The same goes for other types of foods like eggs.
If cooking food kills the bacteria why does it matter if you leave the food out for too long?
Im not talking about things like completely rotten meat, but my concept of cooking is that basically 99% of the bacteria in food is killed if you cook it to be “well-done”.
So if the bacteria is dead, then why can you still contract foodborne illnesses from it?
In: Biology
Cooking may have cooked most of the bacteria in the food initially, but some may have survived. Now in most cases its not the bacteria themselves but their toxic byproducts that make you sick. So even if a small percentage of bacteria survive, the problem with food bacteria is if left undisturbed at room temperature for even just several hours or a day or so, they can explode population wise and generate enough toxic byproducts to make you sick.
Likewise, after you cooked the food, if it was left uncovered at all, there is the chance of introducing airborne bacteria. There’s no escaping it. Its everywhere. In high school youll have one experiment when you take a petri-dish of agar (sugar food for bacteria) and just expose it to air, or scratch your head over it, or touch ith with your fingers. Even in just a few days the # of bacteria that will develop will blow your mind.
Your only chance is perfectly (and to foodies this means “over”) cooking it for long after internal temperatures reach guidelines and then to immediately vaccum seal it… or better yet sous-vide that sucker still in the plastic.
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