That new guy left a $200 ribeye roast on the counter to thaw for 8 hours and I wanted to scream

Walked in this morning to find a whole USDA Prime ribeye sitting at 68 degrees internal after he said he 'forgot about it' and now I gotta decide if we risk serving it or eat the loss, how do you guys handle new hires who ignore basic food safety?

2 comments

2 Comments

lisa_jones2127d ago

Respectfully gotta disagree a bit. Yeah 8 hours on the counter is stupid but if the internal temp was only 68 and it was a whole roast not ground meat, theres a decent chance it's still fine if you cook it to 145+. I'd just have a quick chat about proper thawing and move on, not worth throwing away $200 over unless you're serving it to old folks or pregnant women.

richard_hall27d ago

Funny you mention that because I actually left a pork shoulder out for about 6 hours once by accident. Hit 145 and it was totally fine, nobody got sick. These guidelines are really conservative for whole cuts of meat. The surface area is where the bacteria live, and a good sear plus proper cook kills it off pretty reliably. Have you ever actually had a problem doing something similar or is it more about playing it safe?