2

Possible Duplicate:
Is it safe to cook a steak that was left out (raw) for 7 hours?

My boyfriend and I prepared a delicious meatball dinner but forgot to plug in the crockpot !! we left them out all day while at work (9 am - 6 pm) in a sauce. It was cold out that day and I left the thermostat on 62 F (16 C). Should we throw them out?! There were 20 meatballs in total and I'll feel awful wasting all that food!

Community
  • 1
Shauna
  • 21
  • 2
  • See also http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/12992/why-is-it-dangerous-to-eat-meat-which-has-been-left-out-and-then-cooked and – Cascabel Nov 28 '12 at 01:11
  • 1
    @J.A.I.L. I approved your edit after closing the question. The edit had been based on the old version before the automatic addition of the duplicate link, and the timestamp of your "edit" is actually the timestamp of when it got approved. Hope this clears it up for you. Thank you for noticing the inconsistency and reverting it. – rumtscho Nov 28 '12 at 15:49

1 Answers1

6

They were in the danger zone of 40 to 140 degrees for more than 4 hours.

If you were in restaurant, you would have to discard them.

Sadly, I recommend the same at home.

SAJ14SAJ
  • 72,735
  • 13
  • 153
  • 231