Can/should I eat it? Whole sack o pork patties
May 26, 2021 7:00 AM   Subscribe

Can/should I and my fam eat Smithfield (frozen, fully cooked) pork patties left out in warm kitchen for 3+ hours?

Yesterday I cleaned and organized the kitchen freezer, and because no good deed etc etc, I forgot to put back a bag of Smithfield pork patties. They sat on top of the fridge for about 3 hours, on a warm day (inside house temp was 70-80 degrees). When I picked them up I could feel they were no longer frozen. They are fully cooked. Can/should we eat them?

Buried lede (sort of): my son is the primary eater of these (he's trying the keto diet for epilepsy) so he would be the one to suffer ill effects -- which is why I'm leaning towards pitching the whole bag and starting fresh. He is six. But I am willing to hear I am wrong and being overprotective, because I don't want to waste food if I don't have to. Help an anxious mom out?
posted by pepper bird to Food & Drink (15 answers total)
 
I would not eat them. That they're cooked is a point in favor, but defrosting in a warm place for 3 hours is a big negative.
posted by so fucking future at 7:04 AM on May 26, 2021 [1 favorite]


If they were cooked going into the bag and the bag hasn't been opened, then they haven't been contaminated since, and there's not going to be much growing in there.

I'd eat them, provided they got re-cooked thoroughly (maybe chop them up and pan fry them, or put them in the oven for 20 minutes), just in case. But don't re-freeze them. Cook them now.
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:05 AM on May 26, 2021 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Ugh, forgot to say -- bag was opened, and we'd eaten one or two previously.
posted by pepper bird at 7:07 AM on May 26, 2021


I'm less cautious than the average mefite about food, but these would be in the seriously iffy category for me. The "top of the fridge" area gets pretty warm from fridge waste heat, so it was probably significantly warmer than your house overall, and those kinds of patties thaw out/warm up pretty quickly as well. If I discovered the patties and they were still cold (even if not frozen) I might have them for dinner RIGHT THEN but if you put them back in the freezer they're going to have taken a hit to their quality and also they were still (potentially) in the danger zone while they cooled back down.

If they were cooked going into the bag and the bag hasn't been opened, then they haven't been contaminated since, and there's not going to be much growing in there.
I mean, if that were true, there would be very little need to freeze/refrigerate them at all? Sure, they were cooked before they went into the package, but they weren't packed in a sterile environment and the bag wasn't sterilized post-packing.

I would have been more willing to eat them yesterday, but after a further 24 hours I feel like they are heading for the "NOPE" zone.
posted by mskyle at 7:10 AM on May 26, 2021 [1 favorite]


Pork patties aren't exactly something one would eat rare, so if were eating them i'd be sure to cook 'em real good to be safe, but....I wouldn't prepare them for a 6 yr old. I've survived eating a ton of sketchy things over the years, but take no chances with my kiddos.
posted by OHenryPacey at 7:18 AM on May 26, 2021


No way.
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 7:26 AM on May 26, 2021 [1 favorite]


Here's the thing

If the OUTSIDE was unfrozen, that could be fine. If the middle of the stack of patties was still frozen, likely, the whole package was still plenty cool.

If the INSIDE was unfrozen... then yeah, unfortunately, time to pitchem.
posted by bbqturtle at 7:44 AM on May 26, 2021 [2 favorites]


Nope. The worst food poisoning I've ever experienced was from pork from the freezer that had thawed. I even pressure cooked the stuff, and we still all got immensely sick. (It wasn't me trying to get away with serving bad food, I didn't learn about the power outage that caused the problem before we all got sick and I called the doctor. Others in the village went through the same, some still don't eat pork, ever).
posted by mumimor at 7:46 AM on May 26, 2021 [1 favorite]


If they were still cold (not just in the center, but all the way through), I'd feel ok about cooking and eating them immediately. But not if they were warmer than fridge temperature (which it sounds like they were), and I definitely wouldn't save them for later. Like people have said, top of fridge on a warm day is way too warm for safety for these.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:47 AM on May 26, 2021 [2 favorites]


I was only a tiny bit on the fence until I got to the part where you’d be feeding them to a 6-year-old.

After that I was a definite NOPE.
posted by Salamander at 7:58 AM on May 26, 2021 [1 favorite]


USDA danger zone is 2 hours. I figure after an hour it wasn't thawed, so it's like you left them in the danger zone for around two hours. I'd personally cook well and eat, knowing that the USDA danger zone is highly conservative and idiot-proof. Especially if they were still cool, I'd not worry. I'd also test them myself before serving to my kid, ymmv.
posted by SaltySalticid at 8:14 AM on May 26, 2021 [2 favorites]


Personally I'd probably eat them, but I would not inflict them on a child.
posted by primethyme at 8:41 AM on May 26, 2021


When it comes to food safety, I'm a much bigger risk taker than the average MeFite.

I'd eat them myself (or maybe eat one or two and see if anything happens), but I wouldn't serve them to someone else, especially not a kid and especially-ecially not my kid.
posted by box at 9:53 AM on May 26, 2021


Yep, I would also reheat them well and eat them if it were just up to me but I wouldn't risk it with my kid.
posted by superfluousm at 10:16 AM on May 26, 2021


Response by poster: Pitched and (to be) replaced! Thanks for helping me out of the frugality anxiety spiral.
posted by pepper bird at 10:47 AM on May 26, 2021 [3 favorites]


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