Can I eat my French dip sandwich?

June 3, 2019 12:23 AM

I accidentally left an Arby's French dip and Swiss sandwich and jus in a car for four hours. Outdoor temperature was 82 F. No shade to cover the car. Can I eat it?
posted by bryon to Food & Drink (8 answers total)

Toss it.
posted by kickingtheground at 12:34 AM on June 3, 2019 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Can you? Sure. Should you? Absolutely not. It's been in the "danger zone" (40-140F) for far longer than recommended. And if it's 82 outside, the temperature in the car was probably >90, which reduces the "danger zone" window to only one hour.
posted by charmcityblues at 12:36 AM on June 3, 2019 [7 favorites]

I doubt it sitting in your car for four hours is enough time for it to kill you or anything, but this doesn't seem worth it for the risk of having an upset gastrointestinal situation.
posted by AppleTurnover at 12:40 AM on June 3, 2019

How much did it cost? Would you be prepared to pay that much to definitely not have food poisoning? If yes, toss it.
posted by penguin pie at 12:41 AM on June 3, 2019 [10 favorites]

Response by poster: It's in the garbage now. Thanks.
posted by bryon at 12:52 AM on June 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

If you'd eaten it immediately, it would have been fine, though four hours is the upper limit.
posted by kjs4 at 1:43 AM on June 3, 2019

you saved yourself a lot of pain.
posted by fingersandtoes at 7:00 AM on June 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

Apropos of this, and because I don't want to make a new Ask just for a random thought, is there any advantage to exposing oneself to the potential (or small dose) of germs, as in, will that lead to the development of an iron stomach?

Anectodally, as someone who makes a point of eating street food in India and (therefore?) never gets sick from street food anymore, I think I've done this.
posted by MiraK at 5:35 AM on June 4, 2019