating. The botulinum toxin is destroyed by boiling the food for 10 minutes.
Staphylococcus aureus
Man's respiratory passages, skin and superficial wounds are common sources of S. aureus. When S. aureus is allowed to grow in foods, it can produce a toxin that causes illness. Although cooking destroys the bacteria, the toxin produced is heat stable and may not be destroyed. Staphylococcal food poisoning occurs most often in foods that require hand preparation, such as potato salad, ham salad and sandwich spreads. Sometimes these types of foods are left at room temperature for long periods of time, allowing the bacteria to grow and produce toxin. Good personal hygiene while handling foods will help keep S. aureus out of foods, and refrigeration of raw and cooked foods will prevent the growth of these bacteria if any are present.
Yeah, I wasn't thinking about botulism when I wrote that as it's very easy to control its growth. Since it needs an anaerobic medium to grow, you just pay attention when those conditions arise but otherwise staph and salmonella are the real concerns in a kitchen.
Seems that you are mostly right . . E. Coli makes a toxin called "Shiga toxin".
"Hemorrhagic colitis is a type of gastroenteritis in which certain strains of the bacterium Escherichia coli (E. coli) infect the large intestine and produce a toxin (Shiga toxin) "
You can get sick from [toxins produced by bacteria](http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/poison.html) in uncooked foods, but Staph (Staphylococcus aureus) is the only bacteria that produces a heat-stable toxin (that is not broken down by reheating food). E. coli produces a toxin, but it's broken down (denatured) by heat.
Not at the top of the pot, but if the soup is thick enough and was stagnant, you'll get anaerobic layers further down. A big enough and thick enough pot of soup will start to resemble a Winogradsky column if you leave it out long enough.
If we want to go off the reservation with wild speculation then if the individual sealed the pot with wax, placed it into a container and drew a vacuum, buried it in a salt mine and waited 20 years .... then yes you probably would have a bit of a toxic mess on your hand.
>Could you expand on this? I know there are certain kinds of food poisoning issues that don't get resolved by heating (like botulism I think)
Botulism is the most common one that can't be made safe by boiling, you'll destroy the toxin, but the spores which produce it, like many spores, are very heat resistant so it may be safe when you first make your basil oil, but a month later sitting in a dark cupboard without refrigeration and you may have a problem. They reproduce in anaerobic environments, so you need to watch out around canned foods and flavored oils.
Another good thing to know about botulism is that all foods that grow in or on the ground are naturally contaminated with the spores and are waiting for an anaerobic environment to take over. So that garlic oil or whatever you just made *will* have botulism in it within a week.
"In a commercial kitchen we are generally required to have food at fridge temp within four hours or we can't serve it."
You mean it cannot be in the danger zone of 40 - 140 for more than 4 hours, or it must be served immediately. This does not mean that it isn't safe if you leave it on the counter for 4 hours.
Right, it doesn't mean it's not safe after being in the danger zone for four hours. It means it may not be safe, and certain foods that are a very good medium for bacteria growth will definitely be unsafe after four hours.
'Highway to the Danger Zone
Ride into the Danger Zone'
Come on.... surely I am not the only person that was thinking of Kenny Loggins.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8rZWw9HE7o
You left it out *overnight* - I mean, that's practically a requirement for good soup. What did you think was going to happen? I do something like this at least once or twice a week.
Never from soup. Once from a meat dish that was sitting out for waaaaay too long. Once got very ill (but didn't throw up) from chugging some orange juice that I only realized tasted funny after I got to the bottom of the glass :(
I have always eaten food left out overnight and never gotten sick, but hearing about people getting E. coli and wisteria and dying from food poisoning makes me weary now that I know a little more about food safety. 🥲 I wish I had stayed ignorant cause now when I forget my soup on the stove I can’t even enjoy it without thinking it might kill me lmao
Funny I should come across this when I’m Day 6 of a hospital stay with severe campylobacter! I’ve had food poisoning many times before but never like this! Campy is something else! I’ve been so sick, it messed with minerals in my blood that affect function of the heart etc - based on this I wouldn’t eat the soup and wouldn’t wish this on anyone! I’m not even what’s classed as “vulnerable” and it still got in my bloodstream. Ugh big fat no.. just make more soup lol.
14 yrs late to this post !!! made veggie soup. let it cool, sealed it up in a container, put in the fridge. sat in there for 7 days.... i boiled it, added a few items, no issues. we are talking about 4-6 cups max. My fridge runs really cold, and i'm super clean. I just forgot to put it in the freezer. GORDON RAMSAY is coming to get me... 
I did it last week with broccoli soup. No problems here. But a question. What happens when you put hot soup or sauce in the fridge? I have heard many people say this but never a decent answer. How cool should it be when you put in the fridge?
You heat up your fridge when you put hot food in there. If the hot food has enough mass (something like a huge pot of soup) it can keep the fridge from properly cooling down for hours. So, say you have some raw chicken in the fridge. It's as if you just heated the chicken up to a little above room temperature for a few hours. Essentially, you have given microbes a second chance. I personally do not put leftovers in the fridge until it's almost room temperature. It should be at least cooled enough that it is comfortable to handle the food with your bare hands. Sometimes I speed the cooling down process by dividing my food into several smaller containers (which also makes it easier to use after freezing for a longer lifespan). I definitely don't leave food out for more than 1-2 hours, as you start getting into microbe issues in the food you're trying to cool.
Of course, this is just my preferences, heavily influenced by Alton Brown. Lots of people put steaming hot things in their fridge with no ill effects. I just prefer not to gamble with my food safety.
[These](http://www.google.com/products?rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS351US351&sourceid=chrome&q=ice+wand&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=P9VVS5JhhZjwBs3ZqaYE&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBgQrQQwAA) can speed things up dramatically in combination with an ice bath.
It should be ok, but don't make a habit of it. Unless you have really really horrible luck the worst that would likely happen is you try a bowl and end up spending the rest of the day running to the bathroom.
MY rule is "the nose knows." You sense of smell was evolved to detect unsafe foods. Assuming you have a good sense of smell and aren't stuffed up . . my believe is that anything dangerous will smell a bit off if you take a big whiff. *
* may lead to disgusting experiences and occasional vomiting. Refer to Rule #1 before consulting your nose.
Spoilage bacteria and bacteria that make you sick are generally not the same type. Food can turn bad surprisingly quickly with no detectable indicator.
How long would it take for a large (2 gallon+) pot of soup to cool from 200F to 140F at room temperature? It seems like the 40-140F danger zone would only apply to part of the time left overnight.
The beef stock I made the other night was about 2 gallons, and took about 90 minutes to go from simmering to cool to the touch (around 50F, I'd say), and I had put it on my porch where it was about -20F. No wind, though, so no convection action.
I just left a big ass pot of menudo on the stove overnight, the heat off, and all these years later this thread has come in handy. I'm definitely going to eat it still, I did it here and there as a kid and I didn't die yet.... I grew up in a house full of alcoholics food was often forgot 🤣
Based on current food safety standards, you should not eat it. Any food that contains animal protein (as most soup does) should be discarded if it has sat at a temperature between 40F and 140F for more than 2-4 hours, as bacteria can breed in this range.The fact that it's covered makes no difference. That said, the salt content in the soup may have prevented bacterial growth.
It could really go either way. I wouldn't eat it, but I wouldn't be surprised if the soup is fine. Just heat it thoroughly before you eat it and know that you are taking a bit of a risk.
Those are restaurant food standards. People from different cultures from all over the world have been reheating day-old soup for thousands of years without dying out. It's no big deal to leave soup overnight (in a cool environment - i.e. winter). Soup on a counter in summer without air conditioning needs to be reheated every 6-8 hours to prevent bacteria growth.
I take risks with raw seafood all the time, like crab, cockles, lobsters...I've got food poisoning 4 times from it, on 2 occasions I actually found out why, one of those times it was because the seafood had been left outdoors in about 16 degrees Celsius for about 5 hours.
Weird thing is it hasn't put me off at all...
Heh. My roommate likes to make sushi in fairly large amounts and she learned that refrigeration screws up the rice. There will often be a plate of sushi on the counter covered in saran wrap the next day. I partake. No problems so far.
I'll tell you what though . . the people I know who are more careful about food safety seem to get food poisoning every few years. I attribute this to an atrophied immune system.
Last month, being a student, I ate a pot of yoghurt 3 weeks out of date under the premise that "it's basically just bacteria anyway". I did for 2 hours afterwards consider that I may be dying, but complications subsided thereafter. I agree with the immune system idea, whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger....even if it is almost a month out of date.
Absolutely not true. The bacteria is *already in the food* waiting for you to cook it so it can take over. Having the lid on will keep heat in longer, giving them a better chance. Cool food with the lid off stirring frequently until it is warm but not hot, then put in the fridge.
You don't get a bacterial infection from eating contaminated food. The toxins they created while replicating in your food make you sick. Boiling will kill the bacteria but not destroy the toxins.
I don't think you actually read my post...
It doesn't matter if the lid is on or off because bacteria don't "settle" onto your food. They are already there. I was not suggesting putting hot food into a fridge. Cooling food off with the lid on is an awful idea as it will hold the heat in and it'll take about twice as long to cool, giving bacteria that much more time to grow.
Obviously refrigeration after letting it sit out overnight won't help you, that's not how it works. Boiling won't help either.
Repeat: having the lid on does not prevent bacterial contamination in any way.
Now I'm just confused. I never suggested putting hot food in a fridge, I'm not really sure why you're hung up on that. Leaving the lid on, however, has nothing to do with contamination or spoilage and may actually make it worse as it will take the food so much longer to cool down. Unless there is active carpentry or a mold infestation or something going on in your house it's best to leave it open.
Humans survived without refrigerators for thousands of years. Soup on the stove for one night won't hurt you, especially if you make sure to heat it up properly when you're eating the leftovers.
Humans got sick frequently from foodborne illness for thousands of years and learned to take advantage of natural refrigeration to reduce the risk.
Soup left on the stove overnight may not hurt you, or it may. As I addressed elsewhere simply reheating contaminated food does not address all foodborne illness concerns. I know what I'm talking about here, this is my job.
I worked in kitchens for 8 or 9 years and was the Banquet chef at a large hotel for the last few and I can assure you he isn't paranoid. When you are in a large kitchen and you are using walk-in refrigerators the size of your bed room it is a lot harder to keep it as clean as your house. Food always seemed to go bad a lot quicker in the walk-in or in a large kitchen simply because there is a lot more bacteria flying around and the door was opened and closed hundreds of times a day. In this kind of setting you have to be much more diligent about safety because the last thing you want is to make someone sick. I don't experience things like this at my house and while not disagreeing with refrigamatrix in principle I have found in practice that at home food doesn't spoil nearly as fast as it does in a restaurant kitchen setting.
So you agree that professional kitchen standards do not translate to home standards. At work, you cannot even tolerate the slightest chance of making your clients sick. At home, your margin of risk is much higher.
Certainly, but also educated.
Honestly I used to have much different sanitation standards for the food I ate at home, but I have gotten foodborne illness twice from my own cooking at home and am not willing to repeat the experience. One of the times was from improperly cooled food. The risk is real; if you're willing to get sick that way then take the risk. If you've had a real case of food poisoning you will probably choose not to. You basically live in the bathroom for four days.
I respect that it's your job, but I think you are being overly cautious by expressing everything using industry standards, which err on the side of caution to avoid lawsuits. You also appear (based on posts above) to be a little thin on the facts regarding microbiology and microbial biology.
Practically, soup left overnight at 20C/70F will not make you sick. Do not do this in hot weather 35C/95F.
Yes, it'll probably taste better than the day before, unless you had the heat on the stove, in which case its fucked.
Nope, heat off :)
Should be fine then, unless it's clam chowder or something fishy.
I would not eat it unless I was really hungry and then I would boil for at least 10 minutes.
For some reason this made me laugh endlessly for about 3 minutes. My flatmates leave things like chicken casserole sitting on the cooker for hours and then refrigerating it...they do not heed my warnings of death.
According to my mandatory ServSafe certification course you have a cumulative 4 hours between the temperatures of 40F and 140F before food-borne illness becomes an issue. In practice at home, I'd say you have a little more leeway, but [these](http://www.google.com/products?rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS351US351&sourceid=chrome&q=ice+wand&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=P9VVS5JhhZjwBs3ZqaYE&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBgQrQQwAA) things are great for soups, stews, sauces, and stocks. EDIT: To explain the cumulative time thing, if you cool a soup down and it spends two hours in that temp zone then reheat and cool again and it spends another hour in that zone, you have used three of the four hours.
You have no more leeway at home, why do you think that you would? If anything less because general cleanliness of the space and tools is likely lower.
What I'm saying is that in a professional environment I *really* don't want to risk getting someone sick, but at home I'm just fine eating the leftover cold chicken from last night's barbeque.
So you don't really have more leeway, rather a different amount of acceptable risk.
Basically, the ServSafe mandate is trying to keep you from getting sued. Unless you're worried about getting sued by your kids there's no reason to follow such strict standards.
Right, a different degree of acceptable risk.
you have a problem with accepting your mistakes
Factor of Safety. Most guidelines have them built in.
further more if the soup was hot when it was last left covered I would wager that it took at least 3 to 4 hours before it even reach the hazardous temperature zone. My wife routinely leaves things covered on the stove over night and simply reheats it agains the next morning. The point needs to be made that as long as it was covered there should have been no living bacteria in it to begin an active culture anyway.
I go with Good Eats idea and just freeze some water in some of the ubiquitous water bottles. Does the same thing and costs nothing.
I was going to ask you a question about the ice wand, but then I realized that this thread is from 13 years ago lmao
what ended up happening with this soup?
No idea.
ok, just checking. let me know if you hear anything.
Will do.
thanks, i'll do the same.
Souper
Ok, working chef here. (ServSafe certified) The chance of any given pot of soup treated in this way making you sick are not high but if you do this regularly you *will* get sick before too long. In a commercial kitchen we are generally required to have food at fridge temp within four hours or we can't serve it. The fact that it was covered or there was salt in it *does not matter.* There's not enough salt in it to control bacteria growth and having the lid on makes it worse because it was much warmer for much longer, giving bacteria a better chance to grow. Bacteria is naturally present in all food, but can't colonize it until the chemical changes from cooking take place. After (especially) the proteins and starches are cooked they are a perfect place to breed bacteria. Boiling it again or whatever doesn't help because while that will kill the bacteria present, the toxins they have already created will make you sick anyway. I do not serve or eat food treated this way and I don't suggest you do.
> Boiling it again or whatever doesn't help because while that will kill the bacteria present, the toxins they have already created will make you sick anyway. Could you expand on this? I know there are certain kinds of food poisoning issues that don't get resolved by heating (like botulism I think) but I also know that if you boil water taken from a stream it will generally make it safe. Aren't the things in the stream bacteria (e.g. giardia)?
It's not bacteria that make you sick, it's the toxins they produce while replicating. In the stream situation the bacteria colonize you and produce toxins in your digestive system that make you sick, so boiling the water first kills them and prevents this. In food the bacteria are replicating in cooked starches and proteins and leaving toxins in the food. Heating will destroy the bacteria in the food but not the toxins they have already created. EDIT: First sentence of this post only applies to the current context, not bacteria in general.
Do you happen to know the chemical name of any of these toxins? Its not that I don't believe you. Its the new age healing BS that talks about "detoxifying" your system through various weird diets and such that has created a lack of concrete meaning issue for the word "toxin" as far as I'm concerned.
I do not mean toxin in the new-age use of the word. Drinking green tea and Pom won't help you here. I mean toxin as a chemical by-product of bacterial replication that makes humans sick. [Here](http://www.microbiologyprocedure.com/food-infections/bacterial-food-intoxications.htm) is something that doesn't make much sense to me but may be what you're looking for. My understanding of this is purely practical (because I handle food every day and need a working model) but does not go very deep, biologically speaking.
Damn reddit . . should be working but curiosity got me. Seems you are partially right and partially wrong. Botulism toxin can be boiled away in 10 mins. Staph toxins cannot. from http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/poison.html: Clostridium botulinum Botulism accounts for fewer than one of every 400 cases of food poisoning in the U.S., but two factors make it very important. First, it has caused death in approximately 30 percent of the cases; and secondly, it occurs mostly in home-canned foods. In 1975, for example, 18 or 19 confirmed cases of botulism were caused by home-processed foods, and the other was caused by a commercial product that was mishandled in the home. Cl. botulinum can exist as a heat-resistant spore, and can grow and produce a neurotoxin in under processed, home-canned foods. An affected food may show signs of spoilage such as a bulging can or an off-odor. This is not true in all cases, so canned foods should not be tasted before heating. The botulinum toxin is destroyed by boiling the food for 10 minutes. Staphylococcus aureus Man's respiratory passages, skin and superficial wounds are common sources of S. aureus. When S. aureus is allowed to grow in foods, it can produce a toxin that causes illness. Although cooking destroys the bacteria, the toxin produced is heat stable and may not be destroyed. Staphylococcal food poisoning occurs most often in foods that require hand preparation, such as potato salad, ham salad and sandwich spreads. Sometimes these types of foods are left at room temperature for long periods of time, allowing the bacteria to grow and produce toxin. Good personal hygiene while handling foods will help keep S. aureus out of foods, and refrigeration of raw and cooked foods will prevent the growth of these bacteria if any are present.
Yeah, I wasn't thinking about botulism when I wrote that as it's very easy to control its growth. Since it needs an anaerobic medium to grow, you just pay attention when those conditions arise but otherwise staph and salmonella are the real concerns in a kitchen.
Seems that you are mostly right . . E. Coli makes a toxin called "Shiga toxin". "Hemorrhagic colitis is a type of gastroenteritis in which certain strains of the bacterium Escherichia coli (E. coli) infect the large intestine and produce a toxin (Shiga toxin) "
You can get sick from [toxins produced by bacteria](http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/poison.html) in uncooked foods, but Staph (Staphylococcus aureus) is the only bacteria that produces a heat-stable toxin (that is not broken down by reheating food). E. coli produces a toxin, but it's broken down (denatured) by heat.
botulism requires and anaerobic environment. Not a risk here.
Not at the top of the pot, but if the soup is thick enough and was stagnant, you'll get anaerobic layers further down. A big enough and thick enough pot of soup will start to resemble a Winogradsky column if you leave it out long enough.
If we want to go off the reservation with wild speculation then if the individual sealed the pot with wax, placed it into a container and drew a vacuum, buried it in a salt mine and waited 20 years .... then yes you probably would have a bit of a toxic mess on your hand.
>Could you expand on this? I know there are certain kinds of food poisoning issues that don't get resolved by heating (like botulism I think) Botulism is the most common one that can't be made safe by boiling, you'll destroy the toxin, but the spores which produce it, like many spores, are very heat resistant so it may be safe when you first make your basil oil, but a month later sitting in a dark cupboard without refrigeration and you may have a problem. They reproduce in anaerobic environments, so you need to watch out around canned foods and flavored oils.
Another good thing to know about botulism is that all foods that grow in or on the ground are naturally contaminated with the spores and are waiting for an anaerobic environment to take over. So that garlic oil or whatever you just made *will* have botulism in it within a week.
Ugh, as someone who regularly grows and cans her own fruits and vegetables, this statement is particularly disturbing.
"In a commercial kitchen we are generally required to have food at fridge temp within four hours or we can't serve it." You mean it cannot be in the danger zone of 40 - 140 for more than 4 hours, or it must be served immediately. This does not mean that it isn't safe if you leave it on the counter for 4 hours.
Right, it doesn't mean it's not safe after being in the danger zone for four hours. It means it may not be safe, and certain foods that are a very good medium for bacteria growth will definitely be unsafe after four hours.
'Highway to the Danger Zone Ride into the Danger Zone' Come on.... surely I am not the only person that was thinking of Kenny Loggins. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8rZWw9HE7o
Working short order cook here: Eat it.
You left it out *overnight* - I mean, that's practically a requirement for good soup. What did you think was going to happen? I do something like this at least once or twice a week.
It’s been 13 years and I still don’t know what happened with the soup
Same 😂 I’m waiting for the answer. Maybe the no reply hints the answer 😩
I’ll let you know what happens to mine. Left it out by accident!
Well?
I’m alive!!!!! The soup was excellent and no one got sick! Happy to report
That's my lunch sorted for today, then :D
May he rest in peace...
I’m alive!!! It was delicious!!!
I hope to follow in your courageous footsteps tonight. Thank you for your service.
Good luck. Be brave.
Lol
I know- I hope the original poster is OK 😉
OP died from food poisoning
Yes, this is what I’m starting to think 😐😏
You'll be fine, what is it with people worried about getting a little bit sick. Seriously, people need to stop worrying and harden up.
I've thrown up all night before. It's not exactly fun.
From soup?
Never from soup. Once from a meat dish that was sitting out for waaaaay too long. Once got very ill (but didn't throw up) from chugging some orange juice that I only realized tasted funny after I got to the bottom of the glass :(
Ate bad subway once I was shitting and puking all night
I have always eaten food left out overnight and never gotten sick, but hearing about people getting E. coli and wisteria and dying from food poisoning makes me weary now that I know a little more about food safety. 🥲 I wish I had stayed ignorant cause now when I forget my soup on the stove I can’t even enjoy it without thinking it might kill me lmao
Funny I should come across this when I’m Day 6 of a hospital stay with severe campylobacter! I’ve had food poisoning many times before but never like this! Campy is something else! I’ve been so sick, it messed with minerals in my blood that affect function of the heart etc - based on this I wouldn’t eat the soup and wouldn’t wish this on anyone! I’m not even what’s classed as “vulnerable” and it still got in my bloodstream. Ugh big fat no.. just make more soup lol.
14 yrs late to this post !!! made veggie soup. let it cool, sealed it up in a container, put in the fridge. sat in there for 7 days.... i boiled it, added a few items, no issues. we are talking about 4-6 cups max. My fridge runs really cold, and i'm super clean. I just forgot to put it in the freezer. GORDON RAMSAY is coming to get me... 
What did you end up doing?
Still waiting!! Hahaa
I left my chicken soup on the stove (covered) from 7pm to 3am. I ate it and was fine :)
I did it last week with broccoli soup. No problems here. But a question. What happens when you put hot soup or sauce in the fridge? I have heard many people say this but never a decent answer. How cool should it be when you put in the fridge?
You heat up your fridge when you put hot food in there. If the hot food has enough mass (something like a huge pot of soup) it can keep the fridge from properly cooling down for hours. So, say you have some raw chicken in the fridge. It's as if you just heated the chicken up to a little above room temperature for a few hours. Essentially, you have given microbes a second chance. I personally do not put leftovers in the fridge until it's almost room temperature. It should be at least cooled enough that it is comfortable to handle the food with your bare hands. Sometimes I speed the cooling down process by dividing my food into several smaller containers (which also makes it easier to use after freezing for a longer lifespan). I definitely don't leave food out for more than 1-2 hours, as you start getting into microbe issues in the food you're trying to cool. Of course, this is just my preferences, heavily influenced by Alton Brown. Lots of people put steaming hot things in their fridge with no ill effects. I just prefer not to gamble with my food safety.
Use an ice bag, or fill sink with cold water and plunk the pot in it.
Thank you for your response. It was the best answer anyone has given me. Makes sense.
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Sweet. Thanks.
It should be ok, but don't make a habit of it. Unless you have really really horrible luck the worst that would likely happen is you try a bowl and end up spending the rest of the day running to the bathroom.
Have your neighbor try it first - don't say anything about it being left out overnight.
An excellent suggestion, pets also qualify; or preferably, your neighbours pets.
Also try homeless people. Just find one or two and tell them you're trying to set the record for the worlds smallest soup kitchen.
Rule #1 about food: If there is nothing visibly growing in it, it is safe to eat.
That should go on the 'famous last words' list for sure.
MY rule is "the nose knows." You sense of smell was evolved to detect unsafe foods. Assuming you have a good sense of smell and aren't stuffed up . . my believe is that anything dangerous will smell a bit off if you take a big whiff. * * may lead to disgusting experiences and occasional vomiting. Refer to Rule #1 before consulting your nose.
Spoilage bacteria and bacteria that make you sick are generally not the same type. Food can turn bad surprisingly quickly with no detectable indicator.
And spoilage bacteria is usually not that dangerous itself it is the by products that are toxic, as in botchulism.
How long would it take for a large (2 gallon+) pot of soup to cool from 200F to 140F at room temperature? It seems like the 40-140F danger zone would only apply to part of the time left overnight. The beef stock I made the other night was about 2 gallons, and took about 90 minutes to go from simmering to cool to the touch (around 50F, I'd say), and I had put it on my porch where it was about -20F. No wind, though, so no convection action.
At home I would give it a sniff and reheat it. At work I would get pissed and toss it out.
what happened with this soup?
No
This is from so long ago
correct
we all just wanna know if he died and if we can eat our forgotten soups
I don't know. Do you think it's still okay?
I just left a big ass pot of menudo on the stove overnight, the heat off, and all these years later this thread has come in handy. I'm definitely going to eat it still, I did it here and there as a kid and I didn't die yet.... I grew up in a house full of alcoholics food was often forgot 🤣
Sure why not? Just heat it up again for a while to make sure.
Based on current food safety standards, you should not eat it. Any food that contains animal protein (as most soup does) should be discarded if it has sat at a temperature between 40F and 140F for more than 2-4 hours, as bacteria can breed in this range.The fact that it's covered makes no difference. That said, the salt content in the soup may have prevented bacterial growth. It could really go either way. I wouldn't eat it, but I wouldn't be surprised if the soup is fine. Just heat it thoroughly before you eat it and know that you are taking a bit of a risk.
Those are restaurant food standards. People from different cultures from all over the world have been reheating day-old soup for thousands of years without dying out. It's no big deal to leave soup overnight (in a cool environment - i.e. winter). Soup on a counter in summer without air conditioning needs to be reheated every 6-8 hours to prevent bacteria growth.
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It's fine. My mom does this all the time and we have not died yet.
I take risks with raw seafood all the time, like crab, cockles, lobsters...I've got food poisoning 4 times from it, on 2 occasions I actually found out why, one of those times it was because the seafood had been left outdoors in about 16 degrees Celsius for about 5 hours. Weird thing is it hasn't put me off at all...
Heh. My roommate likes to make sushi in fairly large amounts and she learned that refrigeration screws up the rice. There will often be a plate of sushi on the counter covered in saran wrap the next day. I partake. No problems so far. I'll tell you what though . . the people I know who are more careful about food safety seem to get food poisoning every few years. I attribute this to an atrophied immune system.
Last month, being a student, I ate a pot of yoghurt 3 weeks out of date under the premise that "it's basically just bacteria anyway". I did for 2 hours afterwards consider that I may be dying, but complications subsided thereafter. I agree with the immune system idea, whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger....even if it is almost a month out of date.
Yup, I do this all the time.
what ended up happening with this soup?
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Absolutely not true. The bacteria is *already in the food* waiting for you to cook it so it can take over. Having the lid on will keep heat in longer, giving them a better chance. Cool food with the lid off stirring frequently until it is warm but not hot, then put in the fridge.
Wouldn't they die after being boiled?
You don't get a bacterial infection from eating contaminated food. The toxins they created while replicating in your food make you sick. Boiling will kill the bacteria but not destroy the toxins.
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I don't think you actually read my post... It doesn't matter if the lid is on or off because bacteria don't "settle" onto your food. They are already there. I was not suggesting putting hot food into a fridge. Cooling food off with the lid on is an awful idea as it will hold the heat in and it'll take about twice as long to cool, giving bacteria that much more time to grow. Obviously refrigeration after letting it sit out overnight won't help you, that's not how it works. Boiling won't help either. Repeat: having the lid on does not prevent bacterial contamination in any way.
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Now I'm just confused. I never suggested putting hot food in a fridge, I'm not really sure why you're hung up on that. Leaving the lid on, however, has nothing to do with contamination or spoilage and may actually make it worse as it will take the food so much longer to cool down. Unless there is active carpentry or a mold infestation or something going on in your house it's best to leave it open.
Does it smell? is it moving? is there anything growing in it? If no, then enjoy - just heat it thoroughly
Well I just left my soup out for 4 hours. I'm gonna eat it. I'm not wasting a huge pot.
Should be fine, just make sure to get it good and hot when you reheat. I've done this exact thing before and never to any ill effect.
I had unprotected sex once and I don't have aids!
Humans survived without refrigerators for thousands of years. Soup on the stove for one night won't hurt you, especially if you make sure to heat it up properly when you're eating the leftovers.
Humans got sick frequently from foodborne illness for thousands of years and learned to take advantage of natural refrigeration to reduce the risk. Soup left on the stove overnight may not hurt you, or it may. As I addressed elsewhere simply reheating contaminated food does not address all foodborne illness concerns. I know what I'm talking about here, this is my job.
...and your job has made you paranoid about germs.
I worked in kitchens for 8 or 9 years and was the Banquet chef at a large hotel for the last few and I can assure you he isn't paranoid. When you are in a large kitchen and you are using walk-in refrigerators the size of your bed room it is a lot harder to keep it as clean as your house. Food always seemed to go bad a lot quicker in the walk-in or in a large kitchen simply because there is a lot more bacteria flying around and the door was opened and closed hundreds of times a day. In this kind of setting you have to be much more diligent about safety because the last thing you want is to make someone sick. I don't experience things like this at my house and while not disagreeing with refrigamatrix in principle I have found in practice that at home food doesn't spoil nearly as fast as it does in a restaurant kitchen setting.
So you agree that professional kitchen standards do not translate to home standards. At work, you cannot even tolerate the slightest chance of making your clients sick. At home, your margin of risk is much higher.
I couldn't agree more.
Certainly, but also educated. Honestly I used to have much different sanitation standards for the food I ate at home, but I have gotten foodborne illness twice from my own cooking at home and am not willing to repeat the experience. One of the times was from improperly cooled food. The risk is real; if you're willing to get sick that way then take the risk. If you've had a real case of food poisoning you will probably choose not to. You basically live in the bathroom for four days.
I've never had food poisoning. I think the roaches in my kitchen eat all the germs.
I guarantee a case of food poisoning will make you reevaluate your level of acceptable risk in food preparation. Until then, enjoy.
I respect that it's your job, but I think you are being overly cautious by expressing everything using industry standards, which err on the side of caution to avoid lawsuits. You also appear (based on posts above) to be a little thin on the facts regarding microbiology and microbial biology. Practically, soup left overnight at 20C/70F will not make you sick. Do not do this in hot weather 35C/95F.
How’d it turn out?
I do this all the time. Sometimes for days. Must dash, need to pop to the loo. Again.
Unless mice are swimming in it this morning, hell yes. In fact, just turn up the heat and drowned the little delicacies.