Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Left unopened (new) sour cream tub in grocery bag all night?

Is it safe to eat if out of fridge 16 hours. Still sealed?Left unopened (new) sour cream tub in grocery bag all night?
As long as it wasn't in the sun (or heat) I'd open it up and give it a look - you can tell if sour cream is skanky.





I would guess though (sight unseen) that it's probably ok as long as it's not fresh 'organic' or anything.





If it's just run of the mill grocery store sour cream it was probably super chilled before hitting the shelves and has some preservatives to allow it to stand up to worse than an evening on your living room floor/back of the car/kitchen countertop :)Left unopened (new) sour cream tub in grocery bag all night?
Probably not. I have a degree in restaurant management and a certification in food sanitation. In the sanitation class, the instructor said that for every 15 minutes a dairy product sits out at room temperature, you should subtract 1 full day from the sell by date. So if it sat out for 8 hours, then you would take 32 days off the sell by date. Most dairy products have a sell by date that is at least a week after you buy it, so I'm guessing it is now 3 weeks past it's sell by date. I personally wouldn't take any chances, especially if you are feeding it to young kids, elderly people, or you are using it to serve at a party.
Uh, no. You could try eating it...I mean, it wont kill you, but it might make you sick. Sour cream is supposed to be refrigerated, and usually on the labels they will tell you to throw it out if it is left outside the refrigerator for more than a few ours. But, seriously, I would suggest throwing it out and getting a new one. I got sick once doing this.
Quite possibly. It might depend on how hot it was in the room. If it was just room temp and you put it back in the fridge when you noticed it's probably fine. Especially because it was sealed. Just open it and smell it, if it seems fine, go ahead and eat it.
Yup - you should be fine. As long as it was sealed, and not lying directly under the hot sun, the oxidation process that ruins and spoils foods would take much longer.

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