re: Left St Louis Style Ribs Out All Night

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I understand, but which bacteria can survive in a 205 degree piece of meat? A 350 degree oven?
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But the meat and oven AREN'T at that temperature the whole time. Once it cools, and the meat reaches sub 140F for more than 4 hours, the rate at which any surviving bacteria is left, grows exponentially. So to answer your original question - where did the bacteria come from - it came from the meat itself. It's always there. Just in an incredibly small amount unless allowed to multiply in a certain temperature range.

I get it - everyone's risk tolerance is different. If you want to eat it, you may be fine. But the facts are statistically you're at a higher risk of getting food poisoning. Not worth it IMO over a single rack of ribs.

Your thought about the bacteria being killed and then not being reintroduced to the meat in the oven is spot on. Again, it’s highly unlikely that the pathogenic bacteria will grow, but it is possible. What that probability is, I don’t know and it’s a great question.

You measure “killing bacteria” by log reductions. As I said, not ALL is killed. ENOUGH is killed to make the food safe at that time to eat…unless you give it 14 hours to re-grow.

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Log reduction is a mathematical term that is used to express the relative number of living microbes that are eliminated by disinfection. Log reduction = log10 (N0 /N) Where: N0 = colony forming units of the microorganisms before exposure to UV light N = colony forming units of the microorganisms after exposure to UV light For example, a 1 log reduction corresponds to inactivating 90 percent of a target microbe with the microbe count being reduced by a factor of 10. Thus, a 2 log reduction will see a 99 percent reduction, or microbe reduction by a factor of 100, and so on.

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To eliminate Salmonella, a 6.5-log reduction (99.99997% reduction) is generally recommended for cooked foods. This is typically achieved through a combination of time and temperature, with higher temperatures requiring shorter cooking times. For example, a 6.5D reduction of Salmonella can be achieved in 112 minutes at 130°F (54.4°C) or in 4 minutes at 145°F (62.8°C), according to the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service.

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How drunk were you when you passed out?

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WillFerrellisking

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Did you go streaking in the quad?

If it were uncooked, I would say automatically throw it out. Bacteria grows on uncooked meat for a long time until you cook it, and then after cooking, the toxins are the concern. In your oven, with cooked meat, you can assume you started from nearly zero bacteria. I'm not sure how much bacteria could even get into the oven and the foil after cooking, but it's not completely air tight. I'm sure some small count worked it's way in, to add to any that were still there that you didn't kill in cooking. It will then start to multiple until you cook it, and then it will release its own toxins. The latter example is much tougher to get sick on, but this is something you simply can't google. Everything will say immediately throw it out after 2 hours because they have nothing to lose by saying that. Food poisoning is more of a concern in how the food was stored and prepared before cooking. This is one where most people know the actual answer, but just don't say it.

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They are in the food. While 200°F is sufficient temperature to kill bacteria, not all the bacteria is destroyed when food is cooked to its minimum internal temperature. Some bacteria survive and can contaminate the food

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I know. I wasn't talking about minimum internal temp. I was talking about 205 degree ribs.

I eat pizza left out at room temp for up two days. You will be fine

Cause its delicious?