How Long Can Cheese Sit Out Before You Die? (2024)

FAQs

How Long Can Cheese Sit Out Before You Die? ›

Don't let it sit out for more than four hours! There has been some extensive research done in Wisconsin that proves cheese can stay out for up to six hours at 70°F or colder. Some cheeses tested for low levels of listeria, salmonella, Escherichia, and staphylococcus but nothing life-threatening.

The type of cheese is the biggest consideration - hard cheese will last longer and is less likely to pose a health risk, while soft and fresh cheeses should remain refrigerated and only be left out for two hours at most. No matter the cheese, leaving it out for more than two hours may change the quality and taste.

Leaving Cheese Out Overnight

If you're being extra cautious, follow the USDA guidelines that recommend you toss perishable foods (including soft, not hard, cheese) that have been left out at room temperature for longer than 2 hours.

In the worst instances, spoiled cheese can cause severe food poisoning. Consuming spoiled cheese will mostly affect your digestive system, causing you to experience gastrointestinal discomfort and loose stools. In severe cases, these symptoms may be accompanied by fever and chills.

After opening, you can safely store most soft cheeses in the fridge for at least 7 days and most hard cheeses for 3–4 weeks. Carefully inspect hard cheeses for mold and cut off any spots, but toss soft cheeses and crumbled, shredded, or sliced cheeses (whether hard or soft) if you see mold.

How do you know when cheese is bad based on its appearance? Visual cues are a good indicator, such as cheese developing a different color — for instance, a hard cheese like cheddar or parmesan turning dark. If you notice blue or green mold on the surface of a hard cheese, try cutting away that moldy part.

Bacteria thrive in temperatures between 40 and 140 degrees and can double every 20 minutes in that “danger zone.” Based on that growth, scientists pinpointed two hours to be the maximum amount of time consumers can safely leave perishable food at room temperature.

How can you know how long a cheese will last before it goes bad? A typical cheese can last in your fridge anywhere from two weeks to six months. The shelf life of cheese will vary depending on a variety of factors including storage practices, moisture content, and preservatives.

Does the cheese need to be refrigerated? Mini Babybel® cheese should be refrigerated at all times when not being consumed. We advise that when taken on the go, cheese is safe unrefrigerated for 2-4 hours, and remaining cheese, if there is any, can then be safely returned to the fridge.

“Anything outside of the temperature danger zone — which is between 41 to 135 degrees Fahrenheit (5 to 57 degrees Celsius) — is what you want to avoid,” advises Saleh. “According to the USDA, after two hours, you want to either heat the pizza back up or put it in the refrigerator to cool it down.

How long after eating spoiled cheese will I get sick? ›

The time it takes food poisoning symptoms to start can vary. Illness often starts in about 1 to 3 days. But symptoms can start any time from 30 minutes to 3 weeks after eating contaminated food.

Mold: it's what's for dinner. A wedge of any firm cheese you may purchase will never go bad, but it will lose its flavor with time, or worse, end up tasting like the smoked salmon you have next to it in the fridge. Our softer cheese friends, however, have the potential to get a little funkier.

Discard any soft cheese showing mold. For hard cheese, such as Cheddar, cut off at least 1-inch around and below the mold spot (keep the knife out of the mold itself). After trimming off the mold, the remaining cheese should be safe to eat. Re-cover the cheese in fresh wrap and keep refrigerated.

The U.S. Department of Health doesn't recommend keeping any perishable food sitting out of the fridge for more than 2 hours — and that's definitely the case for soft cheeses, like cottage or cream cheese, brie, or fresh mozzarella. If it's squishy and it's been out for 2 or more hours, yeet that sucker into the trash.

Soft cheeses such as cream cheese, cottage cheese, shredded cheeses, and goat cheese must be refrigerated for safety. As a general rule, hard cheeses such as cheddar, processed cheeses (American), and both block and grated Parmesan do not require refrigeration for safety, but they will last longer if kept refrigerated.

As cheddar cheese is a type of hard cheese, it can be kept at room temperature for up to 8 hours before it starts to lose its exquisite taste. Keeping your cheddar in the fridge maintains its freshness for longer and helps to prevent spoiling and the growth of harmful bacteria.

The temperature range of 40-140°F is widely known as the temperature danger zone—a.k.a. the climate where bacteria can thrive. The USDA reports that bacteria can start taking over your leftovers in as little as 20 minutes. And after two hours, it's deemed unsafe to eat left-out pizza at all.

Like all other food, mac and cheese can only sit out at room temperature for two hours before entering the “danger zone.” If temperatures are high, above 90 °F, mac and cheese should not be left out for longer than one hour.

For example, cheese in vacuum-sealed packaging not stored in the refrigerator will only last a maximum of a few days. In fact, there is only one specific case where cheese can be stored without refrigeration, which is the whole cheese.