Last night I cooked a dish with seafood in it

[boobaaboo]

and left it in the microwave to cool down. I meant to put it in the fridge but forgot and have only just done so. Is it still safe to eat?

[spiff]

Bin it mate. It's not worth the risk. if it's cooled down in the microwave,then been chilled,you've got a LOT of luverly bugs just waiting to cause you grief!

[sft42]

Why is it that food poisoning has only started happening in the past few years? My gran used to make a huge pot of soup and keep in on the stove for 3 or 4 days and reheat it as needed and take a bowl out when she (or anyone else) fancied it and no-one every keeled over and died....are we just more susceptible to germs now? I would nuke it in the micro for a while till it's red hot then eat the buggger.....but then I have a stomach like a cement mixer.

[Janetex]

Seafood - yep, bin it. Porridge you can leave for at least 3 or 4 days on the stove, reheat it and eat it as often as you like. :)

[kags]

bet sft42 doesn't believe in sell by dates either!! I agree we are sometimes over cautious and we need a few germs to harden ourselves to them, but seafood is a no no - didn't you wonder why you were feeling hungry last nigh?

[Gef]

If you cooked it in the microwave then surely there could be no bugs present.

[sft42]

Sell Buy date????????

I used a few nights ago a jar of chicken tonight which was a best before Nov 2002...it was lovely!

[brawburd]

I totally agree sft! Common sense tells you when something is risky to eat. If I threw out everything in my cupboards that was out-of-date i wouldn't eat! Although I did notice my bacon had a layer of mould the other day and looked a bit grey, so I drew the line!

[boobaaboo]

As a point of (semi) interest, I have actually done this lots of times before with fish and seafood (naughty naughty) and suffered no ill consequences despite terrifying myself until the danger period has passed I am not long for this world. Still makes you grateful to be allive, innit?

[darth vader]

smell is the best natural way of telling when food is off (nature is good innit?). I agree that we are a bit nanny state over food - sell by dates and use by dates are always understated as the supermarket doesn't want to take any chances of being sued etc so i tend to add ignore these and use my own instincts about what is fresh and not fresh using sight and smell, anyway. Seafood is a bit different because of the type of bugs it attracts so you have to be careful about policing sell by dates, and once cooked it is still susceptible. At the end of the day though, the body is very good and has plenty defence mechanisms, including the old "open the sphincters and let the whole lot exit the body asap" (diarrhoea to you mate!) whereby the only thing to be wary of (except a toilet in the vicinity) is a plentiful supply of water to replace the fluid you're losing. I have often got up next morning and finished a prawn curry or chinese special fried rice that i half-ate the night before, and still live to tell the tale huck yuck yaaaarrrrghhhh................................................ (thud)

[darth vader]

ps. no i'm not dead
pps. concur with sft - i have made a huge vat of soup on a sunday, and still be eating it the next friday