Comments on: Tuna sandwich longevity?

Question: Tuna sandwich longevity?

seiryuu — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 11:50:20 -0800

I made a tuna sandwich for lunch and left it at home. Will it still be edible?

I made a tuna sandwich - the tuna fish is mixed with mayo and pickles, and the sandwich is in a closed ziploc bag... I prepared it about 7:30am and wonder whether it will be safe to eat at 6 tonight when I get home. I live 15+ miles from work so driving back at lunch time would cost about as much in gas as getting something at Quizno's.

By: FlamingBore

FlamingBore — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 11:55:11 -0800

No.

By: notsnot

notsnot — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 11:58:43 -0800

Were it just tuna, it'd be iffy. I'd probably eat it, my g/f wouldn't. But with mayo, no fuckin' way.

By: Steven C. Den Beste

Steven C. Den Beste — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:00:54 -0800

Mayonnaise goes bad really fast at room temperature. Salmonella, baby, Salmonella.

By: sjuhawk31

sjuhawk31 — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:01:06 -0800

If it's in the fridge? Maybe. If it's on the counter? No.

By: jerseygirl

jerseygirl — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:02:22 -0800

I'll go ahead and say, "No, It's not worth you the potential puking."

By: leapfrog

leapfrog — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:03:30 -0800

Food safety rule in my domicile:
When in doubt, toss it out.
If you have to ask if the food is safe to eat, it isn't worth the risk. Can of tuna: $.39. Spoonful of Mayo and Pickles $.10. Night in the ER with food poisoning: priceless.

By: ThePinkSuperhero

ThePinkSuperhero — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:04:36 -0800

I wouldn't eat it for dinner. But I probably would put it in the fridge tonight, and eat it tomorrow. But, uh, I guess that's bad.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:09:27 -0800

My childhood must have been insanely risky, since I regularly had tuna fish made in the morning in an unrefrigerated brown bag until afternoon.

Salmonella? Maybe if it was homemade mayo.

By: tastybrains

tastybrains — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:11:12 -0800

But I probably would put it in the fridge tonight, and eat it tomorrow. But, uh, I guess that's bad.

Ok, that kind of made me feel a little queasy just thinking about it. ;-)

It's not good now and nothing you can do to it, either chilling it or heating it, will make it safe to eat. If it's in the fridge though, it's fine.

By: zackola

zackola — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:14:15 -0800

Agree with smackfu. I survived my childhood after eating tuna left in a locker at school in a brown bag until lunchtime. It was fine. This sounds like it would be twice the time though. Also agree with just toss it/not worth potential puking.

By: briank

briank — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:14:37 -0800

The notion that mayonnaise spoils quickly is false. Mayonnasie is acidic in the first place, which retards the production of bacteria. Commercial mayonnaise is loaded up with all sorts of preservatives and stabilizers to keep the product viable at room temperature. In point of fact, mayonnaise actually extends the length of time something can be left unrefrigerated.

Homemade mayo, which contains raw egg, is at a greater risk of causing foodborne illness than commercial mayo. M ost cases of salmonella from products made with mayo come from the spoilage in the other ingredients, NOT the mayonnaise.

By: ob

ob — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:22:28 -0800

I'd probably eat it, but I'm not necessarily advocating that you eat it...

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:24:29 -0800

I've made tuna sandwiches at 7am, took them to work and then not had lunch until about 2pm.

But according to people in this thread, in those 4 hours it will suddenly turn from a yummy but warm tuna sandwich into a poisonous mass? I dont think people in these food threads speak from experience. They're the same ones who dont understand that you dont need to refrigerate butter.

By: Clyde Mnestra

Clyde Mnestra — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:28:29 -0800

According to the above, here are your variables: (1) where you left it, (2) the kind of mayo, (3) whether you like to puke.

I say, think outside the box. If you were to drop the sandwich in your deep fryer, it would be right as rain.

By: HotPatatta

HotPatatta — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:33:46 -0800

Maybe it will be safe if you live in a cold part of the country and your heater isn't on while you're at work. When I lived on the East Coast, our house was like an ice box during the day. I could leave a soda on the counter and it would be perfectly frosty when I got home.

By: muddgirl

muddgirl — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:33:59 -0800

I would refridgerate it (because warm mayo tastes icky) and eat it the next day, if it's canned tuna and mayo from the grocery store. I'd sniff it first, to make sure it passed the "smells alright?" test.

By: Clyde Mnestra

Clyde Mnestra — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:36:36 -0800

OK, so it also depends on (4) the nature of the tuna, and (5) whether you live in an igloo. I would now add: (6) whether you own a cat, and return home to find the bag open and the cat a-puking.

By: dazed_one

dazed_one — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:52:59 -0800

I'd eat it.

By: cobaltnine

cobaltnine — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 13:02:31 -0800

I regularly ate tuna fish (with mayo and celery) that was unrefrigerated as a child. Even at summer camp.

Heavy metal accumulation aside, I never vomited up a single sandwich.

By: cardamine

cardamine — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 13:14:17 -0800

Student Rule No. 1: Never Waste Food.

(but i guess you're not a student...)

By: dame

dame — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 13:20:51 -0800

Unless you live in the tropics or heat your home to approximate the tropics, it will be fine. Like others in this thread, I regularly ate sandwiches from my lunch, sandwiches made of tuna. In Southern California. In summer. Stored on a bus.

By: ikkyu2

ikkyu2 — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 13:20:58 -0800

If I were trying intentionally to make something with the absolute highest probability of giving me food poisoning, I'd just do what you just did.

By: OldReliable

OldReliable — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 13:24:53 -0800

If it tastes ok, eat it. I routinely eat stuff that my biology knowledge tells me must be pretty far up the curve in terms of bacteria growth, but I have never gotten sick to my stomach from it.

Build up an immunity to the tamer food-borne illness now or you'll regret it after the collapse whenyou have to eat dumpster food.

By: xiojason

xiojason — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 13:28:42 -0800

I'd eat it provided the cat hadn't gotten to it already.

By: OldReliable

OldReliable — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 13:30:04 -0800

As a side note to the haters, that mayonaise has everything short of penicillin in it to keep it preserved. That tuna was cooked, canned and treated too. It has spent ten hours out. What could possibly be wrong with it?

Unless you are an elderly person with a compromised immune system you will not have a problem. I will personally mail you a new sandwich if you get sick.

By: cashman

cashman — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 13:40:15 -0800

Well, it is in a ziplock bag. But still, I'd just toss it. I'm not elderly, but I do have stomach issues. It's a tuna sammich, not some exotic dish from overseas. I just say dump it and take the 3 minutes to make a new one that will be fresh and delicious, minus the worrying. I mean really...for tuna?

I guess I'm a hater, but I'll be the hater up watching the tourney instead of hunched over in pain.

By: phatkitten

phatkitten — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 13:41:26 -0800

I will personally mail you a new sandwich if you get sick.

Dear AskMe: I got a sandwich in the mail. Is it safe to eat?

By: acoutu

acoutu — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 14:03:46 -0800

Kraft seems to think you should eat it within 2 hours:

Once KRAFT Mayo (or its varieties) is mixed with ingredients such as vegetables, meat, tuna, eggs, etc., the acidity of the product breaks down the mixture.

Be careful especially with protein foods like eggs, meat, seafood and poultry which can spoil if left at room temperature for more than 2 hours; product that has set out for a longer period of time should be discarded.

So sayeth Kraft.

By: Slarty Bartfast

Slarty Bartfast — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 14:08:05 -0800

Eat it. Eaaaaaatt Iiiiiit!

That's what I would do, to my wife's great dismay

By: theredpen

theredpen — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 14:09:33 -0800

I'd eat it. And have!

By: smorange

smorange — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 14:12:56 -0800

I made lots of egg salad and tuna sandwiches as a kid, which I routinely took to school to eat several hours later. Sometimes I wouldn't get to them until supper time. I ate them.

By: SampleSize

SampleSize — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 14:30:49 -0800

My guess is that you've never had food poisoning because, if you had, you would not be asking this question. You would just throw the thing out. Food poisoning is seriously, seriously, seriously not fun. Seriously.

By: elwoodwiles

elwoodwiles — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 14:36:55 -0800

I'm unsure of why there are so many 'should I eat it questions' on askme. It strikes me as odd that people with enough intelligence to operate a computer, use language and other related skills cannot distinguish the edible from the non-edible.

That said, eat the damned sandwich already.

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 14:37:33 -0800

Kraft seems to think you should eat it within 2 hours:

If I were one of Kraft's lawyers I'd try to get that recommendation down to just 1 hour.

By: Clyde Mnestra

Clyde Mnestra — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 14:38:28 -0800

This is bound to happen again, so if you don't eat it, at least experiment with it. Bring it to work on Monday and put it in the break room refrigerator with a sign on it saying "Do Not Eat." Observe.

By: litlnemo

litlnemo — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 14:50:37 -0800

For what it's worth, the time I had salmonella, we never were able to specifically pinpoint the culprit food, but most likely it was sandwich fixings left out on a table for a few hours, maybe 3-4 hours. Cheese, mayo, and I forget what else. Eating that stuff was in no way worth the pain that followed.

"My guess is that you've never had food poisoning because, if you had, you would not be asking this question. You would just throw the thing out."

Exactly. And yet I am married to the guy who eats anything and doesn't care.

By: melt away

melt away — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 14:53:04 -0800

I've had food poisoning a few times, so I'm highly paranoid about food life spans....

But my guess is that it will be perfectly fine and if you've ever had tuna or chicken salad at a restaurant, believe me it's been "made" for longer than 2 hours.

If it bothers you too much, just toss it and make a new one.

By: Slarty Bartfast

Slarty Bartfast — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 15:02:48 -0800

Just to clarify my earlier point, I have had food poisoning many times. It's miserable, no worse possible feeling than uncontrollable vomiting, stomach cramps, and diarrhea. Yet I will consistently err on the side of eating questionable food rather than not eating it. Why? Because my empiric research on the subject demonstrates that well over 90% of questionably spoiled food will *not* cause bloody diarrhea. So when I hear you food poisonazis tell me not to eat that week old chicken, I will greedily gulp it down laughing the whole time, safe in the knowledge that 9 times out of 10 I *won't* end up in the hospital.

By: lostburner

lostburner — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 15:15:05 -0800

I'd eat it. Don't deprive yourself!

By: vronsky

vronsky — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 15:33:20 -0800

"But I probably would put it in the fridge tonight, and eat it tomorrow. But, uh, I guess that's bad."

Well with all that Airborne in your system, you could probably gulp down anthrax and be okay. Plus, you do have the advantage of being a superhero;)

(I keed, eat it already. If it were a scallop, like the one that got me from Dean and Deluca, then I would advise against)

By: bradbane

bradbane — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 15:33:33 -0800

I've eaten some pretty questionable things but this isn't even high up on the list. Every day for years I had an egg salad or tuna sandwhich for lunch in high school - which was made the night before and left sitting out until I got around to eating it the next day. I never once got sick.

By: R. Mutt

R. Mutt — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 15:35:05 -0800

Well, its 6:33 pm here on the east coast .... (not sure where you are) so, you gonna eat it?

By: lampoil

lampoil — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 15:56:11 -0800

I think you'll know in your gut whether to eat it once you see it and pick it up.

By: solid-one-love

solid-one-love — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 16:08:12 -0800

you dont need to refrigerate butter.

Don't need to, no, but I use very little butter, and it goes rancid very slowly in the fridge.

By: nooneyouknow

nooneyouknow — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 16:47:59 -0800

Several weeks back, I used about half of some tuna salad I had made a couple of days prior to make a tuna melt. This was around 7 p.m. I forgot to put the other half of tuna salad back in the refrigerator. It sat in an uncovered container until around 7 a.m. the next morning, which was when I put it back in the frig. That same day, again around 7 p.m, I used the "left out" tuna salad in another tuna melt. No food poisioning ensued. Take that for what you will.

By: brautigan

brautigan — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 16:48:47 -0800

People are so paranoid about stuff like this. I'd eat it. I've eaten it. Hell, I've eaten it the next day. Numbers of days with stomach upset or food poisoning in my life? 32 years on. Zero. I love warm mayo. Mmmmmmm.....

By: Greg Nog

Greg Nog — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 16:49:14 -0800

IANAD, but if you don't eat that, we're all gonna come to your house and call you a wuss.

EAT THE SANDWICH, EAT THE SANDWICH

By: melt away

melt away — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 17:10:15 -0800

Did you eat it? Should we call the hospitals near Redmond?

By: davejay

davejay — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 17:10:38 -0800

It's miserable, no worse possible feeling than uncontrollable vomiting, stomach cramps, and diarrhea.

How about all that, plus having people mocking you on mefi for eating the damn sandwich?

And maybe someone flicking you in the ear?

By: nadise

nadise — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 17:13:35 -0800

After leaving out the tuna sandwich all day in a ziploc you're in serious danger.... of having a soggy sandwich. Otherwise it's probably fine.

By: owhydididoit

owhydididoit — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 17:29:06 -0800

Although I agree with people who say it is probably safe, you cannot reliably distinguish between contaminated food and uncontaminated food by looking and smelling. If you are worried about it, and can afford to waste food, toss it out. Peace of mind and all that.

By: chundo

chundo — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 20:44:40 -0800

Smell it. Eat it if it still smells normal.

By: It's Raining Florence Henderson

It's Raining Florence Henderson — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 20:52:16 -0800

It's probably fine, but if you're on the fence, why not scrape off the tuna & microwave it in a bowl for two minutes to kill any nasties, then butter the bread, spread the tuna back on, add cheese, and grill the sucker?

By: It's Raining Florence Henderson

It's Raining Florence Henderson — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 20:59:36 -0800

In case that wasn't clear, I meant nuke the tuna but not the bread, then reassemble & grill. Add cheese & tomato for toasty goodness.

By: The Straightener

The Straightener — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 21:03:15 -0800

I'd eat that. However, I also frequently suffer crippling stomach pain.

By: JujuB

JujuB — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 21:03:54 -0800

If money is that tight, I'll send you two dollars NOT to eat it! ;P

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 21:58:58 -0800

Honestly, I'm a little uncomfortable that we live in a world where people wonder about that kind of thing. Eat the sandwich! Eat it tomorrow! Eat it in two days! I've done it, millions of others have and would. STOP WORRYING ABOUT IT.

By: metasav

metasav — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 22:22:49 -0800

I honestly have no freakin' idea why ANYONE would tell you to eat that sandwich. SO SO SO soggy! Feed it to a neighbor, or better yet, a little sister.

By: It's Raining Florence Henderson

It's Raining Florence Henderson — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 22:43:28 -0800

seiryuu: Do please follow this up and tell us if you died, won't you?

By: rosswald

rosswald — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 22:50:45 -0800

I second the melt idea. Heat to 165 and serve!

By: iamkimiam

iamkimiam — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 00:20:50 -0800

I think the real question here is whether or not you would *want* to eat it. Soggy, warm, day old tuna in a yellowed mayonnaise pool on a cat-accessible counter? Yum!

By: opsin

opsin — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 03:43:07 -0800

Hell, safer than eating Quizno's...

By: Harry

Harry — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 05:24:04 -0800

THE INTERNET SAYS EAT IT.

By: furtive

furtive — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 11:51:56 -0800

Was the tuna in the fridge beforehand? If so I'd eat it, if not I'd sell it on ebay.

By: Clyde Mnestra

Clyde Mnestra — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 15:02:24 -0800

If money is that tight, I'll send you two dollars NOT to eat it! ;P

JujuB,

I accidentally left a roast (Kobe) beef sandwich on the counter a week ago. I hate to see the $100 go to waste, so I'm thinking about eating it. It's a pretty desperate situation, see.

By: yohko

yohko — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 18:23:37 -0800

Clyde Mnestra, you made me spit on my monitor from laughing. I'm sending you a bill.

That's probably the best value solution. If you are tight on money for tuna, you probably can't afford to be sick and miss work, have people steal your food at work, or go to the movies for entertainment.

By: bigmusic

bigmusic — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 18:58:45 -0800

I'm going to chime in and say not to eat it, do you really not have the time to make another one.

By: cashman

cashman — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 07:51:13 -0800

Didja eat it? Didja live?

By: lostburner

lostburner — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 13:17:08 -0800

I still want to know. Bonus points if he STILL hasn't eaten it, but is going to.

By: Lizc

Lizc — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 13:13:29 -0800

boooooo I hope you ate that sammich.

By: dersins

dersins — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 16:48:22 -0800

Are you dead?

By: OldReliable

OldReliable — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 13:30:39 -0800

Do I owe you a new sandwich?

By: dersins

dersins — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 10:27:59 -0800

Are you dead?

I'm assuming the answer to that is "Yes."