How long can cooked cheese stay out?

[Anonymous]

I fried homemade cheese puffs earlier tonight.

Afterward, I needed to go lay down on a heating pad because my back hurt from standng there in kitchen for awhile. Then, I had fallen asleep, for 2 hours. Long story short, about 46 mminutes ago, I just rtealized, they are still sitting on the counter- in a zipped lock bag.

I knew right then... they're ruined. I stuck them into the fridge just incase.

What do you think?

Thanks for listening

Updates

+1 y

forgot to mention this:
has been left out for 5 hours

Updates

+1 y

I feel so embarassed. I am just so exhaused inside and out that, couldnt think right. just wanted to be sure that, i actually had to throw em out. It makes me sad ya know? you work so hard on something while being so tired and you're exited to make it and eat something yummy, then because you're so out of it, you accidentally fall asleep... and booom, ruined. thanks who replied.

[rigmarole]

Generally food that isn't shelf stable and packaged shouldn't be left at for 2 hours or more at room temperature (68-77 F) or 1 hour or more in heat (90 F). The longer they are expose to the environment and the more favorable the temperature conditions are, the more opportunity there is for bacterial growth which can lead to food poisoning.

[rigmarole]

*out

[Asker]

well, i was sure they were ruined from those being left out from cooking, 5 hours, was just making sure... then was thinnking, wait, i did put into a ziplock bag,, but it is cheese. just wanted to make sure, thanks for your reply

[rigmarole]

I know all kinds of people will share all sorts of folksy wisdom with you, but I'll put it to you this way:

1) Humans have Staphylococcus aureus all over our skin…

2) Pastries and bread are particularly high risk for contamination with Staph after handling, you know like when you take them out of the pan with your hands and place them on a cooling rack without gloves at home…

3) Staph is a common cause cause of food poisoning and human infection in general… Thus why MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus) is always talked about like a big bad monster that you have to watch out for and why you see news articles on antibiotic resistant bacteria...

4) Staphylococcus aureus grows at temperature ranges between 15-45 C (59–113 F) but typically in a microbiology lab you incubate it at 37 C (98.6 F) for optimal growth. You might recognize that as the normal human body temperature. Yeah when it gets inside you, it’s like girls gone wild… So try not to eat it unless you like nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, and diarrhea.

5) Bacteria colonies grow exponentially… While Staphylococcus aureus is typically incubated for experimentation for 12 hours before use in microbiology labs, after 5 hours you’ve pretty much peaked for colony size on a nutrient rich media. So yeah, not a great idea...

If you think I'm just talking out my ass, then look up everything I've said...

[CantMissIt]

Throw them away. It's not worth getting sick over.

[Anonymous]

Obviously do whatever you are going to do at your own risk but personally I would eat it and think nothing of it.

People are ridiculous, literally mad even over food safety its utterly absurd and almost none of them have any idea what the fuck they are talking about.

Those times when you got sick from take out; it wasn't because they left something on the side for a few hours its because they never clean their stores and they sold you meat which was dangerously gone off when they froze it 6 months ago.

If you have some sort of medical condition or weak constitution which requires you to be particularly careful about what you are eating then by all means take whatever precautions you need to.

But some perspective for regular people:

https://www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/media/document/sfbb-caterer-cooking-01-cooking-safely.pdf

Look at the damn table.

The bad guys die in 6 SECONDS at only 80 degrees C, which is fuck all.

Anyone who has ever microwaved something will know that its like dragons fire, I'm surprised it isn't melting the ceramic bowl that I put it in.

The reason restaurants (are supposed to) go nuts for safety is because A its the roof over their head and B they have to assume that every person who comes through the door is literally at deaths door already and one stray bacteria is going to send them off into the next life.

[Leapfrog00]

I've left cheese products out for 2 days before, not by choice (Long story) but they were still fine. I wouldn't leave anything out past day 2 though. I ate a slice of pizza once from the day before and it was still fine. Usually with cheese, if you smell it and it has a strong pungent smell, then it's bad.

Just a few hours though, you should be OK. I've been in situations where I couldn't refrigerate food, and from my experience, most foods are OK if you eat them within a day.

[BasedBaeBecca]

Food safety guidelines recommend that cooked food should not be left at room temperature for more than 2 hours. If you leave food outside of the refrigerator for too long, bacteria can multiply quickly and may cause foodborne illnesses. The fact that your cheese puffs are sealed in a zip-top bag may keep them fresher for slightly longer but it's always best to play it safe and consume them within 2 hours or store them in the refrigerator as soon as possible.

[FunkyMonkee]

I have no idea what they are so, I can't advise but, I've already left pizza out for two days solid and it was still good after a heat-up. I've also been getting a large block of cheddar cheese from the food bank every month. It says it SHOULD be fridged but, when they give it out, it hasn't seen a fridge in at least a day and, I've had a huge stack of them in the kitchen for months! I eat a few slices a week and it's never gone bad on me, yet!

[GoodGuyBreakingBad]

Thanks for reminding me, I always have a bad habit of leaving cooked food out long times, So this does make sense, I'm going to make sure foods will be placed in the fridge.

[Asker]

JUst dont place (hot food), let it cool some, before placing into fridge.

[GoodGuyBreakingBad]

@SandandWaves Thank you :-)

[Asker]

no problem ;)

[exitseven]

I bet it is more a function of smell than how ling they are left out.

[slatyb]

Two hours? They should be fine.

[humanearth]

Feed it to the chickens

[Fuentes]

Lol I got no idea