On Thu, 16 Oct 2003 00:52:43 GMT, "Bob Travis" >
wrote:

>Please let me know if this is not the right newsgroup for this question.

You're well within the limits.
>
>My mother-in-law says that due to the high sugar content an apple crisp
>dessert does not need to be refrigerated for the first day after cooking.
>She says that if she made it just after breakfast and serves it just after
>supper it will be safe to eat that evening and it needn't be refrigerated
>until after it is served after supper.

I agree.
>
>I said any cooked food will start harboring bacteria just as soon as it
>begins to cool, so she should have refrigerated it shortly after breakfast
>and after supper she should only have warmed up what she anticipated we
>would eat and kept the rest refrigerated.

Apple crisp -- apples, sugar, flour, butter, spices, salt -- *all*
ingredients that are usually (or at least sometime, in the case of
butter) stored at room temperature. Further, the combination has been
baked for a fair amount of time at a relatively high temperature.

Food safety guidelines (below 40F or above 140F) apply to foods that
are prime sites for bacterial multiplication -- meat, eggs, dairy
(butter is mostly fat) and that in themselves may carry a risk of
harboring things like e-coli and salmonella. You don't refrigerate a
bag of pretzels after opening, or candy or cereal or crackers or
cookies.

>
>Well she got all huffy and picked up her apple crisp and went home.

Well, there's your answer. You definitely lose. :-)

>I said, "No, I'm not sure and maybe she really knows what she was talking
>about." My wife then said, "Well, you better find out because if you are
>wrong and she is right then you owe mom an apology." I said, "Okay, I'll get
>on the web and find out."

MIL may not have been correct in the idea that sugar prevents
bacterial invasion, but she *was* right that refrigeration isn't at
all necessary for the apple crisp. Or pie or cake or peanut butter or
toast.

>I looked and looked and the best I could find was that apple crisp keeps for
>three days WITH refrigeration. I could not find anything which specified how
>long it could go without refrigeration on the day it was prepared.

After 3 days, in or out of a refrigerator, apple crisp will be
relatively unappetizing.

Almost *all* foodstuffs will eventually succumb to mold, critter
infestation (if not tightly sealed, and sometimes even then),
rancidity, or bacterial growth. Rapid refrigeration of "cooked foods"
applies to meats, dairy-rich sauces, custards and whatnot with eggs,
soups or broths with meat ingredients, etc. Look in your local grocery
store for unrefrigerated baked goods of all sorts.

>I am hoping someone here knows or can tell me where to look. I want to know
>if who was right and who was wrong.

You are wrong. You could investigate:

http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/list.html

Even if you were right, you'd be wrong. You lost the apple crisp and
irritated your MIL. If you were concerned, you could have refrigerated
after she left.