Eli5, If bacteria such as salmonella and ecoli are killed from ground beef when it’s properly cooked then what gets you sick if it’s left out too long after it’s cooked?

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Eli5, If bacteria such as salmonella and ecoli are killed from ground beef when it’s properly cooked then what gets you sick if it’s left out too long after it’s cooked?

In: Biology

5 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Other bacteria in the air settling on it, multiplying, and generating waste products. Why don’t those bacteria make use sick when we just breathe them in? Because we are breathing them in at very low concentrations, so our immune system/gastrointestinal tract can deal with them. It’s a bit like having an enemy army attacking yours one by one vs all at the same time. If you’re fighting the enemy one at a time, you have a much better chance to beat them than if they swarm you.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Other bacteria. There are contaminants on surfaces and in the air. We don’t normally keep our food in sterile environments.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Bacteria not only spread disease, but also produce toxins and once cooked the bacteria can break open and release all the toxins inside.

Salmonella bacteria and food poisoning. – https://youtu.be/05c0z4I345k

E. Coli or Escherichia Coli bacteria risks and food hygiene measures. – https://youtu.be/jv_xh0GQs9E

Anonymous 0 Comments

Thank you all for the answers! I didn’t know if it was the original raw meat bacteria “usual suspects” that came back to turn the meat bad or new different bacteria.

The example I was trying to figure out in my mind was meat in a crockpot cooling down and sitting after cooking for several hours. It didn’t touch any new surfaces so it must be from the air.

Anonymous 0 Comments

There’s bacteria in the air. That bacteria can also grow. But it’s different bacteria than the stuff in the raw meat, and some of it produces certain chemicals which are toxins. So if you cook ground beef, you kill the salmonella. So you leave it out, and it grow [Staphylococcus](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staphylococcus) for example. You can kill the staph by cooking the meat again, but the staph has also produced toxins. Since the toxins aren’t alive, you can’t kill it by cooking it again, so it’s not always the bacteria that makes you sick, it’s their byproducts.

And it’s not just meat. Rice left out at room temp can grow this bacteria, and that’s a common source of food poisoning.