My friend left cooked steaks out for about 7 hours

Question

My question is are these still safe to eat? I threw them in the freezer as soon as I noticed them on the kitchen counter, in the hope that it might still be salvaged. I have been told that after about 3 hours of unrefrigeration you should toss the meat, but I'd like to hear some more opinions as these are nice steaks and I am a cheap college kid!

Answer 1

This isn't what you want to hear, but my microbiology teacher was a food microbiologist before he became a professor, and he always told us not to leave anything out longer than 2 hours.  It gives bacteria too much time to grow and regenerate.  Even if you reheat the food and heat it all the way through, there are bacteria called thermophiles, (heat-loving bacteria) that could survive the heat and make you sick.  If I were you, I wouldn't risk it.

Answer 2

It's 2 two hours of something not being refrigerated to make it garbage worthy. I would throw it away. You could eat it and be fine, but anytime you go past the 2 hour rule your chances of getting sick are much higher. Why chance it? Food poisoning is horrible.

"When in doubt, throw it out."-My foods teacher.

Answer 3

well it's probably all hard if they were left out, if you freeze them they will be okay, or put them in the fridge, then you can just reheat them, then they should be fine.

=]

Answer 4

When in doubt, throw it out.

After about two hours the number of bacteria on a piece of food left out at room temperature doubles every 20 minutes.

Answer 5

  I would say throw them away,I have my Foodservice Sanitation License and I was taught that food can only be in the danger zone for a total of 5 hours (danger zone is between 45-160 degrees) however you also have to figure in the time that the food was also in transit (from the processing plant  to the store,from the store to your house,etc.) this all is not supposed to be more than 5 hrs. because then foodborne illness-bacteria begin to grow and multiply.I would say it would be better to lose the money from the steaks than the alternative,hospital visits are not cheap!!!

Answer 6

Weeeelll...I hate giving advice that may be detrimental to anyone.  But I will tell you this...I have left all kinds of meats out on my counter overnite before and ate them the next day.  I'm still alive.

  If it were fish I would say toss it.

Answer 7

Yes, they are safe to eat because they were cooked. It also helped that you placed them in the freezer.  I often cook dinner early on weekends and it hangs out all day. No one has ever gotten sick, Thank God.

Answer 8

if it wasn't hot in the kitchen, they're fine, eat them!

you should have tossed it if it wasn't cooked.

if they smelled bad throw them away

Answer 9

you can save  em  by reheating  them  a few minutes  in the nuker. It will over cook them a bit  but, this will kill any germs or other nasties.

I have done  this several times ( I have  teen kids and   they leave stuff out all the time)  and  I am still alive  and well.

Answer 10

No, they would have gone bad.