The ignorance in here of how food can go bad is impressive. Refrigerate within one hour. You don’t need to let it cool down before putting it into the refrigerator.

https://www.cdc.gov/food-safety/prevention/index.html

Bacteria can multiply rapidly if left at room temperature or in the “Danger Zone” between 40°F and 140°F. Never leave perishable food out for more than 2 hours (or 1 hour if exposed to temperatures above 90°F).

Refrigerate perishable food (meat, seafood, dairy, cut fruit, some vegetables, and cooked leftovers) within 2 hours. If the food is exposed to temperatures above 90°F, like a hot car or picnic, refrigerate it within 1 hour.

Package warm or hot food into several clean, shallow containers and then refrigerate. It is okay to put small portions of hot food in the refrigerator since they will chill faster.

From the CDC website:

“Bacteria can multiply rapidly if left at room temperature or in the “Danger Zone” between 40°F and 140°F. Never leave perishable food out for more than 2 hours (or 1 hour if exposed to temperatures above 90°F).”

https://www.cdc.gov/food-safety/prevention/index.html

Couple stories for you. Had a tray of 100 hot wings we ordered one night drunk. Left it on the counter for 3 days straight eating out of it until they were gone. They never were brought above or below room temperature for that entire time. We didn’t die.

I also regularly order too much food. Forget to fridge the leftovers, and still eat the crap the next day. I’ve yet to be food poisoned from this.

Maybe I am just lucky.

One big reason for the US guidelines being so strict is that they apply to the entire country, which ranges from Florida to Alaska and everywhere in between, and they are worst case. Plus with a massive population fed by capitalist companies that value money over lives and frequently altered food for profit, deaths in a large population are going to happen.

I don’t leave stuff that needs refridgeration out for more than a few hours so that it holds up for several days and the time varies widely by food type. Food does need to cool down significantly before refridgerating, although sometimes I will put it in within a couple hours to avoid forgetting. For most foods I have a four hour limit outside the fridge.

Commercially raised chicken has a very high chance of having salmonella. Raw chicken is only out long enough to prepare and cook. Once cooked I don’t worry anymore than anything else.

I also use the dates as rough estimates and when to pay more attention to spoilage. I don’t worry about safety for canned foods that don’t have signs of spoilage, but a soup can a couple years past the best by date has likely probably separated and textures will be off. Dates on bags of chips are a sign they are will be going stale within a few months.

90% Vegetarian. Chicken and Fish meat only. No religion.

I used to be a chef so I follow food safety guidelines with some wiggle room, since commerical kitchen standards are supposed to protect all kinds of people and I’m fairly healthy.

I don’t let food that’s supposed to be hot sit at room temperature for more than 2hrs max. I keep most starchy fruit and root veggies in loose, hanging bags and berries/greens/less starchy vegetables in the fridge. I usually only buy meat if I’m using it that day, only keep leftovers in the fridge for two-to-three days, and freeze anything else.

Super basic explanation: Bacteria are on anything not sterile or on fire. Most are harmless on their own but some produce shit that makes you sick. Like botulism is caused by the toxin the bacteria produce and not the bacteria itself, and it’s found on vegetables. With food production all mingled, bacteria from meats can be transferred to non-meat products, too. You can even get sick from raw flour.

Cooked foods have more available sugars for bacteria to eat, plus warm and moist, so it’s a great environment for bacteria to break out of hibernation, make babies and poop toxins.

Leaving cooked starchy foods out in ideal bacteria party conditions isn’t great, and food poisoning isn’t always throwing up and shitting your guts out. Sometimes it’s a slight headache or a sore throat.

But whatever, it’s about how much risk you want to take on.

Omnivore, southeast USA.

When I worked in food service, I was taught that it takes four hours at room temperature for bacteria to reach dangerous levels in food, so that’s what I go with. I assume there’s other factors at play, but four hours is easy to remember and apply and I don’t like to take chances with that stuff.

American omnivore.

The only reason I leave things out is if they’ll get soggy in the fridge. This generally applies to pizza and biscuits (in a bag). My gluten free bread is refrigerated because it gets moldy before I finish it, regular bread is on the counter.

If I happen to forget to put away leftovers, I’ll refrigerate them when I get to them as long as they haven’t dried out or anything. I’ve woken up in the middle of the night to do that.

Depends on the food but most goes in. In addition to cooling, the refrigerator is critter proof (ants, mice). Not bread not catsup but most all leftovers

Rural US, no dietary restrictions, 40, married with children

US omnivore.

Most fruit stays on the counter in the fruit bowl (except berries, I want more than a day to eat them), bread, and all unprocessed veg (besides lettuce, again I find it goes bad fast) stays out.

Anything that I have prepared and cooked goes in the fridge when we are done eating it or when it’s approaching room temperature. Sometimes a little warmer if I’m impatient. If we had a pot luck / carry in food sometimes sets out a couple hours NBD, still fridge after.

Red meat gets salted or seasoned and sits out to approx room temp before cooking if I think about it. I don’t do that from frozen (I use sous vide for that defrost), with very large cuts (rib roast for example) or with chicken because I have never noticed it cook unevenly.

The only food that ever really sits out on the counter after preparation is rice or baked goodies (banana bread, cookies, etc.). Anything that sits out overnight is now trash except pizza if it was a late night snack. Anything out is quite rare anyway since we usually clean the kitchen before bed.

Edit: Eggs of course in the fridge, they are washed. Butter also fridge, I know it can stay out but I usually like it harder, we aren’t spreading it that often compared to measuring.

General rule: If the store I bought it from was refrigerating it, so am I.

Anecdotal evidence rules! Everyone posting here is alive!
The estimated 420,000 folks who die annually from improper food and water handling refuse to post!!!
Great stuff!

This is a thing pushed by American media. It’s a Boomer-era panic over summertime picnics and somehow mayonnaise causing potato salad to immediately after 30 minutes outside a refrigerator to become fatal if consumed.

It’s also the product of misunderstandings of buying meat at a supermarket, wrongly assuming that meat that is not refrigerated for more than 15 minutes will basically kill you.

Panicking about food poisoning is a moral panic about “bad parenting” and blaming people when it wasn’t widely known what causes food poisoning: not washing your filthy hands, cross-contaimination, and poor hygiene overall.

I’ve lived in West Africa and bought and cooked and safely eaten meat that had sat on a wooden plank lightly covered in flies before I got there to buy it. I survived. Mayonnaise will outlive humanity before it molds or goes bad at room temp.

Omnivore, European. I leave my food outside if I plan to eat it the same day, and wait till it has reached room temperature before I put it in the fridge. Most of the time we leave food in a small room we have which is slightly cooler than living room (16ish degrees in winter I think) and it stays good for as long as there is food left. I have also eaten food that was left in kitchen at room temperature for about two days, but only once or twice with highly acidic food (chili or bolognese).

As long as it smells good and looks good, it’s good. Never had food poisoning in my life.

I like to find a balance between being worried about bacteria and trusting my immune system to deal with anything that comes along. However, my immune system tends to over-react to things that aren’t a threat (allergies to cherries, peaches, cats, dogs, kangaroos, pollen, dust, etc.) so I’d be pretty pissed if it couldn’t handle some bacteria.

I’ll cut the bad parts off an old pepper and still put the good parts on my omelette in the morning. I’ll cut the moldy bit off a piece of cheese and use the rest. Bread…nope. I can handle it being a bit stale, but moldy is too much. I’m not afraid of bread mold, but I don’t like the taste.

Last year I tossed the Thanksgiving turkey out the next day because my wife and I forgot to deal with it and left it sitting on the kitchen table next to the radiator. That seemed to me like it would be a bit too much of a challenge to my immune system.

Meat eater from the UK. I’ll leave stuff out for varying amounts of time, just smell it before I eat it or have a trial spoon first.

Never had any food poisoning in my life and I have eaten some very questionable things for sure.

In my personal opinion people wildly over exaggerate stuff like this and dates on packaging. My nose knows.

Omnivore/Central Europe:

I am pretty special in my needs because i hate eating leftovers when they were out “too long” (where “too long” is a very random amount of time), so i normally wait until the food is room temperature; if i don’t plan to eat within the next few hours it goes into the fridge pretty much instantly. But i know that this is my personal spleen and that it would be fine much longer.

Bread, any fruit, onions, potatoes, garlic and so on stay outside tho.

It’s more important to make sure that your kitchen and cooking utensils are clean, and anything that was used for preparing meat doesn’t get reused; and the dishes must be heated properly - that alone would mean it’s probably save to stay out overnight if it’s not 30°C in the kitchen in the midst of summer.