Is there a good rule of thumb for how long to leave prepared food out before refrigerating

soon as its cooled enough to stop steaming and you can hold the pot in your hand i put it in the fridge but i leave the cover off it until it gets cold

I would not leave cooked food out that has cooled to room temp for more than 2 hours.

Depends on if you are cooling hot food, holding hot food, or holding cold food.

For cooling hot food, you have 6 hours to cool food to 41°F or below. First it must be cooled to 70°F or below within the first two hours, then to 41°F or below within the next 4 hours. A good guideline for cooling is to allow the food to cool to 135°F before starting the 2 step cooling method.

Cooling can be accelerated by dividing large quantities into smaller shallow containers or using ice baths & ice paddles.

Hot food can be held for up to 4 hours without temperature control if,
·It was held at an internal temperature of 135°F or higher before removing it from temperature control.
·The food is labeled with the time you removed it from refrigeration and the time you must throw it out.

Cold food can be held for up to 6 hours without temperature control if you meet certain conditions.
·The food was held at an internal temperature of 41°F or lower before removing it from refrigeration.
·The food does not exceed 70°F during the 6 hours.
·The food is labeled with the time you removed it from refrigeration and the time you must throw it out.

Of course, these are ServSafe guidelines for food service establishments. Most people do not adhere to these practices in the home.

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you can go way longer than 2 hours with zero issue

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Agreed.

Depends on rawness of ingredients. I don't let it sit out long if there raw ingredients. But if it's something fully cooked, basically sterilized, and you keep it covered, You can go many hours. Also depends on acid/salt content.

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The world is so soft these days you can go way longer than 2 hours with zero issue

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Lol exactly. two hours if we are talking about food sitting outside in the heat of summer but if you’re indoors 4 hours at least

Bacteria grow well at certain temperatures (warm) and grow slower at others (refrigerated). This is why you don’t want to leave your food warm.

It takes a big number of bacteria to get you sick. In layman’s terms, 1 bacteria won’t hurt you, but 20 will.

When you cook food, you kill ENOUGH bacteria to not get you sick (if there’s even bacteria on the raw food to begin with). But cooking doesn’t kill ALL the bacteria. So in due time, more bacteria can grow and it may be enough to get you sick.

So you’re assuming there’s 1 bacteria on your food and if you leave it out at room temperature, it will grow. A good rule of thumb (as the OP asked) is that it takes bacteria 4 hours at room temperature to grow to an amount that may get you sick (assuming any bacteria is even present, there may not be).

Of course, plenty of other factors can change this, but we are talking rule of thumb.



Most foodborne illnesses get passed off as stomach bugs and don’t even get diagnosed. In most cases, healthy individuals are not affected bad and it’s no big deal. So the fact that your grandma always left the gumbo hot on the stove all night doesn’t mean that nobody ever got sick. It also doesn’t mean that there were enough bacteria to grow to begin with. It also doesn’t mean that you will never get sick just because it hasn’t happened.

Once the flies start to show up, it’s time to put it in the fridge. Flies hate the cold.