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
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.
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