For food consumption safety and your health:
If in doubt, throw leftovers out. To prevent outdated, obviously spoiled or possibly unsafe leftovers from being eaten by people or animals, discard them in the garbage disposal or in tightly wrapped packages.
There are some cooked foods that you should take them into a serious consideration.
Boiled eggs
Eggs can only be kept at room tempearture for at most 4-6 hours or better stored in refrigerator and the left-overs must be thrown away. Hard cooked eggs are considered a potentially hazardous food and the same warning goes with soft boiled eggs. Potentially hazardous food should not be left at room temperature for more than 2 hours (or 1 hour if the ambient temperature is quite warm). Therefore, it is recommended not to consume boiled eggs that left out overnight.
Stewed foods
In general, cooked foods, whether they are meats, vegetables, pasta, or even fruits are potentially hazardous because stewed foods that are left at unproper room temperature overnight can support the growth of bacteria. Consequently, they can be listed of potentially hazardous foods.
Any potentially hazardous food left between 41 and 135 degrees for more than 4 hours should be discarded.
Green tea drink
Nutrients such as catechins, theanine, vitamin C and B only found in hot tea can diminish over time. Meanwhile, tea contains amino acids. Leave it even longer and bacteria starts to breed. So that, always try to drink your tea hot. Should you replace a leftover last night tea brewer for a fresh one in a new day breaking moment.
Cooked vegetables
According to previous analysis, overnight vegetable indeed may produce carcinogenic nitrite that can be potential for cancer disease.
Leftover overnight fish and other seafood
Protein contained in this types of foods can be harmful for kidney and liver activities after being kept overnight. Refrigerator storage times for fishes are for optimum temperature of 32 to 38 °F. Higher temperatures may decrease safe
storage times. So that, always eat cooked fishes and seafood right away.
Finally, here is guidelines to treat with this matter, for a safe food consumption:
- Because bacteria typically don’t change the taste, smell or appearance of food, you can’t tell whether a food is dangerous to eat. So if you’re in doubt about a food’s safety, it’s best to throw it out.
- Use processed foods within a reasonable time. You should eat refrigerated leftovers within four days to reduce the risk of food poisoning. If you don’t anticipate being able to eat leftovers within four days, freeze them immediately.