WEBVTT - Is Room-Temperature Pizza Safe to Eat?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren foc obamb here day old pizza can be a

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<v Speaker 1>welcome staple to college students, starving artists, and anyone who

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<v Speaker 1>thought it was a brilliant idea to order that extra

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<v Speaker 1>large double meat after coming home from the bar at

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<v Speaker 1>two am, only to have sleepiness catch up with them

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<v Speaker 1>halfway through the first slice. Cold pizza is a bona

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<v Speaker 1>fide breakfast of champions. If refrigerated, leftover pizza will stay

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<v Speaker 1>good for four days. But what about room temperature pizza?

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<v Speaker 1>Will you get sick if you eat a few slices

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<v Speaker 1>of the pepperoni that's sat in a greasy cardboard box

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<v Speaker 1>next to your bed for the last eight hours? The

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<v Speaker 1>official answer, don't risk it. The U s d A,

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<v Speaker 1>that's the United States Department of Agriculture, published some food

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<v Speaker 1>safety guidelines for students in which it answered this very question.

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<v Speaker 1>According to them, you should throw away any leftover food

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<v Speaker 1>that's been sitting out at room temperature for two hours

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<v Speaker 1>or more, whether or not it contains meat. The reason

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<v Speaker 1>is that harmful bacteria grow the fast just on foods

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<v Speaker 1>that are in the danger zone temperatures between forty and

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<v Speaker 1>a hundred and forty degrees fahrenheit. That's four point four

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<v Speaker 1>and sixty degrees celsius. In that range, bacteria double in

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<v Speaker 1>number every twenty minutes. Does that mean that every pizza

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<v Speaker 1>is contaminated with pathogenic bacteria that will explode a number

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<v Speaker 1>if the pie is left out for more than two hours.

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<v Speaker 1>Absolutely not. Benjamin Chapman, a food safety specialist at North

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<v Speaker 1>Carolina State University, told Life Hacker that leftover pizza hasn't

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<v Speaker 1>made enough people sick to count as a public health risk.

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<v Speaker 1>Chapman says that's probably because pizza toppings and crust are

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<v Speaker 1>generally too dry to be bacteria friendly environments, and that

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<v Speaker 1>tomato sauce is too acidic. Not all toppings are created equal,

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<v Speaker 1>though Pepperoni is dry cured so it's built to last,

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<v Speaker 1>but eating old veggie ingredients or moist chunks of chicken

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<v Speaker 1>is probably pressing your luck. To get a sense of

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<v Speaker 1>the general risk level of pizza, we turned to a

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<v Speaker 1>public health report from Ontario, Canada. According to its review

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<v Speaker 1>of global food poisoning data, aces, pizza has been implicated

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<v Speaker 1>in a number of food born illness outbreaks worldwide, and

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<v Speaker 1>that includes pizza of all types plain cheese, meat, and

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<v Speaker 1>veggie in both restaurants and homes. For some perspective, though,

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<v Speaker 1>that report cited a few hundred individual cases of food

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<v Speaker 1>poisoning over more than a decade of worldwide pizza eating.

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<v Speaker 1>In the U. S Alone, we eat an estimated three

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<v Speaker 1>billion pizzas every year. So should you finish off those

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<v Speaker 1>last two pieces of stuff? Crust Hawaiian from last night's

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<v Speaker 1>of Poker game. The odds of getting sick are probably

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<v Speaker 1>similar to the odds of drawing a royal flush, So

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<v Speaker 1>the real question is are you feeling lucky? Today's episode

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<v Speaker 1>was written by Dave Ruse and produced by Tyler Clang.

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<v Speaker 1>For more on this and lots of other toothsome topics,

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<v Speaker 1>visit our home planet, how stuff works dot com.