They are going to be cooked. They'll be fine.

The worst part will be getting past it mentally if it bothers you. For all the delivery services over the past year, I haven’t heard of some widespread food borne illnesses. And surely the stuff sits out longer than it “should.”

I have a very hard time with food delivery of all sorts and rarely do it. Though my brain says it’s fine.

I'm assuming that it was refrigerated promptly upon arrival at your house and agree that, as it will be thoroughly cooked, it will be fine.

My food safety classes all use 40F as the temperature that food should be held at (or below), above that for no more than 2 hours.

Since they were still at 50F, I'm thinking they were probably not held unrefrigerated for more than 2 hours or they would have been even warmer.

I wouldn't hesitate to cook and eat them.

Annie

^Agree!

Ditto.

Thanks everyone! I did contact the store and let them know that they might want to review food safety and temperatures with the employees who pack the groceries. I'm pretty sure the meat did not go up 10° during the 10 minutes it was transported in our air condition car. Thanks again everyone!

It also depends on the age and health conditions of the eater.

dcarch

Sooz, late to the party but I agree your ribs are fine. Going forward though, you might want to consider a cooler or insulated container when picking up groceries, even tucking in frozen blue ice or two. Other than a quick in person shopping trip, DH will put a large cooler in either my SUV or his double cab truck. (note we do have room to do that ;0))

Rather than repack in the parking lot, he will put the bags sans bananas and tomatoes into the cooler whether things that need chilling or not, just for convenience. Would I go to that trouble in this mild climate if he was not willing to do it? Not so sure....

I had to make this same decision yesterday afternoon. I've had an open cart the past couple weeks for AmazonPrimeWholeFoods. This was my second ever using this service. Mostly pantry staples; dry goods. It was a great service the first time a few months ago and this was no different. Like instaCart they let you know when they start shopping and give updates on availability. Deliver within the hour.

I ordered last minute cryo-vacked frozen boneless skinless chicken thighs but they came a bit room temp/thawed. Not frozen. Should have taken the temp so this is a good reminder when ordering. Probably ok but went straight to the freezer for pup food. Probably fine but I was planning to make another dozen freezer meals for Mom and Pop...a nice stock on the stove at this moment for some chicken meals. No biggie...I'll freeze the stock and make some meals when visiting....

That said, I would use it. I use Annie's two hour rule. My only issue with a store shopper is their training. Dig down and select the coldest meats so they are as cold as can be for transport.

All our proteins are from a local grass fed farm share. Flash frozen in small packages. Dry ice delivered in an insulated soft sided fabric dealio. Their own vans.

I've said a few times before, if someone said I'd have a shopper rather than myself in person selecting myself....ya got two heads. Stink eye. But it has been pleasant with good communication with shoppers. When Costco finally had tp, the shopper was outstanding...he even texted a pic for the strip steaks...so I could choose.

My county and immediate community is still in a red zone of a heavy religious anti-vaxer population. Frustrating but we avoid local shopping.

I keep several cooler bags in the car for frozen and cold foods.

And I wouldn't be overly concerned by 50F either. I probably wouldn't even have thought to test the temp. 😄

I don't assume there's always lots of an item to choose from either. There are a number of basic items that go in and out of stock around here. There's just more demand and suppliers can't always keep up.

Thanks to everyone for ringing in here!

Smiles,

Sooz