1 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,000 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff, 2 00:00:07,040 --> 00:00:09,959 Speaker 1: Lauren foc obamb here day old pizza can be a 3 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:13,640 Speaker 1: welcome staple to college students, starving artists, and anyone who 4 00:00:13,720 --> 00:00:16,080 Speaker 1: thought it was a brilliant idea to order that extra 5 00:00:16,160 --> 00:00:18,280 Speaker 1: large double meat after coming home from the bar at 6 00:00:18,320 --> 00:00:21,080 Speaker 1: two am, only to have sleepiness catch up with them 7 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:24,720 Speaker 1: halfway through the first slice. Cold pizza is a bona 8 00:00:24,720 --> 00:00:28,320 Speaker 1: fide breakfast of champions. If refrigerated, leftover pizza will stay 9 00:00:28,360 --> 00:00:31,720 Speaker 1: good for four days. But what about room temperature pizza? 10 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:33,919 Speaker 1: Will you get sick if you eat a few slices 11 00:00:33,920 --> 00:00:36,320 Speaker 1: of the pepperoni that's sat in a greasy cardboard box 12 00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:38,440 Speaker 1: next to your bed for the last eight hours? The 13 00:00:38,479 --> 00:00:41,120 Speaker 1: official answer, don't risk it. The U s d A, 14 00:00:41,240 --> 00:00:44,520 Speaker 1: that's the United States Department of Agriculture, published some food 15 00:00:44,560 --> 00:00:48,120 Speaker 1: safety guidelines for students in which it answered this very question. 16 00:00:48,479 --> 00:00:51,560 Speaker 1: According to them, you should throw away any leftover food 17 00:00:51,560 --> 00:00:54,160 Speaker 1: that's been sitting out at room temperature for two hours 18 00:00:54,240 --> 00:00:57,840 Speaker 1: or more, whether or not it contains meat. The reason 19 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:00,800 Speaker 1: is that harmful bacteria grow the fast just on foods 20 00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:04,000 Speaker 1: that are in the danger zone temperatures between forty and 21 00:01:04,160 --> 00:01:07,120 Speaker 1: a hundred and forty degrees fahrenheit. That's four point four 22 00:01:07,200 --> 00:01:10,880 Speaker 1: and sixty degrees celsius. In that range, bacteria double in 23 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:14,640 Speaker 1: number every twenty minutes. Does that mean that every pizza 24 00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:18,399 Speaker 1: is contaminated with pathogenic bacteria that will explode a number 25 00:01:18,440 --> 00:01:20,920 Speaker 1: if the pie is left out for more than two hours. 26 00:01:20,959 --> 00:01:24,720 Speaker 1: Absolutely not. Benjamin Chapman, a food safety specialist at North 27 00:01:24,720 --> 00:01:28,679 Speaker 1: Carolina State University, told Life Hacker that leftover pizza hasn't 28 00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:31,440 Speaker 1: made enough people sick to count as a public health risk. 29 00:01:31,959 --> 00:01:35,399 Speaker 1: Chapman says that's probably because pizza toppings and crust are 30 00:01:35,480 --> 00:01:38,880 Speaker 1: generally too dry to be bacteria friendly environments, and that 31 00:01:38,920 --> 00:01:42,679 Speaker 1: tomato sauce is too acidic. Not all toppings are created equal, 32 00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:46,000 Speaker 1: though Pepperoni is dry cured so it's built to last, 33 00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:49,480 Speaker 1: but eating old veggie ingredients or moist chunks of chicken 34 00:01:49,640 --> 00:01:52,440 Speaker 1: is probably pressing your luck. To get a sense of 35 00:01:52,440 --> 00:01:54,840 Speaker 1: the general risk level of pizza, we turned to a 36 00:01:54,840 --> 00:01:58,400 Speaker 1: public health report from Ontario, Canada. According to its review 37 00:01:58,440 --> 00:02:02,240 Speaker 1: of global food poisoning data, aces, pizza has been implicated 38 00:02:02,280 --> 00:02:05,280 Speaker 1: in a number of food born illness outbreaks worldwide, and 39 00:02:05,320 --> 00:02:08,400 Speaker 1: that includes pizza of all types plain cheese, meat, and 40 00:02:08,520 --> 00:02:12,399 Speaker 1: veggie in both restaurants and homes. For some perspective, though, 41 00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:15,680 Speaker 1: that report cited a few hundred individual cases of food 42 00:02:15,680 --> 00:02:18,880 Speaker 1: poisoning over more than a decade of worldwide pizza eating. 43 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:21,600 Speaker 1: In the U. S Alone, we eat an estimated three 44 00:02:21,800 --> 00:02:25,880 Speaker 1: billion pizzas every year. So should you finish off those 45 00:02:25,960 --> 00:02:28,799 Speaker 1: last two pieces of stuff? Crust Hawaiian from last night's 46 00:02:28,800 --> 00:02:31,560 Speaker 1: of Poker game. The odds of getting sick are probably 47 00:02:31,600 --> 00:02:34,400 Speaker 1: similar to the odds of drawing a royal flush, So 48 00:02:34,720 --> 00:02:42,760 Speaker 1: the real question is are you feeling lucky? Today's episode 49 00:02:42,760 --> 00:02:45,120 Speaker 1: was written by Dave Ruse and produced by Tyler Clang. 50 00:02:45,400 --> 00:02:47,880 Speaker 1: For more on this and lots of other toothsome topics, 51 00:02:48,000 --> 00:03:01,680 Speaker 1: visit our home planet, how stuff works dot com.