Keep or toss - mayo left out...

[BikeBookBread]

Left a jar of commercially-made mayo out from 1:30 pm to 7:30 pm on our granite kitchen counter (not a brag! just sharing this to show the temperature regulation possibility :lol:) Our kitchen is pretty drafty and cool - keep the house around 68, but it was near a cold east-facing window that is shaded all afternoon.

 

Would you keep or toss the jar of mayo???

[1GirlTwinBoys]

I definitely would have tossed it out.:)

[NanceXToo]

In those circumstances I'd keep it, unless it smelled "off" to me.

[MelanieM]

Keep. In fact, it wouldn't even occur to me to toss it. But I never even bat an eyelash at most stuff that comes up in these threads, so I think my threshold must be way different than most people. (Must be those early years watching my grandmother's food prep habits in very rural Newfoundland. lol!)

[Rhonda in TX]

I voted "toss", but I'm paranoid and don't really like mayo, so keep that in mind. :)

[Perry]

Well, I'd toss it because it's easy to replace (I always have an extra jar in the cupboard) and it's cheap, but it probably isn't necessary. Here's an interesting article about mayo, potato salad, and food poisoning.

 

Excerpt:

 

So what is there about potato salad that makes it such a common suspect in staph food poisoning? The answer many people is: mayonnaise. Wrong. There is something about potato salad that makes it a more frequent vehicle, but it usually isn't mayonnaise. Mayonnaise is an emulsion of oil, salt and vinegar or lemon juice, with the emulsifier being raw egg yolks. Home made mayonnaise may be the source of Salmonella food poisoning because of the raw eggs and imprecise control of acidity, but commercial mayo almost never. The reason is that there is very good control over the vinegar or lemon juice content which lowers the acidity down to the low fours in pH. That's pretty inhospitable for pathogens and indeed commercial mayonnaise has been shown to be bactericidal. Mayo's salt content has also been cited as a reason, and that may be true for many pathogens, but the staphylococcus bug is pretty salt tolerant, so that may be less of a factor.

This means you can leave commercial mayonnaise out at room temperature and not worry it will grow deadly bugs. That's not true of mayo containing potato salad, though, and constitutes one of the reasons it is a common vehicle. Potato salad is prepared and served at room temperature, often outdoors at picnics where there is no refrigerator. It is not uncommon for it to be at room temp or higher for hours at a time, between transportation and time to serving. If there are any staph (or other) pathogenic organisms in it, they don't start to multiply right away. It takes two to four hours for them to get accustomed to their surroundings and really get ready to ramp up binary fission. This initial period is called the lag phase but it is succeeded by the log phase where there is exponential growth: one bug divides to two, two to four, four to eight, etc. If the potato salad has been sitting at the right temperature to incubate pathogens for several hours and it had pathogens in it, even very few, trouble will ensue. Hence the classical church picnic scenario.

 

[BikeBookBread]

Well, I'd toss it because it's easy to replace (I always have an extra jar in the cupboard) and it's cheap, but it probably isn't necessary. Here's an interesting article about mayo, potato salad, and food poisoning.

 

Very helpful, Perry. Thanks....

 

I think I'm going to keep it, only because I'm TOO DARN LAZY to go back to the store today!!!!!!!!

[katemary63]

Keep. Mayo contains vinegar. It will be fine.

[MaMa2005]

Toss. But I'm weird that way about mayo :tongue_smilie:.

[Parrothead]

I've left it out over night before. No problems. Keep it.

[MomOfOneFunOne]

Throw it out? Mayo is practically a pickle . . . like pickled eggs. If there is any danger of something going bad in the scenario you describe, it's if you used a dirty knife to spread the mayo last and some of whatever it was got on the rim of the jar and not in the vinegar and then went bad.

 

No, I wouldn't throw it away. And I wouldn't use a dirty knife to spread mayo or anything else. ;)

[Laurie4b]

Mayo is a likely culprit for food poisoning. No matter how cool the room, I would toss if it was out over 2 hours. A few bucks for a new jar is well worth it to offset the cost of food poisoning.

 

Food poisoning can have long-term effects, as well as short-term effects--not just e-coli, but salmonella, too.

[jcgonczi]

My grandmother uses Miracle Whip and keeps it in the cabinet instead of the fridge. The jar does not say to refrigerate after opening. Totally creeps me out. I use Hellmann's and it does say to refrigerate after opening.

[Perry]

Mayo is a likely culprit for food poisoning.

Only in combination with foods that neutralize the acidic pH, though. Like potato salad.

 

By itself, mayo is very unlikely to cause food poisoning.

[Crimson Wife]

Mayo is a likely culprit for food poisoning. No matter how cool the room, I would toss if it was out over 2 hours. A few bucks for a new jar is well worth it to offset the cost of food poisoning.

 

:iagree:

I come from the "when in doubt, toss it" school while DH's family is of the "don't sweat it" one. Every time I visit my IL's house, I'm paranoid about getting sick because they kept something that really ought to have been dumped :eek:

[Impish]

"If in doubt, throw it out" that was my parents slogan.

[VaKim]

My mom never has and still doesn't ever refrigerate storebought mayo. Never had a problem.

[MomOfOneFunOne]

The mayo was framed! When cooked/cut foods remain in the temperature danger zone, 41 to 135 degrees F, they make a nice habitat for harmful bacteria. The potatoes, eggs, et c host the bacteria, not the mayo.

 

Honestly, it is okay with me if you throw it away but I do think you should know . . . it ain't the mayo.

 

Mayo left out at room temp all day, all night is just fine. Cooked veggies/fruit, cooked or raw meat: those are the culprits. You can't leave that stuff out.

 

And that's strictly boughten mayo. I dont think the same holds true for hm mayo.

[Violet Crown]

I once did this analysis once for a casserole left out on a cool night, carefully considering the perishability of the various ingredients, the probably temperature of the kitchen, etc., and decided to keep it.

 

Fortunately, after I ate some, a friend was present who could pick me off the floor and drive me to the doctor, since I couldn't stand.

 

My rule now is, if you find yourself asking the question, toss it. A new jar of mayonnaise is cheaper than the medical bill.

[Laurie4b]

Only in combination with foods that neutralize the acidic pH, though. Like potato salad.

 

By itself, mayo is very unlikely to cause food poisoning.

 

Another new tidbit of knowledge from the WTM board. Thanks, Perry. I guess I wouldn't know which would neutralize and which wouldn't. But now I know that if ds leaves it out (he's the culprit), we don't have to toss it.

 

What about stuff like ranch dressing?