I once ate week old Spag Bol during a tough week but haven't beaten that personal record for a few years.
OzBargain, what's the oldest leftovers you have shamelessy eaten?
How Old Is Too Old for Leftovers?
Careful With Money on 19/07/2022 - 19:48
Last edited 19/07/2022 - 19:48
Last edited 19/07/2022 - 19:48
Comments
I saw your comment and at first glance I thought it was the scene where George ate the eclair from the bin… But that wallet scene is even better! Many lols
I would be interested to hear @Eatslikeacat's answer
Whilst I eat like a cat I am a human. As a human I strongly recommend that readers take advice from the experts on the issue of food safety and leftovers. Food safety is critical to the health of you and your family and you should not take any chances. When in doubt throw it out
Thatonethere commented below and provided the following useful link from the CSIRO which is a trusted source: https://www.csiro.au/en/research/health-medical/nutrition/fo…
Other useful links are:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2017-06-07/can-you-smell-…
https://www.abc.net.au/everyday/experts-guide-five-second-ru…
https://www.safefood.qld.gov.au/newsroom/can-you-tell-if-foo…
https://www.healthywa.wa.gov.au/Articles/S_T/Taking-leftover…
https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and…Your health and safety is not worth the risk of eating dangerous food. The cost to you if you become ill would be far greater. Think about that the next time you wash a chicken. Like who washes a chicken? Why?!
Ive lost count of the amount of times ive had to tell my spouse if you need cant trust food and need to smell it throw it out.
3-4 days max
One day max for me.
That's impressive, room for one more in your family?
Happens when there are young kids. Prefer them to have freshly cooked food! Leftovers, usually will just eat it with the missus.
Agreed, my policy is to treat the entire family the same. Leftovers are OK for 1 day only, any more than that and you're wasting health as it's either expired or lost a lot of nutrition. If you freeze it then it's a different story, OK to eat months down the line.
Leftovers are OK for 1 day only, any more than that and you're wasting health as it's either expired or lost a lot of nutrition
Absolute rubbish. If it's cooked properly, and stored properly - it does not "expire" or go bad after a day. You can safely prep meals and store them in the fridge for a few days easily
Creepy!
Depends on the food
Yes, some cheeses and cured meats keep for ages. Some master stocks are years old. Some processed foods appear "fresh" for a long time: https://www.kidsnews.com.au/health/mcdonalds-burger-and-frie… Food with a higher moisture content tends to decay faster.
I don't consider those things as leftovers tho. Leftovers, as in food that has been preped and made at home and then stored for later.
Really depends on whether it's been kept at a safe temperature or not. Sniff test before eating. Chummyemu videos are a good watch on this topic.
Chummyemu videos are a good watch on this topic.
If you only watched ChubbyEmu's videos on this topic, you will never eat leftovers again. Or gas station sushi. Or gummy vitamins. Or… lava lamps.
I’m adverse to old food, but just today I ate the last piece of eggplant parmigiana I baked 2 weeks ago. It was stored correctly, I guess the oilyness and cheap manufactured cheese helped with preservation.
Got an excess d in there somewhere, pal?
What do you mean?
I think FiftyFifty is trying to say that they are averse to spelling and grammatical errors.
Landlord/friend was over doing some work at the house while i was out.
When i got home, He informed me that he got hungry while working so helped himself to some spagbog in the fridge.
I said thats fine - And did not inform him that it was coming up to almost having spent 2 weeks in there.
(Fwiw, i had been away for work and not cleaned fridge out after returning)
The punishment seemed to fit the crime.2 weeks is a feat! that's my record quashed, did you follow up with him to see if he suffered night sweats or worse?
I did gently fish for info, but got nothing.
I imagine there must have been some hefty bowl movements though…If the dude is eating random food from ppls fridge then I'd assume he'd either have a stomach of steel or a butthole like a waterslide exit.
@cookie2: Knowing his background, I’d say it’s a little of column A and a little of column B.
Blew my mind he went in to the fridge without asking and though nothing of it.
But made me laugh a lot on the inside when he told me what he had ate.
@El cheepo: I would be throwing my toothbrush away for sure. He might have also had an itch to scratch.
@El cheepo: Makes you wonder what else he helped himself to! Decided to brush his teeth whilst there as well?
Have a nap in your bed?
The week after Christmas, every year, we see dozens of cases of food poisoning. Heading straight to the hospital, some unfortunately die.
I once was hospitalised due to lunch I bought from the tuckshop (2-day old, Chicken and Mayo, Red Rooster Roll). I recovered after a week, and no I didn't know it was poisonous or that old.
Hygiene and Food Safety is no joke, it really does kill people.
Actually the consistency of food hygiene in Australia is what makes it bad, food too clean eaten constantly will reduce the digestive system’s immunity. Before coming to Australia, I could eat any street food dish back home and felt nothing, after being in Australia for 10 years, I started having problems with street food, even home cooked food sometimes. Too hygienic is not good , in my opinion
@HG Dendrobium: Too true. Happened to me when I went back to my home country after a little over 3 years in Australia. Ate some streetfood upon arrival and was bedridden for 3 days afterwards. I learned to ease myself into it later.
@HG Dendrobium: Building a tolerance to unhygienic food is not a goal. It's on par with factory workers in some of china's most polluted districts. When removed for several weeks many of them are unable to return or suddenly develop lung issues. Yes the human body can take a lot of crap, doesn't mean we should find the limits.
@BargainDoubter: I certainly don't wish to find my body's limit. It's just my opinion and experience. I was previously a cook and being so I can't bring myself to not follow food hygiene practices, whilst knowing that doing that will reduce my digestive system's immunity further. Now I cant really touch most street food when I go back home anymore, sometimes feel very sad.
I was once very very sick as I ate chicken at a wedding where the temp was over 40 and they left the food out a little bit.
Ive never been quite the same.
@Franc-T: considering how I see food is handled for wedding, i reckon you either complain or never come back to that place
@HG Dendrobium: It was a long time ago and I was young. I was so sick i probably could have sued.
Never gone back.
Geez do people really help themselves at other peoples house? Even in the same household I ask if its ok before eating someones food.
I generally have a shit stomach so I need to be careful what I eat.
Out of the fridge, 3-4 days max. if I know I don't have to go anywhere.Out of the fridge
OUT of the fridge?
Surely you dont eat food thats been left out of the fridge?haha I meant, if I was taking something out of the fridge…..
For something that hasn't been in the fridge, the max I'll do is overnight (if the weather isn't too hot). My parents used to do this all the time when I was a kid (even cooked chicken and other meat) so I got used to eating stuff that's just been left on the kitchen table.
Yeah that is not safe. If there was a single E coli bacterium (many are harmful), after 8 hours, there would be 2^24 = 16,777,216 bacteria after self replication.
@[Deactivated]: It's a bit strange because while I understand the food safety standards etc and all the dangers around meat, my family (and I see many others too) have been doing that for as long as I remember. I would be silly to think that there hasn't been times where the food was contaminated yet, it was quite rare to get sick from eating food that had been left out.
When I go overseas, I don't eat food from the street carts, because it's about a 30% chance I'd get food poisoning, but the 'restaurants' (and I use this term loosely) themselves don't exactly handle their food in the most hygienic fashion either. But I never seem to get sick from that.
Phew, for a minute there I thought you eat in your fridge.
My mum still does this - 'Should this chicken curry be in the fridge?' 'What for, we're eating it tomorrow'. Blows my mind, I would never do it but it doesn't seem to have any ill effects.
@larndis: It does make me wonder - While it's not a bad thing to err on the side of caution with our health, are westerners being way over-cautious with food safety? The bacteria might be there, but are they not as harmful as we think/told they are? (I'm just thinking out loud and obviously don't have an answer to these questions, but someone else might!)
Out of the fridge probably 8 hours max on a cold day if not 3-4 hours.
its not about shame, its about hygiene.
Eating chicken more than 4 days old is playing a spicy game.A week max for me (no meat/dairy), no more than 2 days in the fridge for my partner (eats meat/dairy). If his food has accidentally been out of the fridge for half a day he won't eat it, but we usually freeze leftovers if we have too much
Generally a day. If it's going to go past that, I'll freeze it or its dog food.
Why planning meals is important.
When I was a kid we'd cut away the mould. I think that traumatised me because I can't stand to eat anything stale or bad anymore, and I observe used by dates religiously.
Oh us too, especially on loaves of bread, cut away those small specks and whack it into the toaster.
I freeze my bread as soon as I get it home, and I only choose the freshest in store. I'd rather defrosted frost bitten bread than stale/mouldy bread. When I was a kid we'd mix home brand UHT milk with water and milk powder. All of my toys were bought second hand or scavenged from the city dump (the dump would charge people a few dollar entry fee to scavenge through the entire city trash and keep whatever you want). We were legit poor and desperate.
Dam nice upgrading.
Congrats
Ok the dump scavenging sounds like something that could become a popular hobby if it was still the norm. Well we use milk powder as hubby grew up with it. I tolerate it coz I don't really drink milk anyway and that way I have it when needed for cooking. Freezer for bread is the best way to do it, otherwise you'll wait, forget it and end up throwing it out (or feeding to the local burbs)
@cookie2: https://www.reddit.com/r/DumpsterDiving/ is an interesting subreddit. To see the things that people get out of dumpsters. Often perfectly fine, just thrown out by corporations because it's cheaper to throw it away than do something useful with it.
@cookie2: Please don't feed birds bread: https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2019/04/dont-feed-bread-to-bir…
Neat little trick that works when you freeze fresh bread is to put a sheet of kitchen paper inside the bag before you freeze it and it doesn't get freezer burn. I just fold the paper into about three and push it down the side it is going to rest on and you don't get it crunchy on one side and soggy on the other when it is defrosted.
Unfortunately if you're seeing spots of mould, the invisible mould roots are already through the whole loaf :( so scraping won't help you avoid eating mould.
See: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/can-you-eat-bread-mold#…
we always bought multigrain cant see the mould for the specs
With some breads (especially artisan / hand made breads), it's hard to tell if it is white mould or flour.
Depends on the food and what’s gone in it. Some foods get better with time: bolognaise, stews, curries, goulash to name a few.
I’ll eat it as long as it’s not off using the sight and sniff test. I’ve got a decent stomach and never gotten sick. Couldn’t tell you how long is the oldest thing I’ve eaten but eating stuff two weeks old is not uncommon
Food is a lot hardier than most people give it credit for
Don't think our stomachs are tho
I'm like Gunnar - 2 weeks (or more?) but it had to pass a sniff and taste test. "How long is safe?" depends on the type of food and how long it has been sitting in the danger zone of temperature that bacteria grow in. IMHO, all general government guidelines will be very conservative by several magnitudes.
yep food over a week is often fine in a reliable fridge. Sniff, eyeball and slime test.
We'll generally cap it at a week for the mrs and myself, and the kids up to 3-4 days for most meals, but as you say it really depends on the food.
Coming from a lebanese background, there are certain foods that are known to be well preserved from traditional cooking, so heavily oiled, acidic and well salted/sugared foods generally can go for quite a while past that.
Yogurts are a good example of something that it took my wife some time to wrap her mind around, where she would dump them the moment they were expired, I'll generally let them go for a couple of weeks past expiry. Mould will get in there eventually so it's not good to go past that. The culture that made the yogurt does a really good job of digesting the sugars from the milk in the first place, so it's not that rich of a food source for other bugs, and historically, yogurts were how people didn't let milk go to waste.
Two weeks.
Just don't eat week old pasta left out on the bench for a week 😬
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.her.ie/amp/news/student-die…
1 week fridge leftover pasta has always been fine for me, can't imagine leaving it out though and then eating it. Wouldn't there be visible bacteria/mould? :/
I rolled the dice with open cooked chicken on the bench for 24 hours.
No issue
Left over whiskey ? ??
years and YEARS on
Left over whiskey
How does a situation like this even happen?
Umm IDK
like you end up burring a bottle of liquor in your backyard or somewhere in house, for later use and then forget about.
Or like you suddenly changed to become non drinker from a drinker ?
Until it fails the sniff test. And then if it fails it gets an extra 2 minutes in the microwave before eating
this. this is the answer of the spartan.
Heat can't kill damaging spores which already exist
2 days after cooking at most. Then I throw it out. I try to use leftovers the day after cooking. (exception would be rice. I only use the day its cooked)
exception would be rice. I only use the day its cooked
You never make fried rice?
…..who cooks fresh rice for every meal? Screams in Asian
Had takeaway rice once. 5 days in bed. Both ends. Sickest I’ve even been from food poisoning. Almost got the jab to try to keep water down.
Rice just cooked - eat or straight in the fridge. Only for a day. Not worth it
I push brown rice to 7 days all the time. Put in the fridge quickly after cooking.
Depends on the food really.
Depends on food but I've eaten home cooked left overs 5 days in.
Take away left overs like Chinese or pizza, max 3 days.
If it’s funky, slimy or a different texture it’s a no go. If it smells ok and hasn’t changed much, go nuts.
Stuff like kfc I can get a good week out of. Soups etc much the same. Milk is my only hard line, and 1-2 days past the stated date is tha absolute max I’ll do.
Helps to have iron guts I guess.
7yr old Timtam…
I now don't eat Timtams.
Did you know it was 7 years old before or after you ate it?
probably once you hit 50
I’d say wait for your “poo in the mail” test results and go from there
3 days after cooking for pretty much everything unless it's been vac sealed.
Chicken / red meat dishes - 3 days Max.
longest left over food ive had is … maybe 6 days - was a cheesecake… it didnt seem off ? maybe
fermented food lasts for ages ..
how do you know when it's off?
if certain foods are part of your everyday or cultural diet. you will know.
like sauerkraut, kim chi, bean-curd, cheese, yoghurt
I normally make food on sundays for the weekday lunches ahead. Sometimes I eat them on saturday if there are leftovers. Havent had any issues with them what so ever (rice, curries, baked, slow cooked, pastas etc)
Foods like fresh milk, non aged cheese and yoghurts I dont use past their best before dates. Pizzas, fried chicken may be couple more days from prepared or bought day. Juices can last few more days than the marked bb days in my experience…
So basically depends on the type of food and current climate. There is no one straight answer. YMMV
Milk depending on how it was stored by the shop, can often last a week past use by. That def gets the sniff or sip test. Yoghurt usually lasts well beyond a week past use by date
Agree, i just take those precautions because the kid consumes them frequently and i dont want surprise projectile vomiting 🤓
I honestly don’t care. As long as it is not mouldy and passes the sniff and taste test. Never got anyone and myself sick.
People seem to forget that proper packing, storage and reheating play an essential part in how long your food can last in the fridge. Plus don’t open the fridge 100 times a day.
OP's avatar checks out.