Question about a mistake made with food..

[Stuart G]

I left some food out at normal temperature for about 75 minutes..should I throw it out?
It was a half gallon of just store bought skim milk..
A quart of Orange Juice....

I unloaded it from the car to the kitchen, and did not put either in the fridge...I had an appointment, and left with the two items on a kitchen table...forgot all about them. Came back about 75 minutes later....Neither item had ever been opened, because I just bought them. Leave it up to you....throw out? or keep. When I came back..the items were still somewhat cold....Any help you can give on this, will be appreciated.

[still_one]

1. It should be fine. You should always smell milk and dairy for spoilage regardless though

[catbyte]

2. I wouldn't throw them out. They might not last as long as the expiration date,

but they're still good.

[CincyDem]

3. OJ - probably ok, it's pretty acidic. Milk - probably ok but won't last as long in the fridge now.

That's the voice of experience, not the voice of expertise.

I'll bet that at some time during the deliver cycle of those packages, they saw room temp somewhere for an hour or so. The thing I've always heard about milk is that letting it get warm for a little bit doesn't hurt in the short term but it cuts shelf life. Also - bad milk smells - if it doesn't smell bad, it isn't. (assuming your nose works ).

[58Sunliner]

4. They are fine.

[librechik]

5. I'm not the one to ask--living off-grid in a tipi forced many of my biases

to be abandoned because no refrigeration.My kids still cringe over some of the things I do.

Now I'm old, so I got lucky.

MY advice: Eat fresh or don't worry about it if you are hungry. An hour won't make a difference. I would suggest covering carefully when no refrigeration is practical. And sealed foods are designed to last all day in the car.

[WhiteTara]

6. I would put them in the fridge and not worry about it.

I wouldn't leave the same foods out again. The milk will smell bad if it's sour. The orange juice is okay.

[Stuart G]

7. I would like to say ......"THANK YOU".. to all who responded.

I appreciate the advise and information...Thanks again...and I will keep the food...

[procon]

8. How much time elapses from the time you put the food in your cart,

drive home, carry it to the kitchen and get in the fridge? Don't worry over much. Milk is stores at 32°F – 39°F, the colder it is, the longer it will last because that minimizes the growth of the bacteria which causes spoilage. The bacteria is always there and we consume it every time we drink the milk without a problem or a noticeable change in taste. If you leave the milk out then the bacteria grows faster than it would if it was in the cold fridge. This means that you will probably lose a few days off it's normal shelf life, so use it up as soon as possible.

[Major Nikon]

9. Milk was routinely left out decades ago

I'm old enough to remember when milk was delivered to your door in the morning and it sat out until you got up and put it in the chill chest. Most milk today is UHT pasteurized and shipped in antiseptic packaging, meaning shelf life is greatly extended. It also means it's safer today to leave milk out for extended periods than it was decades ago, however by leaving it out you shorten the shelf life.

So it should be fine, but you should consume it faster than you normally would and don't go by the expiration date, which assumes immediate refrigeration. The old smell test is fine for spoilage bacteria, but most pathogenic bacteria are odorless and tasteless, so you can't really rely on that for food safety.

Something I do is take a small cooler and a cold pack with me to the market for dairy storage. Works great for 100+ days when you are loading the groceries into a blazing hot car.

[Retrograde]

10. People got by without refrigeration for millenia

Refrigeration slows down the process of chemical change, not stop it completely. And your senses - especially smell in the case of the milk - will help you know whether a food is still edible.

Otherwise, there's not enough information in your post. What is "normal" temperature? In the 60s? 80s? How long was it out bringing it home from the store? For that matter, how was it treated before you even picked it up?

Many posters may be too young to remember home milk deliveries. Where I grew up, a lot of houses had what we called milk boxes built into the sides: the milkman opened a door on the outside and placed the order in the box. The customers opened it from the house side and removed the products. We had a spiffy insulated one, but most of them were just open spaces, at most protected from direct sun but at ambient temperatures. And somehow we all survived.

[japple]

11. Eggs, too.

Eggs can last for days without refrigeration, even in hot weather.