Carmen Dioxide wrote:

> "jmcquown" > wrote in message >. ..
>
>>Ken wrote:
>>
>>>I purchased a pack of ground beef at the grocery store, packed in the
>>>standard styrofoam/shrink wrap package. Circumstances prevented me
>>>from getting the beef into my refrigerator for 12 hours - it spent a
>>>fairly cool Seattle evening in my car last night. This morning, it
>>>passed the smell test. I'd appreciate some opinions on if the meat
>>>is good/bad.
>>
>>Whatcha do, get drunk and forget about it? (teasing) How cool an evening?
>>If it passed the smell test it's probably okay but cook it immediately.
>>
> Another pin-headed post from Jill! This one takes the cake though.

Actually, it's what I would have posted because it's absolutely on the
mark. Looks like it was more important to sling some crap than to
actually consider the reality of the setting.

All this ignorant terror over bacteria that are going to die when
cooked is a bit precious and effete. I read a lot of scary posts with
nary a smidge of science to them. Cook the meat and virtually
everything dies. Put a bit of tomato sauce on it to lower the pH and
virtually everything dies all over again. Chill it and anything still
alive (probably log 6 or 8 kill - 1/100,000 to 1/10,000,000) will stop
doing anything.

Obviously all the panicky posters don't live anywhere except in modern
formica cities. The rest of the world is a very different place.

More and more first-world people get sick from bacteria every day, not
because they're any more virulent, but because we seem to be in a
panic about germs and strive to get a germ-free environment. It's
stupid. The reason people are getting sick isn't because there are
germs around. They've always been there. It's because we're not being
exposed to them and our immune systems aren't developing antibodies. A
bad idea to wash kids' hands with antibacterial soaps.

Pastorio