Would you eat it?

[DanMcG]

I'm on the fence here, what would you do?
Yesterday I placed a 3 pack of cryovac rib's in my mini frig for todays smoke. The frig temp was 37°. last night I finished smoking some bacon, cooled it and placed it in the frig with the ribs I knew it would raise the frig temp but it never fully recovered. Long story short, 7 hours later it's running at 43°
Would you eat the ribs?

[Richtee]

Man- all this meat lately. You have no idea how warm it got for how long. Sounds like a fridge problem too, possibly. Clean the coil lately?

[DanMcG]

Ok Mod's would you delete this thread, I just needed a little convincing.

I hate throwing meat away. totally lost interest in smoking this weekend.

[Whisky Fish]

Man that's a tough one Dan. At just 3 degrees above the danger zone? Theres gotta be some safety margin built in and even if the bacteria was activated, at that temp they would be so sluggish I'm not sure what they could accomplish. I do know bacteria get more productive(in a negative way) the warmer it gets up to 90 degrees which I think is a premium enviornment. I guess it depends on what you did with it after the 7 hours. I think the bigger question is what else is in that fridg?

[northern greenhorn]

I don't know it is only 3 degrees, I'd eat it

[HawgHeaven]

I wouldn't trust it... as someone said in a similar thread, "Throw it out now, or throw it up later..."

[DanMcG]

Well Fish I was thinking the same thing, if the USDA says below 41° and they have some sort of margin of error figured in then it's probably ok. Not to long ago it wouldn't have been a problem, I didn't know the rules and I would have never been monitoring my frig temps.
Frick it, I ain't going to screw with it,
As for other stuff in there, it's just 20 pounds of bacon which I'm not worried about and 3 hanks of salted casings.

[Whisky Fish]

Not to long ago it wouldn't have been a problem, I didn't know the rules and I would have never been monitoring my frig temps.

Know what you mean. I was much happier before the internet. I used to be invincible, till I found out everthing that can kill me

[IrishChef]

Man- all this meat lately. You have no idea how warm it got for how long. Sounds like a fridge problem too, possibly. Clean the coil lately?

What Rich said. You know what the temp was when you opened the door, but you don't know what it was or for how long prior to that. I think the bacon will be fine, but the ribs..... play it safe. Chances are the temp was quite a bit higher earlier, and the fridge is just now starting to catch up and cool down.

[curious aardvark]

I'd take it out the pack and check it out. Can't see that there'd be anything much wrong with it.
Still pretty cool - hell 43 converts to 6.1 oC. Legal limit for a fridge over here is 8.

Cryopacks are low on oxygen anyway, temps fine if it don't smell of rotten eggs when you ope it - nothings growed and you're good to go.

So meat fine, eat it - but you know, cook it first :-)

[chefrob]

that's a tough one........was the fridge at 43 or was the meat at 43? the big question is did the fridge go higher and to what temp and for how long? if the highest the fridge got was 50 deg for an hour or 2 and was on it's way down i would say you were fine but the simple fact is you don't know. if the fridge got up to70 or 80 in the first hour and it took 6 more to get down to 43, chances are your ribs were over 40 for 5-6 hrs. like i said it is a tough one with too many unknowns..........

[erain]

Dan, there is only one answer to this question that you should be getting on an open forum like this. we strive to promote USDA food saftey guidlines here and use them as reference in whatever we do. being there are the unknowns in this case, how long were they above the minimum danger zone temp? and then coupled with how long it will take you to get them outta the danger zone while cooking them up.

[chefrob]

Dan, there is only one answer to this question that you should be getting on an open forum like this. we strive to promote USDA food saftey guidlines here and use them as reference in whatever we do. being there are the unknowns in this case, how long were they above the minimum danger zone temp? and then coupled with how long it will take you to get them outta the danger zone while cooking them up.

agreed........sorry if i was not more clear as to what i would do.

[DanMcG]

Dan, there is only one answer to this question that you should be getting on an open forum like this. we strive to promote USDA food saftey guidlines here and use them as reference in whatever we do. .

I couldn't agree more E, it was early in the morn and I was bummin. I knew what I had to do by the Rules and Reg's, but just needed some convincing.

Look at the third post, I asked they remove the thread cause I knew what I
was going to do, but maybe the mod's feel it better to put it out there for the newbie's to see (and the old timers that forget)...
That's fine with me, if I can keep one person from getting ill, this post was worth it.