Left cold spaghetti sauce out for 3 or so hours. Keep or toss?

[Anonymous]

Made ground beef Spaghetti sauce on Monday. On Tuesday I took it out of the fridge around 6:30 for dinner and forgot to put it back until 9:30 or 10. Is it ok to eat today?

[Anonymous]

YES.

[Anonymous]

yes

[Anonymous]

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Think ground beef should be tossed if left out for more than 2 hours. But the tomatoes might have helped preserve it a little longer. If it smells okay, take a little taste.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Think ground beef should be tossed if left out for more than 2 hours. But the tomatoes might have helped preserve it a little longer. If it smells okay, take a little taste.

It was a jarred sauce so maybe the preservatives in that help?

[Anonymous]

For god sakes, yes. How do you think people survived in the world before subzeros?

[Anonymous]

Keep.

Bacterial contamination is hindered by cold temps, but also by physical barriers - if you cooked it and then left the closed container on the countertop for 3 hours, bacteria will not have had a chance to multiply to any significant extent.

On the other hand, if everyone put their dirty fingers in it, people coughed over it at the dinner table, and you left it to macerate overnight in the open, then...toss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Made ground beef Spaghetti sauce on Monday. On Tuesday I took it out of the fridge around 6:30 for dinner and forgot to put it back until 9:30 or 10. Is it ok to eat today?

Of course! Jeesh.