I don't know the parameters but I wouldn't be concerned about it. I don't think spoilage happens that fast.

Jim

I agree with Jim! If your house was cool I don't think it would spoil in that length of time. I wouldn't toss it, unless it smelled bad!!

Sounds like you have some "helpers" like mine!!!

Just consider this dry aging.

It should be fine, enjoy

I agree, I'd cook it. And then I'd let Elery eat it, LOL, but I wouldn't worry about the safety.

Annie

Whew!

Thanks everyone! I seldom buy lamb because of our budget (much as I love lamb) but payday is tomorrow so it's all good now!

SOOOOOO glad I won't have to toss it!

Smiles,
Sooz

No worries at all. It was plastic wrapped, I imagine, thus didn't have a chance to contact anything. Even if it had, 3 hours is not much time at all.

And you are going to cook it....so the outside will be hot....but, I hope not the inside.

The problem is not what the lamb came into contact with in the sink--it's the fact that virtually ALL meat we buy already has small amounts of bacteria in it. At the optimum temperature (40's and above) that bacteria will reproduce quickly. Now, many will say cooking kills bacteria--yes, THOROUGH cooking kills LIVE bacteria, but does nothing to eliminate the chemical toxins they leave behind.

Generally the rule for COOKED meat is no longer than an hour at room temperature. For raw meat--which has it's own bacteria as well as any it's picked up from the butcher's knife, board, hands/gloves, etc? I wouldn't even leave it out an hour.

No--you don't want to chance your family's health with that meat. A trip to the dr. or hospital is going to cost a lot more than that bit of meat. Toss it. And consider it cheap at the price.

Something else to consider is that the lamb, while left out for three hours, was not at room temperature the entire time. It took a while for it tp attain room temperature. I think it was at a safe temperature for much of that time.

Jim

Cut meat from the butcher is frequently contaminated with bacteria-that-can-cause-food-borne-illness like E.Coli (some forms), salmonella, c. botulinum, etc (for brevity, let's just call this stuff "bad bacteria") on the outside of the piece, which has been exposed to the air and surfaces of the processing facility. This is so whether you kept the piece refrigerated at home or not. The bad bacterial contamination occurred when the animal was butchered.

The exterior of the meat is normally heated during cooking, to temperatures that will kill bacteria (around 150F), and usually to temperatures that will also de-activate the toxins produced by C. botulinum bacteria (around 170-180 F for 10 minutes). (Temperatures of boiling and above will even kill the C. botulinum spores, but the spores don't cause disease so it's not necessary to kill them.)

But what about the interior of the meat? It is frequently not heated to 150 F. People like me cook their meat to internal temperature of 120 F, not even out of the food safety "danger zone", and relish it bloody and red. Some people even eat their meat raw and at room temperature - think carpaccio and steak tartare. Why aren't we dropping like flies?

Because there is very little bad bacteria in the interior of meat. Bad bacteria like E. Coli do not normally live inside meat animals' muscle tissue. (Forms of E. coli live naturally in the gut, but not the muscle, and even those are not the harmful forms.) That is why it is not necessary to heat the interior of meat to 150 F or 170 F. Many publications even refer to muscle tissue as "sterile".

Of course, "very little" and "sterile" doesn't necessarily mean "zero". But we are not porcelain dolls, we are exposed to bacteria all the time, and we have immune systems that defend us. (Do some reading about what's on the surfaces and in the air of your bathroom . . .) Except in unusual medical cases, you and I can tolerate exposure to modest amounts of bad bacteria. Exactly what that is, would depend on the individual. But it is enough that the interior of meat is safely eaten without being heated to a cuisine-destroying temperature.

What about time then? If the interior of that lamb was safe when you got it home, how about 3 hours later? Well, remember that the meat started at 40 F in the store, a temperature at which the bad bacteria was effectively "dormant", i.e. not growing. Once exposed to room temperature, it took time for the interior of the meat to get to room temperature. How long depends on the cut. A thin chop warms up faster. A whole roast will stay internally cold for hours. As the meat warmed, the bad bacteria "woke up" and gradually started to reproduce. At room temperature, bacteria count can double in an hour, more or less (you'll read "every 20 minutes", or "in 90 minutes", depends on the bacteria, the medium, the temperature, etc). So maybe the bacteria inside your lamb - which started at somewhere between "zero" and "very little" - doubled by the time you discovered the roast under the tupperware. Maybe it quadrupuled. Or even rose 8X. The level was still well below what your body is made to tolerate.

Okay, fine, it was "very very likely" well below etc. There is some tiny chance that the meat was very badly contaminated when you bought it, or that due to illness your body is much more vulnerable than normal. If you want to take every possible precaution, throw out the meat. And don't use public restrooms. And figure out a way to flush the toilet remotely, after you've left the room. And wash all your fruit, veg, etc in soap and hot water. And cook all your meat to internal 160 F. Etc. It is not necessary, but . . .

NB: The above refers to cut meat. Ground meat is a different story. The grinding process distributes the bad bacteria throughout the meat, so store-ground meat has to be cooked to a high temperature (160+ F) throughout. Even I, who am training my body for the zombie apocalypse, am wary of ground beef. So how can you safely have a rare hamburger or a big bowl of boeuf hachee (beef tartare)? Buy a whole piece of meat. At home, sear the outside (killing bad bacteria on the surface), or cut it away (cleaning your knife as you go). Then grind the remaining meat yourself. A food processor or an old-style hand-cranked grinder will do. Clean your knives, board, and grinder well before doing this (soap, hot water, scrub). That ground beef is safe enough to eat raw. "Very very likely" safe. Safe enough for me.

General food safety guidelines for cooking meat.
http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/howtocook/primers/foodsafetymeatpoultry

General temperature guidelines for killing/deactivating bacteria, spores, and toxins.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fs104

E. coli in water does not penetrate into fish tissues.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3074484

E. coli is not in muscle tissue of cows; poultry is a different story.
http://blog.jrsmedical.com/?p=94

Bacteria contamination of intact meat vs needle-tenderized meat, lots of interesting data.
http://www.haccpalliance.org/sub/food-safety/NonintactBeefTechRpt.pdf

Fun facts about toilet germs
http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/what-can-you-catch-in-restrooms

Good post, John. Well researched, logically thought out and clearly expressed.

Jim

Good post, John. Well researched, logically thought out and clearly expressed.

Jim

I have been to a few tropical areas where meats were sold without refrigeration all day long. I had eaten food in many areas where food began to smell; they just add more spices to cover the smell.

No one got sick. I never got sick.

I think (for me, I am not recommending this to anyone else) an occasional stomach issue is a small price to pay for gaining a healthy immune system.

dcarch

The food police and food paranoids would tell you to throw it, but I wouldn't. I probably would have years ago, but after seeing that it's a common practice to bring foods to room temperature before cooking it, and talked about by some (IMO) very credible people even on this forum, I don't really see an issue.

Now if it touched a purse... I might toss it! :)

Thanks again for allllll the info and helpful input.

Nope, it didn't touch a purse (LOL) and it's hermetically sealed--twice--by Costco. I guess I'll have to ask for volunteers and see who wants lamb and who wants ... rice with an egg (hee hee)...after I marinate the lamb for a bit in garlic, rosemary, lemon juice and olive oil and put it on the grill.

Smiles,
Sooz