Turkey Dinner

[tootsieroll]

hi guys... I have been reading that a lot of people question poultry after it has cooled down. It kind of makes me wonder.... I never really worried about it until I read that people are nervous about it. can you get food poisening from poultry that has been sitting for a few hours? My turkey dinner today was done around 12:00 and I didn't eat it yet.. It is 3:15 now and I am really hungry wanting to eat it but can't stop thinking about what other people were writing about how their poultry has cool down and are wondering if they should eat it. I have been eating cold chicken my whole life and never once had food poisening. I never really took those percautions, just didn't think about it really. but as I said, since reading it i am very nervous. Do you think my turkey dinner would still be alright? I thought you could only get food poisening if the food was bad or not cooked well enough... any one know? thanks xoxo

[sage]

Let me tell you two things - the second of which will calm you down, hopefully. Cooked food is only safe at room temperature for two hours - turkey, veggies, rice, beef, whatever. I know it's well past when you posted now, but if your turkey was hot at noon, it probably wasn't room temp for a while, so at 3:15 you're just a tad over the limit, and I'm sure it was fine. If you kept everything hot for longer then it was absolutely fine....OR...if you put it in the fridge and cooled it then it was absolutely fine. Restaurants are not allowed to serve anything that's been sitting at room temp for more than 2 hours.


Having said that, once I left chicken in my hot car for 8 hours and my husband accidentally ate it and not one thing happened to him...nothing....not so much as a fart!


The thing is it's sort of a gamble. Bacteria present in the food doubles every 20 minutes. Once it doubles 10 times (120 minutes) there is usually too much to eat it safely. But in the case of my chicken in the car, there wasn't much bacteria in it, obviously....so after 8 hours there wasn't enough to make my husband sick. But if there HAD BEEN (again, a gamble) then he would have most definitely been sick.


So if you ate turkey that sat at room temp for 3 1/2 hours, then you've got like a 90% chance (or something) of being fine.


Here's a Canadian link for you, and it includes info about turkeys:


http://www.eohu-bseo.on.ca/segments/...hp?segmentID=6 &amp;topicID=107</A>


Edited by: sage

[marycontrary]

I just called my brother and asked him. he is a chef. I trust his knowledge. He said that it is safe to eat as long as you dont leave it out for no longer than 5-6 hours. He also said to smell it and if it smells weird not to eat it.

[sage]

! (remind me not to ever eat in his restaurant - lol!)

[marycontrary]

I have seen my brother cook chicken and leave it out over night and eat it the next day and he was fine. He does that all the time. He said there is a lot of hype about people worrying too much about food poisoning these days. Even though he said it is safe, I would never eat it. I don't eat chicken to begin with anyway. I will eat turkey, but only if my mom cooks it. lol

[rubysoho120]

I have taken food saftry classes and they say...not to leave any food... cooked or not cooked out in the temperture danger zoen for more than 4 hours... you have to have proper cooling and heating..and reheating..if you reheat the turkey your going to eat you should be totally fine, but eating it cold and not refridgerated could risk you getting sick

[tootsieroll]

Wow, that is so weird, now I am extremely nervous that something is going to happen... I heated it up a little bit but it was not hot.... It's so weird because I used to eat cold chicken and stuff liek that all the time but now that I know that there is a risk it scares me.. It has been almost 3 hours since I ate it so I think something would be happening by now wouldn't it? I remember one time I got chicken from KFC and left the box in the microwave all night long and when I woke up I ate it, without re heating and and was totally fine. I know that you are now supposed to put hot food or even warm food right into the fridge because it has to change it's temperature so fast that it can spoil the food. Has nobody here ate hot turkey sandwhiches?? I think a lot of it is just being completley paranoid about it, because I had no problems eating chicken until I read on here all the things that can happen... but yet I have never had a problem with it (no food poisening or anything)... hmmm... thanks for the replies guys... I should be fine right? It was about 3:45 when I ate my turkey dinner and i warmed it up a little but it could still tell it was a little cold?????

[sage]

chances are you'll be fine -like 99%of the time people are fine.


In Canada, there are laws about foodsafety and cooks cannot ignore them or the health dept would shut them down. The thing is - as is shown by both my story of the chicken and my husband, and marycontrary's brother...it's a gamble.


My mom left crap out overnight all the time, and I never got sick either, ...and my sister eats raw hamburger and gives it to her kids and never gets sick. So obviously we haven't happened to have food with nasty bacteria in it - or not much. But it's Russian roulette, honestly. If any of my sister's hamburger ever had e-coli in it, she'd be sicker than a dog and her kids could have been dead.


I'm not the least bit afraid of getting sick anymore, for the past 20 years...but I would never leave food out of the fridge for more than 2 hours - neither would anybody I know who works with food.

[rubysoho120]

First of all I didnt say eating cold chicken or poultry is bad...if it
is refridgerated then its fine to eat, or reheat and eat. iti s fine as
long as it was cook and cooled properly. I dont know where you got that
putting food in the fridge can spoil it if its still hot, thats not
true, infact you want to change the temperature drastily in as quick as
time as you can. The reason you dont want to throw a hot tukey into the
fridge is because it warms up the fridge and can spoil the other food
in the fridge is it is not cooling fast enough. Generally if you let it
sit out for an hour, it wil be cool enough to stick in the fridge and
you will be fine. I dont want to scare you, just inform you. Poultry is
good for you, dont stop eating it, its a great source of protein that
is lean.

[sage]

I hope you're ok today, and enjoyed your turkey dinner! Turkey dinner is sooooo good - we're having ours today. I'm up early making pies and stuffing...yummmm


I think the reason for not putting hot stuff in the fridge is simply that it makes the fridge work too hard and costs a lot in electricity. It can't warm up the rest of the food and spoil it, although it could lower the internal fridge temp slightly for a short time. Food is safe on the counter for two hours when it's sufficiently cooled down enough to put into the fridge.


Happy thanksgiving everyone!

[tootsieroll]

Thanks for the replies! Sure enough I ate my dinner and I was absolutley fine [img]smileys/smilies_04.gif[/img]. Yeah you are right Turkey dinner is awesome. HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

[sage]

Yay! You're ok (thank God...lol)