How Long Can You Leave Holiday Party Food On The Table?

JMichl via Getty Images The best part of a holiday party is arguably the food spread, featuring tables full of meats and cheese, holiday roasts and other ingredients that are probably sitting out at room temperature for way too long. Foods like meat, chicken, turkey, seafood and eggs need to be cooked at a high enough internal temperature to kill all bacteria, according to Darin Detwiler, the chair of the National Environmental Health Association’s Food Safety Program and author of “Food Safety: Past, Present, and Predictions.” If not eradicated, this bacteria can easily multiply, especially if left out on a table for a couple of hours. However, leaving food out for even an hour can “encourage dangerous bacteria to grow, and that bacteria doesn’t need to get into high counts before it can make people sick,” Craig said. “Provide the tools your guests need to treat your food right, making sure everything has their own serving tools so nothing gets moved around,” Craig said. Moreover “a lot of bacteria can survive cold and even frozen conditions.” Even for food that was served safely, Khubchandani cautions that “food should be refrigerated or frozen as soon as possible after people finish eating.” Food should never be left out for more than one or two hours before storing because “the longer you leave food out, the higher the chance of contamination and food going bad,” he said.