Would you eat it?

October 9, 2013 9:33 AM

Ice cream left unrefrigerated for 8 hours. Opened and eaten from.
posted by cairdeas to Health & Fitness (35 answers total)

You refroze it, right? Then yes.
posted by blnkfrnk at 9:35 AM on October 9, 2013

Eww, no.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:35 AM on October 9, 2013

DEATH AWAITS!

I think you'll prolly be okay. Also spoiled milk, even from previously delicious products, has a very smelly gross odor which would would notice and be repulsed by.
posted by elizardbits at 9:35 AM on October 9, 2013

I wouldn't eat it because it would be gross and full of ice crystals after refreezing, unless you ran it through the ice cream maker again.
posted by contraption at 9:36 AM on October 9, 2013 [19 favorites]

Response by poster: Also spoiled milk, even from previously delicious products, has a very smelly gross odor which would would notice and be repulsed by.

Totally. I'm more worried about getting sick from bacteria that don't produce enough of a smell for me to detect.
posted by cairdeas at 9:36 AM on October 9, 2013

If you have to ask, ditch it. It's so not worth it.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 9:38 AM on October 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

I can't fathom any ice cream amazing enough to eat after that.
posted by Nimmie Amee at 9:38 AM on October 9, 2013 [6 favorites]

Time for a trip to the garbage and then to the supermarket.
posted by Yellow at 9:40 AM on October 9, 2013

I would throw it in a blender with some milk and have some fancy milkshakes.
posted by royalsong at 9:40 AM on October 9, 2013 [8 favorites]

Nope nope nope.
posted by bilabial at 9:41 AM on October 9, 2013

What could possibly make you *want* to eat this? Would you drink a glass of heavy cream that had been sitting on a counter for 8 hours? I hope no.
posted by avidreader at 9:42 AM on October 9, 2013 [2 favorites]

Odds are good that it's not going to make you sick. The sugar / etc in the ice cream modifies it. I make ice cream, and have done this.

That being said, yeah it's gonna be gross in terms of texture. Blend it.
posted by Lemurrhea at 9:44 AM on October 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

Would you drink a glass of heavy cream that had been sitting on a counter for 8 hours? I hope no.

I think that cream would probably be safe to drink actually. Just, ya know, a glass of warm cream. But people used to milk cows in the morning and use the cream much later with no refrigeration, after all.

Agreed that you could re-freeze and make a milkshake from it, but honestly, I wouldn't bother.
posted by showbiz_liz at 9:45 AM on October 9, 2013 [4 favorites]

Believe it or not, there is so much sugar in store-bought ice cream that it acts (for a short while) as a preservative.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:48 AM on October 9, 2013 [2 favorites]

It's perfectly safe. Just terrible tasting, and you can't refreeze it because the texture will be all off (ice cream has to be whipped just so while freezing).

You can leave milk/cream out for days before it goes off - and even when it does, it's still safe (thus yogurt, or sour cream). If there are no fuzzy bits and/or an odd colour indicating mold growth, (which would really takes days), you're fine.
posted by jb at 9:51 AM on October 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

Store bought? Sure. Homemade? Nah.
posted by Etrigan at 9:51 AM on October 9, 2013

The higher the fat and sugar content, the more likely I'd be to eat it without worrying about it being spoiled. But I wouldn't eat it, because it would either be all melted (and where's the fun in that?), or it would be refrozen and crystally (in which case I might just make a milkshake or something).

If it were homemade ice cream made with an egg-based custard, I would probably not eat it. Maybe.
posted by rtha at 9:54 AM on October 9, 2013

I wouldn't be all that worried about it from a food safety issue, but as others have said you will have textural problems even if you refreeze it and if you don't refreeze it, you'll have flavor issues. Things that are cold taste much less sweet to us, so ice cream is wildly over-sweetened to compensate for being frozen. If you don't refreeze it, it'll be unbelievably sweet tasting.

Your best bet is probably smoothies/milkshakes/something that requires blending. There's also a recipe going around pinterest for using melted ice cream in cake -- you could use it for that.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:54 AM on October 9, 2013

I wouldn't be concerned with safety, but as an ice cream lover, refrozen ice cream is unappealing due to the large ice crystals that form. The texture and flavor are likely to be poor. If you got super-lucky and the texture and flavor are still nice, then dig in!
posted by quince at 10:13 AM on October 9, 2013

You already ate it, correct?

You're probably fine.
posted by inertia at 10:13 AM on October 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

refreeze it. Take it out every 20 mins and poke at it with a fork to incorporate fat and break up ice crystals. It'll be a different texture, but edible.
posted by WeekendJen at 10:25 AM on October 9, 2013

If it's liquid and has milk in it and has been warm for more than a few minutes, I always toss it. However, if you ate it and didn't instantly get sick, you probably haven't poisoned yourself.
posted by xingcat at 10:29 AM on October 9, 2013

I generally side with "eat it" in questions like this, but I wouldn't with this one because melted ice cream sounds like the most disappointing food ever. There aren't many occasions in life when I would throw ice cream away, but this is one of them.
posted by Solomon at 10:32 AM on October 9, 2013 [4 favorites]

Hang on, this is your second "can I eat this frozen dessert left unrefrigerated for an extended period?" question in the space of 4 months? Why are you abusing your frozen desserts in this way? I suggest you consider buying smaller quantities if possible, because that way:

- you're more likely to finish the container instead of leaving it out
- if you do leave it out, there's only a little left and you can just toss it without feeling so bad
- you can buy multiple varieties and have a selection of flavors unopened and safe in the freezer
posted by contraption at 10:40 AM on October 9, 2013 [8 favorites]

I can only imagine you are desperate for food, any food to be considering this.

What? Seriously?

Our noses are pretty well-developed for this sort of thing. If it doesn't smell funky, it's probably fine, once you've dealt with the texture issues discussed above.
posted by craven_morhead at 10:50 AM on October 9, 2013

A container of ice cream costs $3 to $6. Food poisoning could cost a lot more. And yeah, highly processed foods like ice cream might have enough flavoring and sugar in there to mask the smell of any badness. I'd pass on it. Dairy that's gone through processing and then been shipped and stored in the modern cold chain is a lot different than dairy fresh from the cow.
posted by limeonaire at 10:52 AM on October 9, 2013

Response by poster: Hang on, this is your second "can I eat this frozen dessert left unrefrigerated for an extended period?" question in the space of 4 months? Why are you abusing your frozen desserts in this way?

Haha, I like to eat ice cream really late at night, and then I get tired and forget things, and ice cream is pretty much the only thing I ever eat that can't be left out very long.

I also strongly hate wasting food and can't compost this.
posted by cairdeas at 11:13 AM on October 9, 2013

Yes, melted ice cream can make you sick. I wouldn't eat it.
posted by magicbus at 11:19 AM on October 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

Semi-related: I was just looking up whether one needs to refrigerate homemade pies. The consensus seemed to be that fruit pies need not/should not be refrigerated, but custard pies of any kind (i.e. containing milk and egg) should be, else there is a risk of bacterial growth. So the answer may depend somewhat on your knowledge and understanding of your ice cream's ingredients, as not all ice creams are custard-based. My homemade vanilla bean ice cream is, whereas my chocolate decadence (yes, it does deserve that title, message me for recipe) is thickened with cornstarch instead of eggs. As elizardbits alludes above, spoiled milk is gross but generally won't hurt you (what else is cheese, after all); spoiled eggs are a bit more concerning.

So if you know what is in your ice cream -- either because you made it or because you know enough food science to interpret ingredient lists on store-bought stuff -- you can judge accordingly. If you don't, then definitely skip it. And of course all of this might be cross-referenced to your position on the "I am broke and starving" vs. "life's too short to eat melted ice cream" axis.
posted by Smells of Detroit at 11:27 AM on October 9, 2013

Agree with all those who said you won't get sick, but it'll be a gross texture.

My local grocery just had a sale on Haagen Dazs and I learned the hard way that this means they had a freezer problem. The ice cream is weird. It's still in my freezer because I can't bear to throw it out, but I can't bring myself to eat it because it's full of ice crystals and isn't creamy and delicious.
posted by valeries at 11:51 AM on October 9, 2013

I also strongly hate wasting food and can't compost this.

Enjoy your nightly ice cream in a bowl from now on, instead of out of the container. And why can't you compost it? If it's got fruit or nuts or whatever, then just pour the liquid down the sink and compost the lumpy bits.
posted by rtha at 12:17 PM on October 9, 2013 [4 favorites]

If it doesn't smell funky, it's probably fine

Well, it's the few times outside the "probably" that get you. There are only so many times* you can wake up in the middle of the night feeling like someone sewed a set of butcher's knives into your gut, then spending the rest of the night and much of the next day dealing with the results of food poisoning, before you decide the risk:reward ratio doesn't look so good on questions of "can I eat this?"

I would have dumped the ice cream for that reason. Maybe in future scoop out how much ice cream you think you'd like, then put the rest back in the freezer before you sit down with the bowl?

*for me, once.
posted by johnofjack at 12:48 PM on October 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: *for me, once.

I actually have had food poisoning before (in high school from a catered dinner, not from my ice cream issues), and it was ... yeah ... but I guess it was long enough ago it's not quite as seared into my memory.

But it looks like the hive has spoken, alas.
posted by cairdeas at 1:00 PM on October 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

Just as a data point:

spoiled milk, even from previously delicious products, has a very smelly gross odor which would would notice and be repulsed by.

I left 2 half-gallons of ice cream in my car on the 4th of July in 105 degree heat for about 6 hours (inside the car was WAY hotter than 105). One of buckets tipped over and melted into the rug. It was still cool and part of it was still softly frozen. (I totally would have eaten it at this point if it weren't in the carpet.)

I used wet soapy rags to clean it up. It didn't start to smell until about the third day, and when it did, it was a strong sweet sickly smell, not the vile sour smell that milk gives you. I bought a wet vac and some enzyme pet cleaner and went to town soaking the carpet and cleaning it up multiple times. Once it dried, the smell went down pretty quickly. After a week it still smelled funny but not bad, but I decided to wet it again with water and enzymes to get it really clean. Bad idea - the smell was worse this time. I finally just propped up the carpet off the floor and let it all dry out. It took about a month, but it's fine now.

My assessment: if the texture is something you could live with, I would eat it. Don't leave it out for 3 days.
posted by CathyG at 2:42 PM on October 9, 2013

Don't throw it out! I would eat it. But it will be gross and crystally. The amount of sugar in commercial icecream is off the hook.
posted by smoke at 10:16 PM on October 9, 2013