Left my pot pies on the kitchen counter!

October 30, 2019 6:15 PM

I bought some pot pies and other assorted frozen dinners at the supermarket tonight and absentmindedly left them all-but-one on the kitchen counter during the hour I heated one in the oven. I quickly put them in the freezer before hopping on AskMeFi to see if they'll be safe to heat and eat going forward. I'm sure I'll be okay, but thought I'd ask here. Your verdict?
posted by Ranucci to Food & Drink (8 answers total)

Best answer: Just an hour? You'll be fine. (It takes some people an hour to load their car, drive home, and put their groceries away.)
posted by Countess Sandwich at 6:20 PM on October 30, 2019 [25 favorites]

If one hour got people sick I feel like frozen food would be banned by the FDA.
posted by jessca84 at 7:01 PM on October 30, 2019 [6 favorites]

I was about to chime in here and say "Eh, I've eaten a pot pie that was left out for a day. I was fine."

Then I read it again and it was just an hour. So yeah. TOTALLY fine.
posted by rileyray3000 at 7:11 PM on October 30, 2019 [2 favorites]

Heat it up to required temperature. You'll be fine, or my name isn't Unqualified Internet Common Sense Guy.
posted by LucretiusJones at 7:21 PM on October 30, 2019 [10 favorites]

You’ll likely be food safe, but some of your items (anything that involves a relatively dry outer carb with a wet filling) may suffer a bit texturally if they started to defrost.
posted by Night_owl at 7:32 PM on October 30, 2019

Totally fine! I wish frozen pies and such defrosted to 40F (lower bound of danger zone) in a hour at room temp.
posted by STFUDonnie at 7:49 PM on October 30, 2019 [1 favorite]

did it warm up to above 5*C and below 60*C for longer than an hour? (probably no) so it's fine. Still mostly frozen? Pretty cool? Yeah, fine.

However, your lee-way for these has been used up, so I would not leave them out too much between heating and eating.
posted by freethefeet at 3:40 AM on October 31, 2019

You're good to go, for all the reasons mentioned above. Don't think twice about it and do not, do not, do not tell anyone going to eat the food what you did. If you tell, you'll get all sorts of false reports, unrelated to the healthiness of the food.
posted by tmdonahue at 8:25 AM on October 31, 2019