Expert: Carol Schlitt - 7/5/2007

Question
If meat sits out in the dangerzone (which is under 140 if cooked right?) long enough to get bacteria, can you reheat it and kill the bacteria? So the meat is safe to eat? Or is there a time limit when you should just throw it away?

Answer
Hi Laura,

While you'd think that simply reheating potentially dangerous food would kill any new bacteria, this isn't exactly what always happens.  Some bacteria when given the chance to grow product a toxin, or waste product, that can make you ill.  This toxin is not killed by heat so you could become ill even though you reheated the food.

The general rule of thumb is that cooked food that has been at room temperature for over 2 hours (1 hour if the temperature is over 90 degrees F) should not be consumed.  Until we have definitive tests to know if a food that has been abused by temperature is still safe to eat we will use these guidelines.

Carol