I left some food in my car for about 4 hours. i am wondering if i should toss it or not.

Question

the temperature in my car was between 80-90 degrees. ummm the foods are hot dogs, cream cheese, frozen pizza rolls,and frozen burritos.

Answer 1

yea, toss it if it's that hot...if you do that in the winter there would be no problem because it's so cold...but if it's hot it's definatley no good.

Answer 2

None of those would be harmful if you consume them within the next day. Of course open and smell and inspect each item, you can get a better idea. I say that because those things were probably frozen to begin with, which would have taken a while to thaw anyway. We usually thaw them before we cook them anyway. All of them are precooked and have preservatives and should be fine! You should cook them immediately and have them left over. I don't think you should refreeze them and cook later!  As for cream cheese, you always use it at room temp so it will be soft, so I'd use it tonight also! Make a cheesecake or marshmallow fruit dip with it now and keep in frig.  Hot dogs are vacuum sealed and should be ok, no bacteria go to them but use them now!!!

If it were raw meat, sea food or dairy like milk or yogurt then I'd say toss em ASAP!!!

Answer 3

YUMMY! I WILL HAVE IT!

Answer 4

As far as food safety goes, four hours is the cutoff--after that it is usually best to toss the food.

Answer 5

um it depends on how hot it was out side.if it was a cool day and your car was cool den u can keep it but if not then i suguest u through it away

Answer 6

Toss it. Less than an hour @ temps above 42 degrees (the danger zone) = bacteria growth = possible food poisoning. But seriously. 4 hours at those temps is bad. You don't want to get sick, so it's a good you're conscientious enough to think about that. Kudos to you!

Answer 7

Yeah, why take the chance of spending the next day or so on the pot? Trash them and get some more.

Answer 8

you should toss them out the temperature danger zone is 2-4 hrs

Answer 9

Hot dogs - if not butcher brand, are aseptically packaged and contain enough preservatives to almost render them low risk.

Cream cheese - discard, usual packaging is only a foil wrapper which was probably compromised at store - bacterial content prob high and you dont cook it.

frozen burritos and frozen pizza - both contain high levels of preservatives and are acidic due to tomato product, also as frozen probably did not reach temp. Quality of crust will be impacted if refrozen.  

Answer 10

You have to have a little faith in your supplier. As for the items mentioned, put them into your fridge but nothing into the freezer. Looks like its burritos and pizza the next few days. I hope at least you had the window down an inch or two for the dogs hahaha!

Answer 11

Toss it all.  It takes less than 2 hours at room temperature for bacteria and other nasty things to grow in food.  At higher temperatures this growth can happen even faster.  Four hours at those temperatures is definitely long enough for all sorts of things to grow.  You are nearly guaranteed to get sick if you eat any of that food.  

Answer 12

I'd still eat it. Shoot, food's expensive. I've left food out in a car while doing a long stint of grocery shopping and everything was fine.

Answer 13

keep the frozen, toss the rest.

Answer 14

take it back to the store , tell them it was the wrong kinds, get different ones

Answer 15

Repeat after me. When in doubt, throw it out.

If you're asking the question, then there's a chance it's contaminated/spoilt. Just toss it, not worth puking for the next 3 days.

Answer 16

i think you should toss them out