Is This Healthy?

[Enigma]

I bought a big thing of plain yogurt and accidentally left it out on the counter all night. It was probably out from about 9 pm til 7 am. It was room temp but I immediately put it back in the fridge. It's still unsealed and I'm about to eat it. Will I die?

[The Other Lizard]

you might. i would throw it out.

[Enigma]

I'm going with the theory that since yogurt sits out to set and it was sealed it might be ok? I'm halfway through lunch and so far everything tastes normal. I guess there isn't a lot of point stopping now.

[cwbyrvr]

Ewwwwwww, temperature danger zone, temperature danger zooooooooooooooone!!!!!!!!!!! T_T

[Aum]

When you make yogurt you actually leave it out so that the sour milk can be consumed by the bacteria overnight.

I've eaten yogurt that was left out for just one night, but maybe that isn't such a good idea. If you're paranoid, don't do it.

[deanimal]

Haha, she's clearly already eating it.

I have eaten so many things that I probably shouldn't and I'm just fine. (Obviously this is a good reason for you all to eat spoiled food)

[Dragonrider]

Speaking of things that I probably shouldn't have eaten (but did anyway), I was at a falafel shop last night. Keep in mind that this is a 24 hour falafel shop, and it's often packed with drunkards at this time of night, who have a habit of basically trashing the place.

So I was about to bite down into my delicious falafel, when all of a sudden I drop like half of the balls on the floor. And so I'm like, 'Aww, shit' because I am really hungry. So I make the drunken decision to just pick them up and eat them anyway. After I put them into my mouth I am pretty sure that some of the falafel balls that I just ate were not the ones that I dropped (thus invalidating the 5 second rule).

Because
1) They were cold, so they must've been there for a while and
2) I think there was hair attached to one of them

Yay for poor decisions made while drunk!

PS: I am still feeling ok today.

[letyourlifesing]

If it smells, looks and tastes fine, then feel free to eat it. We don't have a fridge and I've eaten out of date yoghurt with no problems. Learning to tell whether food is safe to eat is a useful skill.

[Butterfly North]

Yeah, I'd have thought the worst that could happen is you'll spit the first spoonful out in disgust, like sour milk or whatever. Off stuff tends to be pretty rank.

[Aum]

Ah yes, the 5 second rule. I wonder if that actually works.

In Asia I remember the group of foreigners I was friends with and I all decided that the 5 second rule did not apply to that part of the world. The rule was, "If the food drops, it stays dropped." lol

I just looked up the 5 second rule on wikipedia (I love wiki, it even has an article for this kind of thing!):

Although it has received little scholarly attention, the five-second rule has been studied as both a public health recommendation and as a sociological effect.

In 2003, intern Jillian Clarke of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign found in a survey that 56% of the men and 70% of the women surveyed were familiar with the five-second rule. She also determined that a variety of foods were significantly contaminated by even brief exposure to a tile inoculated with E.coli.[1] On the other hand, Clarke found no significant evidence of contamination on public flooring.[2] Clarke received the 2004 Ig Nobel Prize in public health (a parody award) for this work.[3]

A more thorough study in 2006 using salmonella on wood, tiles, and nylon carpet found that the bacteria were still thriving after twenty-eight days of exposure under dry conditions.[4] Tested after eight hours' exposure, the bacteria could still contaminate bread and bologna in under five minutes, but an hour-long contact increased contamination about tenfold (with tile and carpet surfaces only).[5]

[Meperidine]

Huh. The study I saw said that food up to thirty seconds on a cafeteria floor is fine, but after sixty "you don't even want to know."

[Dragonrider]

I don't actually believe in the 5 second rule, I just bring it up to be cheeky.

[Enigma]

Because
1) They were cold, so they must've been there for a while and
2) I think there was hair attached to one of them

Yeah that's just gross. lol.

Well I ate some of my yogurt at lunch (with delicious non-moldy blueberries!), it tasted fine and its' texture was just a tiny bit runny like it had been in the fridge for a bit but didn't look bad. So far, I am still alive. I'm still kind of debating the thing though. If it had been open I would not have eaten it.. but I figure with no foreign contamination it can't go too wrong right?

I think I'm going to try and finish this yogurt really fast.

[Mathmo]

For me, obeying the 5 second rule is definitely about social conditioning rather than actual health, as in "I know that this potato chip I just dropped is probably as contaminated as it's going to get already, /however/ if I pick it up right away nobody else will think I'm gross, whereas if I leave it there for several minutes they will".

I imagine the yogurt is absolutely fine - and along with letyourlifesing agree that learning to tell when food is safe is a good skill. My rule of thumb is that unless it's meat (in which case I'd be much more cautious) it's usually pretty obvious when it's off. Also, I'd think that yogurt - as it's supposed to have bacteria in it anyway - would be one of the safest things to leave out (I'm not 100% sure why I think this; perhaps the bacteria already present would out compete anything nasty?). I make fresh yogurt (from a sachet ... Easiyo system) which often involves leaving it out for ages (like maybe 14 hours if I forget - when 6 is enough to make the yogurt) in warmth. And it's absolutely fine and safe.

Side rant: some 'best before' dates are totally ridiculous! Like 2 days on cauliflower - that'll last in the bottom of your fridge for /at least/ 3 weeks. Similarly with lots of vegetables, actually. And with hard cheese, as well.

[Pyro Chick]

Today my mother in law made pasta salad with mayo in it. After she made it I was recycling the mayo bottle and saw that it expired in 2006. I didn't say anything. Everyone but me ate it for dinner.
I will take note of who gets sick...

[steel_croissant]

It's going to turn you into a mutant and give you super powers. I am wrought with envy and intentionally spoiling yogurt as I type this.

[Rainbow Dolphins]

My thinking on iffy food is If It Was Really Bad, You Would Know. I don't pay attention to expiration dates or anything- I mean, seriously, if something like a dairy product is bad you will KNOW, if not when you smell it then definitely when you taste it. I agree that if it had been meat I would be a lot more paranoid because a lot nastier stuff can grow on there and it's much harder to tell by sight, smell or taste if it's gone off.

Also, I find it extremely amusing that you bothered to make this topic when you were clearly going to eat it no matter what.

[Enigma]

At the time I thought I was undecided... and then my cheapness kicked in.

Still alive by the way! And no side-effects so far either.

[cherryblossom]

I try to push sell by dates at home as far as possible, but I'm always pretty wary because it would be very inconvenient to get ill. Especially food poisoning ill. Urgh. Not fun.
At work I'm usually the one who goes around checking dates and throwing stuff away pretty ruthlessly (I'm the only full timer). It's just got to be done in a professional environment - but when I have to throw away, say, a tub of houmous that hasn't been opened, I always feel bad because I know I would eat it.

[letyourlifesing]

@Cherryblossom, not sure where in the world you are but there are quite possibly people who go skipping/dumpster diving in your area. If possible, try to always leave the nicest, still good to eat food on top of your bin, in a bag with as little actual rubbish as possible.

[Butterfly North]

Or you could find some way to get the food to your nearest homeless shelter. I don't know how practical that idea actually is for you, but yeah, just a thought.

[cherryblossom]

I don't think there would be any opportunity to get food out of our bins - the black sacks for general waste go into massive bins which are in a locked store under the building and get collected once a week, by which time it would be ridiculously disgusting to trawl through everything. I don't really think it would be worthwhile to give it away either, we're talking about the odd thing every now and again because we don't really do much food in the first place, and if any fruit gets thrown away it's because it's all spoiled. Really we're not that wasteful - I've worked in more wasteful places. Mostly because if anything comes back from a customer / is not good enough to send out, even stale bread, we (staff) tend to see it off. We're not fussy.

[she_rat]

i think to be honest in most cases labelling has increased the food paranoia that people have concerning off food. that being said i have a strict policy on things like left over rice, pasta etc. the only time i have ever been really ill travelling was in malaysia with noodles that i can only assume were reheated....bleurgh not good!
yougurt tends to be pretty indestructable and as said, you can tell when it's turned.

[Rainbow Dolphins]

I like this term: "food paranoia." There is definitely a food paranoia culture in our society.

[vex]

If it smells, looks and tastes fine, then feel free to eat it. We don't have a fridge and I've eaten out of date yoghurt with no problems. Learning to tell whether food is safe to eat is a useful skill.

Do you binraid all your food, or do you just not eat dairy/meat? I'd love to be able to live without a fridge.